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Or sign-in if you have an account.Disclosure Day director Steven Spielberg and star Emily Blunt.Steven Spielberg knows there’s a faction of netizens that think Disclosure Day, his new aliens-are-among-us-thriller, was made to prepare the world for real-life UFO sightings. Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump authorized the release of documents and videos detailing the evidence that Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAPs, the updated nomenclature for UFOs), are real.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. 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Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorAccording to conspiracy theorists, Spielberg’s film, which he hatched in 2017 after reading The New York Times article Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program, is meant to be part of the soft launch of getting people to accept we may not be alone.But the timing of the government’s trove of documentation and Disclosure Day hitting theatres is nothing more than a coincidence, the legendary director says.“Unlike some popular conspiracy theories that I am the first wave to condition the general public into accepting some disclosure from the highest levels of government, I do not have an inside track. That is not true. I’m a filmmaker; a storyteller,” Spielberg, 79, tells Postmedia in a video interview from New York City.Now playing in theatres, Disclosure Day follows a cybersecurity whiz (Josh O’Connor), and a TV meteorologist (Emily Blunt), as they join forces to reveal the U.S. government’s coverup of extraterrestrial secrets.Colin Firth plays the head of the defense contractor trying to stop them, while our main two heroes are aided at times by a rotating cast of characters played by Wyatt Russell, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo.To prepare for her role as Margaret Fairchild, Blunt, 43, took a deep dive into reports of real-life UAP encounters.“The fingerprints of this experience were deep,” she tells Postmedia. “I think you know when you are making something rare, and playing someone rare. This role and this experience, it not only tightened the screws on me as an actor, but it was so thrilling to be around Steven and be around that creativity.” Emily Blunt, Steven Spielberg and Wyatt Russell on the set of Disclosure Day.In Spielberg’s story, which is written by his Jurassic Park collaborator David Koepp, certain agencies have known about otherworldly visitations for decades and aim to keep that secret from the public. The characters that Blunt and O’Connor play are instrumental in humanity finding out its place in the universe.“I think it was such a moving time in my life,” Blunt says as she reflects on shooting the movie. “It was a creative storm every day after (Spielberg’s), sleepless nights pacing around thinking about how to level up on this movie.”Spielberg says the movie serves as a thematic bookend to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, his 1977 space thriller that followed a group of humans trying to make first contact with alien intelligence.“During Close Encounters I would say to myself: ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of this turned out to be true?’” Spielberg says. “Almost 50 years later, I’m now thinking: ‘Wouldn’t be it be wonderful for us to actually know that all of this is true?’”After directing other science-fiction themed movies, including Jurassic Park, Minority Report, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and War of the Worlds, Spielberg says when he’s making movies in the realm of fantasy, he likes to stick with “stories that are closer to home.”“When I made Close Encounters, I called it ‘science speculation’ because there was so much speculation having to do with questions like, ‘Are we alone in the universe? Are we alone here on Earth? Have we been visited by extraterrestrials in the past?’ ” he says.Widely celebrated as the father of the modern-day blockbuster, Spielberg says as his filmmaking evolved — he has easily moved between directing crowd-pleasing films like Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark and more serious fare like Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan — people started asking deeper questions about the nature of our world.He thought revisiting the subject matter of Close Encounters in a way that was grounded in reality could open the door further to answering the question: Are we alone in the universe? After receiving back-to-back Oscar nods for his revamp of West Side Story and his semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans in 2021 and 2022, Spielberg concluded there was “room for one more film” that would re-engage his love of aliens.In July 2023, U.S. Congress helped him solidify his decision when a House oversight committee began holding high-profile hearings on UAPs titled, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency.“At the insistence of people in the military and the intelligence community, we started seeing hearings in Congress from whistleblowers who were saying, ‘There’s more to this,’ ” Spielberg recalls.“Unlike some popular conspiracy theories that I am the first wave to condition the general public into accepting some disclosure from the highest levels of government, I do not have an inside track. That is not true.He started sketching out his story in the Notes app of his iPhone before turning a 52-page treatment over to Koepp.“It wouldn’t be an incredible film because the emphasis would be on the credibility of the story,” he said. “So that motivated me to start getting ready to make Disclosure Day.”Real-world lore about UAP-related phenomenon and government programs fuelled the story, including the Roswell incident; crop circles; recovered memories of alien encounters; CIA research into remote viewing (psychic surveillance); military experimentation with recovered alien technology; and much more.“If you go down the rabbit hole of UFO lore,” Spielberg adds, “you find all this speculation that various technological advances we have made as a civilization owe their existence to technology that has been salvaged from crashed UAP craft and then reverse-engineered by humans. That is all speculative, but the idea has always been interesting to me.”Spielberg marks his 80th birthday this December. Disclosure Day is perhaps the final time he’ll engage with UFOs and aliens on the big screen.“This subject matter compels me,” Spielberg insists. But next up, the three-time Academy Award winner plans to direct a western — his first in a genre that has long fascinated him.After theorizing nearly 50 years ago there may be more than meets the eye when it comes to life on Earth, Spielberg is confident he knows the answer.“I do have very strong beliefs that we’re not alone in the universe,” he says. “And as recently as 2017, I have very strong beliefs that perhaps we are not alone here on Earth, either.”mdaniell@postmedia.com Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.