Roland Emmerich facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Roland Emmerich
Emmerich in 2016
Born	(1955-11-10) 10 November 1955 (age 69) Stuttgart, West Germany
Citizenship	Germany United States
Alma mater	University of Television and Film Munich
Occupation	Film director producer screenwriter
Years active	1979–present
Spouse(s)	Omar De Soto ​ (m. 2017)​
Signature

Roland Emmerich (born November 10, 1955) is a famous filmmaker from Germany and the United States. He is well-known for making exciting science fiction and disaster films. People in the movie business sometimes call him a "master of disaster" because his films often show huge events like alien invasions or natural catastrophes.

Most of his movies are big Hollywood productions made in English. His films have earned over $3 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-earning directors ever.

Roland Emmerich started his film career by directing The Noah's Ark Principle (1984) for his university project. In 1985, he also helped start a film company called Centropolis Entertainment with his sister. He has directed many popular movies, including Universal Soldier (1992), Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998), The Patriot (2000), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 10,000 BC (2008), 2012 (2009), White House Down (2013), Midway (2019), and Moonfall (2022).

Early Life and First Movies

Roland Emmerich was born in Stuttgart, West Germany, and grew up in a nearby town called Sindelfingen. When he was young, he traveled a lot around Europe and North America. His father, Hans, who owned a successful company that made garden tools, paid for these trips.

In 1977, Roland started attending a film school in Munich. He first wanted to design movie sets. But after seeing the movie Star Wars, he decided he wanted to direct films instead. For his final project in 1981, he wrote and directed a full movie called The Noah's Ark Principle. This film was even shown at a big film festival in Berlin in 1984.

In 1985, he started his own film company, Centropolis Film Productions (now Centropolis Entertainment), with his sister, Ute Emmerich, who is a producer. His first big movie was a fantasy film called Joey. After that, he directed the comedy Hollywood-Monster (1987) and the science-fiction movie Moon 44 (1990). These movies were mostly shown in Germany. Roland filmed them in English, hoping more people around the world would watch them. Because of this, Moon 44 was released straight to video in the U.S. in 1991. Later, Joey and Hollywood-Monster also came out on home video in the U.S. (as Making Contact and Ghost Chase) once Roland became more famous in America.

Becoming a Hollywood Director

Movies in the 1990s

A producer named Mario Kassar asked Roland to come to the U.S. to direct a futuristic action movie called Isobar. Dean Devlin, an actor from Moon 44, became Roland's writing and producing partner until 2000. Roland didn't direct Isobar because the movie makers didn't like Dean's changes to the script, and the project was stopped. Instead, Roland was hired to direct the action movie Universal Soldier, which came out in 1992.

Next, Roland directed the science-fiction film Stargate in 1994. This movie broke a record for the biggest opening weekend for a film released in October. It was much more successful than many people in the film industry expected and led to a very popular series of movies and TV shows. Around this time, Roland and Dean also worked with a video game company called Bethesda Softworks on a game called The 10th Planet, but it was never released.

Roland then directed Independence Day, a movie about an alien invasion, released in 1996. This film was the first to earn $100 million in less than a week. It became one of the most successful movies of all time, at one point being the second-highest-earning film worldwide. After this, Roland and Dean created a TV show called The Visitor, which aired in 1997–1998 but was canceled after one season.

His next film, Godzilla, opened in 1998. There was a lot of advertising and excitement before the movie came out. The film made a lot of money but got mostly bad reviews from critics and fans. It did win some awards, like one for Best Special Effects, but also a "Razzie Award" for Worst Remake or Sequel. Roland said that before Godzilla, he and Dean had planned a disaster movie about an asteroid, but they stopped that idea when another movie, Armageddon, came out with a similar story.

Movies in the 2000s

Taking a short break from science fiction, Roland next directed The Patriot (2000), a big movie about the American Revolutionary War. This was one of the few films Roland directed where he didn't help write the script. The movie was well-received by critics and made good money, and it's still Roland's best-reviewed film.

After working with a new screenwriting partner, Harald Kloser, Roland went back to directing movies with lots of special effects. In 2004, he made the blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, another disaster film about a new ice age caused by global warming. Soon after, he started another film production company in Germany called Reelmachine.

In 2008, Roland directed 10,000 BC, a movie about a prehistoric tribe of mammoth hunters. It made a lot of money at the box office, but many critics thought it was his worst film and one of the worst movies of that year. He was supposed to direct a remake of the 1966 science-fiction film Fantastic Voyage, but that project was put on hold.

In 2009, Roland directed 2012, a disaster film about the world ending on December 21, 2012, based on an old Mayan idea. Even though it got mixed reviews, it became his second-highest-earning film after Independence Day and was popular with audiences. Roland is known for finishing big movies faster and with less money than many other directors.

Movies in the 2010s

Emmerich in 2012

Roland's next film, Anonymous, released on October 28, 2011, explores the idea that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was the real writer of William Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Roland explained that it's a historical thriller about who would become queen after Queen Elizabeth and the power struggles between different families. He said, "Through that story we tell how the plays written by the Earl of Oxford ended up labeled 'William Shakespeare.'"

In 2011, Sony Pictures bought an idea for Roland's project Singularity, a science-fiction movie about a man made of tiny machines called nanomachines. It was planned for a 2013 release but has also been put on hold.

Roland directed the action-thriller film White House Down, which is about a terrorist attack on the White House. The script was bought by Sony Pictures for $3 million in March 2012. The Hollywood Reporter said it was one of the biggest script sales in a while. They also said the script felt similar to movies like Die Hard and Air Force One. Roland started filming in July 2012 in Montreal, Canada. The movie was released on June 28, 2013, in the United States.

Roland had always thought about making a "gay film" as a personal project. After friends asked him during the making of Anonymous if he could make a movie about the Stonewall riots, Roland became interested. Stonewall was released in 2015. He then made a sequel to his most successful film, Independence Day: Resurgence, which came out twenty years after the first Independence Day on June 24, 2016.

In November 2019, Roland directed the film Midway, which is based on the real battle of Midway during World War II.

Movies in the 2020s

In 2020, it was announced that Roland's next film would be Moonfall, released in 2022 by Lionsgate. This is a space disaster film about a mysterious force that knocks the Moon out of its orbit, sending it crashing towards Earth. A small team launches a desperate mission to land on the Moon and save Earth from being destroyed. The movie had a budget of $150 million.

Future Projects

After Moonfall, Roland said he has been working on a TV series about T. E. Lawrence for about ten years. He also mentioned three other projects he would like to make: a historical movie set in 1919 about a young writer who has to take over a film set, another movie about a conquistador, and a third about the death of Marilyn Monroe.

In June 2023, Roland announced a new project called Space Nation. This will be a big project that includes a MMORPG (a type of online game), a TV series, animated short films, and other games.

Personal Life

Roland Emmerich owns homes in Los Angeles, New York City, London, and Stuttgart. He likes to decorate his homes in a unique way, with rare Hollywood items, paintings, and things from World War II.

Roland is gay and works to support LGBT rights. He is married to Omar De Soto. He has said that he saw clear examples of racism when producers didn't want him to cast Will Smith in the main role for Independence Day. They also didn't want him to show a couple of different races in The Day After Tomorrow. He sometimes says he doesn't like working in the movie business because it can be "very cold and brutal," but he keeps directing because he truly "likes making movies."

In 2006, he gave $150,000 to the Legacy Project, which helps save old gay and lesbian films. This was the largest gift ever given to the Outfest film festival. In 2007, he held a fundraiser at his Los Angeles home for Hillary Clinton, a Democratic Party presidential candidate, to support the LGBT community.

In 2011, he became a U.S. citizen but also kept his German citizenship. He said he did this because he "wanted to have a vote in the next US elections" and waited because he "didn’t want to become an American under Bush."

He also collects art. His art collection includes a painting of Jesus Christ wearing a T-shirt during his crucifixion, pictures of Princess Diana, and a wax sculpture of Pope John Paul II laughing while reading his own obituary. Roland supports progressive politics in the U.S. He says his decorations and art pieces don't mean he believes in any specific thing, but that he just likes "art with a political edge."

Roland supports the idea of stunt performers getting awards at the Academy Awards. He has also worked to raise awareness about global warming. He used to smoke a lot, sometimes four packs of cigarettes a day. Because of this, his films often have characters who are trying to quit smoking or warn about the dangers of tobacco use. He is also a producer of The 1 Second Film, a project that raises money for women's rights in developing countries.

Filmography

Besides movies, Roland Emmerich also helped create and produce the TV series The Visitor, which didn't last long. In 2001, he directed a one-minute commercial for DaimlerChrysler called "Infinite Possibilities."

Film

Executive producer

Producer

Television

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Roland Emmerich para niños