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| Roland Emmerich. Date unknown. |
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| Roland Emmerich
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Forecourt Ceremony held on Monday, June 20, 2016
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Born: November 10, 1955, in Stuttgart, Baden-Württenberg, Germany
Age at the time of the ceremony: 60 |
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Roland Emmerich is a well-known director of big-budget action / fantasy / alien invasion / teleportation / escapist summertime movies. He is always swinging for the fences, very often making films which become crossover hits.
Emmerich was raised in comfortable circumstances in Sindelfingen, outside Stuttgart, in what was then West Germany. After traveling widley in Europe, Emmerich enrolled at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Müchen in Munich, intending to be a production designer. A screening of Star Wars changed all that; now, it was directing he wanted to be.
At school, Emmerich was one of eight directors of a short film called Wilde Witwe - Wild Widow (which has not been released) with Doris Dörrie. As his master thesis, he directed the space station feature Das Arche Noah Prinzip - The Noah's Ark Principle (released in February 1984) with Richy Müller.
Emmerich kept his focus, wanting to direct films in Hollywood. His next several films were made in Germany, filmed in English, and were eventually released in the U.S. His children-friendly Making Contact (released in November 1985) with Joshua Morrell, and the Hollywood Haunted House story Ghost Chase (released in January 1988) with Jason Lively and the offworld action flick Moon 44 (released in February 1990) with Michael Paré.
Producer Mario Kassar invited Emmerich and his new writing partner Dean Devlin to come to Hollywood and make a movie. The project fell through, but Emmerich was hired as a last-minute replacement director on the action picture Universal Soldier (released in July 1992) with Jean-Claude Van Damme (and Dolph Lundgren!). He retured to Germany to be co-producer for Frikassee im Weltraum - The High Crusade (released in June 1994) with John Rhys-Davies. Filmed in English, the film is a comedy about 12th Century crusaders who come across an alien spaceship. . .
Emmerich's real break came with Stargate (released in October 1994) with Kurt Russell. The odd teleportation-with-aliens film clicked out there, and made a passel o' dough. Emmerich was now living the dream.
Emmerich's dream continued with the monster-whopping hit Independence Day (which played the Chinese in July 1996) with Will Smith. A total crossover success, its combination of elements made the film fun to watch for everyone. Suddenly, Emmerich was the Golden Boy. He became executive producer for 13 episodes of The Visitor with John Corbett, aired in syndication in 1997.
He co-wrote and directed the over-hyped big-budget version of Godzilla (released in May 1998) with Matthew Broderick. The film was so over publicized that it could not fail to disappoint. It made enough of an impact that Emmerich became executive producer for 40 episodes of the animated Godzilla: The Series aired over the Fox Network in September 1999.
Switching to American history, Emmerich is perhaps the olny filmmaker to make a successful film about the Revolutionary War:
The Patriot (released in June 2000) with Mel Gibson. It is considered a fantasy film by historians, however.
Emmerich was executive producer for the satire Eight Legged Freaks (released in July 2002) with David Arquette, then co-wrote and directed the disaster film The Day After Tomorrow (released in May 2004) with Dennis Quaid. His next film made money (which is important), but is considered Emmerich's low point: 10,000 B.C. (which played the Chinese in March 2008) with Camilla Belle.
The disaster film 2012 (released in November 2009) with John Cusack, did well, but got drubbed by the critics, something which happens a good deal to Emmerich. His interest in Shakespeare got a workout in Anonymous (released in October 2011) with Rhys Ifans as the Earl of Oxford, who is thought to have written Shakespeare's plays (or a lot of them).
Emmerich co-wrote and directed the television movie Dark Horse with Max Thieriot, aired over ABC in 2012, then was executive producer on a documentary about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, Last Will & Testament (released in October 2012).
Emmerich got to direct the spec script Sony Pictures bought for $3 million, White House Down (released in June 2013) with Channing Tatum. The picture underperformed. Shooting in Germany, Emmerich was executive producer on the light comedy about hairdressers in Berlin, Coming In (released in October 2014) with Kostja Ullmann.
Turning to American history once more, Emmerich directed the film Stonewall (released in September 2015) with Jeremy Irvine. The picture was spurned by audiences and received some of the worst reviews imaginable.
Emmerich's follow-up to Independence Day was premiered at the Chinese after Emmerich made his imprints in the Forecourt. Independence Day: Resurgence (which played the Chinese in June 2016) with Liam Hemsworth, managed to get by box-office-wise.
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| Caption TK |
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| TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. Roland Emmerich Forecourt ceremony, Monday, June 20, 2016. Roland Emmerich looks up at the cameras while placing his hands in the wet cement. |
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