With ‘Disclosure Day,’ Spielberg Makes His Pitch For Humanity
Disclosure Day isn't a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's definitely not a remake. But there are certainly echoes and parallels and inverted scenarios that do hearken back to Steven Spielberg's 1977 classic. It's a similar premise, but one directed and written by a man who was 30 and another by a man who will turn 80 later this year. The "writing" aspect of this should not go ignored. Spielberg is the sole credited screenwriter on only two films: Close Encounters of the Third Kind and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. David Koepp is the credited screenwriter on Disclosure Day, but the original idea was Spielberg's and he was so heavily involved with the script Koepp has said he assumed Spielberg would just write it himself. Remember when Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! came out and it was described as a "spiritual sequel" to Dazed and Confused? The same can be said about Disclosure Day and Close Encounters – whether Spielberg intended that or not...
There's a line of dialogue that really stands out in Disclosure Day. It's a scene in which Emily Blunt's character does something profound, and a woman starts praying in front of her. Blunt says, "I will not be your religion." I've seen people worship Spielberg first hand. (I wrote a whole post about that and what it's like to meet Spielberg and try desperately not to annoy him.) He handles it as well as anyone could ... probably better, actually. But after awhile, what can he really say other than "thank you" over and over? This line does feel especially pointed...
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