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Roland Emmerich (born November 10, 1955) is a film producer, director and writer.
Early life and career Emmerich was born in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As a youth, he pursued painting and sculpting and, while in the director's program at film school in Munich, studied production design. His student film, The Noah's Ark Principle, went on to open the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. The feature became a huge success and was sold to more than 20 countries. He formed his production company Centropolis Film Productions (now named Centropolis Entertainment) and began directing supernatural fantasy features in his native Germany. His first English-language film, 1990's Moon 44, went straight to video in the United States and featured Dean Devlin. Devlin would subsequently become Emmerich's writing and producing partner once Emmerich set up shop in Hollywood. Rise to prominence After directing the cyborg action movie Universal Soldier, his first movie released theatrically in America, Emmerich helmed the science-fiction film Stargate, an unexpected success. Emmerich hit his blockbuster stride with his next film, Independence Day. The alien invasion feature went on to become one of the most successful films of all time. Shortly afterwards, Emmerich and Devlin created the show The Visitor for the Fox Network. It was cancelled after one season. His next film, the much-hyped Godzilla, did not meet its anticipated box office success, and was a critical failure. * After a change of pace directing the American Revolutionary War film The Patriot, Emmerich returned once again to directing a visual effects-laden adventure with 2004's The Day After Tomorrow. It was Emmerich's first film in fourteen years that didn't involve Devlin in any capacity. Current work Emmerich is in New Zealand directing 10,000 BC, a film about the journeys of a prehistoric tribe. The film reunites Emmerich with screenwriter Robert Rodat and is due for a Christmas release in 2007. Emmerich was opposed to the idea of another creative team making a series based on Stargate because he and Devlin initially planned to produce two sequels.* Nevertheless, the film eventually spawned the television shows Stargate SG-1 and . Despite this, discussions on completing the envisioned trilogy are underway, and Devlin hopes to reunite with Emmerich for the project.* Emmerich has founded another production company, Reelmachine, which is based in Munich. His other company, Centropolis Entertainment, has recently teamed up with Mythic Entertainment and Electric Entertainment to foray into the online computer game market. Partial Filmography | ||||||||
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