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Spielberg’s Disclosure Day Script Underwent 42 Drafts

Koepp says the extensive rewrites were a deliberate effort to balance blockbuster pacing with serious philosophical themes as the film readies for a June 12 release.

Overview

  • Screenwriter David Koepp told reporters this week that Disclosure Day went through 42 drafts, a personal record he attributes to intense calibration with director Steven Spielberg.
  • Koepp says the rewrites focused on finding the right mix of action-thriller momentum and weighty questions about faith, truth and government secrecy.
  • The film, directed and produced by Spielberg for Amblin and Universal, confirms a principal cast that includes Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo and Wyatt Russell.
  • Universal rates Disclosure Day PG-13 for action, some bloody images and strong language, and the studio has kept late-act details tightly controlled as marketing ramps up.
  • The project grew from a 38-page treatment from Spielberg and is being framed by the filmmakers as a 1970s-style paranoid thriller that revisits Spielberg’s long-running interest in extraterrestrial contact.