Line #43 Creator/RolandEmmerich


1	[[quoteright:258:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roland_emmerich.jpg]]
2	%%
3	->''"[[ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder I'm a filmmaker, not a scientist]]."''
4	-->-- '''Roland Emmerich''', justifying the copious amounts of ArtisticLicense in his oeuvre.
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6	''In an era where [[BMovie B-Movies]] end up on the nadir of video store shelves, one rich man rises to the scene, daring to make them great again.''
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8	Roland Emmerich (born November 10, 1955) is a German director and producer who is known as the undisputed king of American [[DisasterMovie disaster movies]], a title he's held for the past thirty years or so. [[CriticProof Although his films have a tendency to get mixed if not horrible reviews from critics, they usually kill at the box office.]]
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10	He became interested in film after seeing ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' in 1977 (like many others), and attended the University of Television and Film in Munich. His early films are generally unknown by most audiences, but were praised in his home country. His first film was ''Das Arche Noah Prinzip'' (''The Noah's Ark Principle''), about a space station that could be used to control the weather, which holds the record for Germany's most expensive student film (about 1.2 million DM). He made several further [[BMovie B-movies]] in Germany that are borderline unknown; ''Joey'', ''Hollywood-Monster'' and ''Moon 44''; one of which featured one of his frequent collaborators in scripting, Dean Devlin.
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12	In The90s, he traveled to Hollywood to direct his first blockbuster: ''Film/UniversalSoldier''. While it received less-than-kind reviews, the film made a decent amount of money in the USA, and made over twice the amount of money overseas. After this, he directed ''Film/{{Stargate}}'', which later kicked off its own [[Series/StargateSG1 TV series]] and [[Franchise/StargateVerse franchise]], and opened him the door to direct bigger and bigger films, with his most notable box office hit being ''Film/IndependenceDay''.
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14	Emmerich is openly gay, and in 2006, he pledged $150,000 to the Legacy Project, a campaign dedicated to gay and lesbian film preservation. Emmerich made the donation on behalf of Outfest, making it the largest gift in the festival's history. He owns homes in Los Angeles, Manhattan, London and Stuttgart. He likes to decorate his homes in a self-described [[KitschCollection "outlandish" manner]], adorning them with rare Hollywood memorabilia, murals and portraits of dictators and Communist figures, and World War II-era relics. His extensive collection of artwork includes a painting of Jesus Christ wearing a Katharine Hamnett-styled t-shirt during his crucifixion, prints of Alison Jackson's works of a Princess Diana lookalike making obscene gestures and engaging in sex acts, a wax sculpture of Pope John Paul II laughing as he reads his own obituary, and a Photoshopped image of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a homoerotic pose. His three favorite movies are ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure'', ''Film/TheToweringInferno'' and ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'', all disaster movies. [[note]]Probably not coincidentally, the first two films were produced by Irwin Allen, to which his work is often compared.[[/note]]
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16	Compare Creator/MichaelBay. If they collaborated, [[AwesomenessIsVolatile Hollywood would explode]].
17	----
18	!!Filmography:
19	[[index]]
20	* ''The Noah's Ark Principle'' (1984)
21	* ''Joey'' (1985)
22	* ''Film/MakingContact'' (1985)
23	* ''Hollywood-Monster'' (1987)
24	* ''Moon 44'' (1990)
25	* ''Film/UniversalSoldier'' (1992)
26	* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' (1994)
27	* ''Film/IndependenceDay'' (1996)
28	** ''Film/IndependenceDayResurgence'' (2016)
29	* ''Series/{{The Visitor\|1997}}'' (1997-1998)
30	* ''Film/{{Godzilla\|1998}}'' (1998)
31	* ''Film/{{The Patriot\|2000}}'' (2000)
32	* ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' (2004)
33	* ''Film/TenThousandBC'' (2008)
34	* ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'' (2009)
35	* ''Film/{{Anonymous\|2011}}'' (2011)
36	* ''Film/WhiteHouseDown'' (2013)
37	* ''Film/{{Stonewall\|2015}}'' (2015)
38	* ''Film/{{Midway\|2019}}'' (2019)
39	* ''Film/{{Moonfall}}'' (2022)
40	[[/index]]
41
42	!!Selected Tropography:
43
44	* ArtisticLicense: His films are known to have this in spades, and Emmerich himself justifies the silly logical inconsistencies with this, [[AcceptableBreakFromReality feeling that the action in his movies don't need to be completely accurate to be entertaining]]. [[MST3KMantra And it's probably for the best]].
45	** One very notable exception was ''Film/{{Midway\|2019}}'', which goes to almost painstaking detail on the historical events leading up to, and part of the titular event.
46	* ContrivedCoincidence: A frequently employed tool in his work, particularly in ''2012'', ''Independence Day'' and ''The Day After Tomorrow''. In short, it's best not to think to hard about how his heroes make their way towards survival; just be happy that they do.
47	* ConspiracyKitchenSink: Although he is best known as a Master of Disaster (sharing this with his idol Irwin Allen), nearly all of his movies feature a popular conspiracy/fringe theory in some fashion, from AncientAstronauts (''Stargate'') to Area51 (''Independence Day'') and Atlantis-like pre-civilizations (''10,000 BC''), and even the less exotic one about Shakespeare not having written his plays (''Anonymous'')
48	* CreatorBacklash: Of a sort. Emmerich regretted that [[ChristmasRushed he rushed Godzilla for a Memorial Day release]]. He still defends the film, though.
49	* GenreThrowback: Almost all of the summer blockbusters that he's made tend to homage B-Movies.
50	** ''Stargate'' was this for Sci-Fi films.
51	** ''Independence Day'' was this for Alien Invasion flicks.
52	** The above film, ''Godzilla'', ''The Day After Tomorrow'' and ''2012'' are these for Disaster Movies.
53	** ''10,000 BC'' was this for "Prehistoric" picture shows from the 50s.
54	* HollywoodScience: The neutrino-related stuff in ''2012''. Also, the thermodynamic forces at play in ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' moved faster than in real life ([[RuleOfCool obviously]]).
55	* MonumentalDamage: His disaster movies always feature at least one monument getting destroyed or damaged.
56	* OneDegreeOfSeparation: In relation to ContrivedCoincidence above, individuals from his ensemble casts are somehow connected to each other in the most convenient of ways, which often leads to them making it out alive because of said connections.
57	* PlayingAgainstType: While known mainly for his disaster films, Emmerich has also done thrillers as well, such as ''Film/{{Anonymous\|2011}}'', a pseudo-historical mystery-thriller about William Shakespeare, and later a dramatic retelling of the Stonewall riots.
58	* ProductionPosse:
59	** His major movies were all written by Dean Devlin.
60	** Production designer Creator/PatrickTatopoulos worked on pretty much all of his films.
61	** Music/DavidArnold composed all of his 1990s films' soundtracks (from ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' onwards.)
62	** Harald Kloser not only became his go-to composer starting with ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' (aside from ''Stonewall''), but his story suggestions in that movie made Emmerich bring him in as a writingproducing partner as well.
63	* RuleOfCool: Absolutely ''any'' film that he's involved in. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools And we wouldn't have it any other way.]]
64	* RuleOfFun
65	* RunningGag: Something bad usually happens to the White House in his films whether it's being [[Film/IndependenceDay blow up by aliens]], [[Film/TwoThousandTwelve having an aircraft carrier smashed into it]], or [[DieHardOnAnX being occupied]] [[Film/WhiteHouseDown by terrorists.]]
66	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
67	** He said that he and Dean Devlin were planning a movie about an asteroid crash before being roped into ''Godzilla''. And then that very year came ''Film/Armageddon1998'' and ''Film/DeepImpact'' to make him cancel the project.
68	** In 2011, Columbia purchased a spec script from him named ''Singularity''. It entered DevelopmentHell [[https://collider.com/roland-emmerich-singularity-failed-blockbuster-what-happened/ during the following years, and doesn't seem to be leaving any time soon.]]

Context Creator / RolandEmmerich