Finding the Humanity in the Unknown: David Koepp Discusses ‘Disclosure Day’

David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, Mission: Impossible) has been screenwriting for almost forty years and with the upcoming Disclosure Day, he and longtime collaborator Steven Spielberg (Jaws, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Schindler’s List) have crafted a cerebral yet action-packed look at the necessity for the truth. “In these times, if truth isn’t on your mind, you’re not paying attention.” It fits perfectly in the Spielberg cannon of extraterrestrial tales and Koepp’s catalog of sci-fi flicks.

The first script Koepp ever got paid for was when he was the tender age of twenty-four.  He was paid a whopping $3,000 to write a female mudwrestling movie called Scissors. “And I think I’m the only person who can say that!” he laughingly told Script magazine. “I don’t know that anyone else has been paid to write a female mudwrestling movie called Scissors. It was not a good script, but I did cash that check.” The first thing he sold was a script called Bad Influence (1990) which was a spec script he wrote that became a movie with Rob Lowe and James Spader.

He also sharpened his screenwriting chops with the thriller Apartment Zero (1988) which starred Colin Firth and Hart Bochner. He’s reunited with Firth, who plays villainous Noah Scanlon, for Disclosure Day.  “We’ve stayed friends over the years. It was funny and a bit of deja vu to work with him again.”

While Koepp has done a lot of high profile projects, they don’t fall into one genre or category. He’s done horror, science fiction, action-adventure, comedy, and drama. He’s also no stranger to being behind the camera, having directed seven features, including Stir of Echoes and Secret Window. Demonstrating a penchant for the macabre as well as the hilarious, Koepp has proven his ability to tap into the basics of what makes up human nature.

The team that worked on Disclosure Day seems to be delivered from the heavens. Five-time Oscar nominated producer Kristie Macosko Krieger, Academy Award winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan), and legendary composer John Williams are a few of the uber-talented people that contributed to Spielberg’s latest exploration of the cosmos and humanity.

Sonya Alexander: What’s it like collaborating with Steven Spielberg?

David Koepp: Well, Sonya, it does not suck. [laughs] It’s great and there are a few reasons it’s so great. Obviously, he’s the greatest filmmaker of our generation, possibly ever. He’s full of ideas. I’ve been working with him for thirty-four years and his favorite part of the process is still making them up. It’s the moment when you say, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” he still lights up like a twelve-year-old talking about a zombie movie he wants to make. You get to work just with him. In movies you have to work with a lot of people and there are many opinions you have to satisfy. He does listen to them. The number one person you know you’re working with and who needs to be pleased with this is him and yourself. So, two people.

I think my favorite thing is that he knows how to be encouraging. He can read a script and have a lot of issues with it and you have a lot more work to do with it, but he manages to do it in a way where you feel energized instead of defeated and deflated. I don’t know how he does that and sometimes I know he’s working his magic trick on me, but he gets away with it anyway.

Sonya: How did you know when you had enough structural foundation to begin writing the script?

David: I had an enormous leg up on this script because unlike others, it arrived in my inbox in the form of a 38-page treatment that Steven had written. Though we changed a lot, the foundational structure of the film was there. Start with them on the run. This obstacle, that obstacle, that obstacle. And here’s the Third Act, where exciting things happen.

When I first read it, I assumed he was going to write it himself. I responded as you would to a thing that comes in from a fellow writer. “This works great. That confused me. I might move this here. Can you combine this and that?” The little notes you give. But when he sent a second draft and said, “Would you like to do it?”,  then I started to dive into the mechanics. The short answer to your question is right away, the moment it showed up in my email.

Sonya: How do the emotional parameters for the characters in War of the Worlds differ from those in Disclosure Day?

David: The tone of the movie is so completely different. War of the Worlds is immediately a survival level event... even extinction peril. The emotional tone is appropriately hysterical quickly and doesn’t really let up from there. It evolves into steely resolve to solve the problem. It’s very elemental. It’s concerned with survival and survival of my children. This operates at the level of the absolute necessity for truth. Both are appropriate to their times. In 2005 we were just a few years removed from 9/11, we were in the middle of the Iraq War… survival was on our minds.

Sonya: Is your writing process different for adapting an IP than writing an original script?

David: Yes. I find originals easier because they are born as movies, whether in your head or someone else’s. They’re conceived as movies and their initial expression is as movies. That expression is very different than from a book or comic book. You’re also dealing with no preconceptions. I’ve written on things that are sequels to things, franchises to things, and you're dealing with maybe inheriting some characters or inheriting a tone. You've got audience expectations, which is a great big deal. All of that has to be taken into consideration. That I find very difficult. And it’s one of the reasons sequels are often not good. They’re a lot harder.

Sonya: You’ve written a lot of movies where the stories are on a grand scale. How do you find the intimate or personal moments?

David: Well, it’s exactly what you said. You find it. The first thing you have to do is look for it and you have to prioritize it. It’s also not easy. I’ve written a number of dinosaur movies and when you have dinosaurs running around, everyone in the audience wants to look at the dinosaurs. So, someone saying, “I’m going through a really tough divorce”... who cares! Work your divorce out on your own time. Go look at the T-Rex. Finding those human moments are very difficult when they’re gigantic ideas.

On this one I was helped by Steven’s laser-guided instinct. I needed to find the real, believable human moments in this. How does that character feel? He’s relentless about it. We had an interesting process on this where we wanted to work on one character, so we did a draft where we thought only about that character. All creative attention in this draft is going to so and so. It helped so much we ended up doing it for all five main characters. Just thinking about them, what they are feeling, where they’re at emotionally. The answer to your question is you have to know that it’s important and you have to prioritize it.

Sonya: What project do you think you learned the most from as a writer?

David: I was complaining about how sequels are difficult. I think you learn a lot about storytelling by trying to write a sequel. You learn a lot about what worked the first time. How do I do something that is reminiscent of something that already exists while still being fresh? How do I tell a story that might have familiar overtones while still being new? That’s where you’re really pulling out everything you’ve got in terms of craft. With a brand new fresh story there’s a lot to learn of course. There’s more to learn from life and maybe you're taking what you know and putting it in there. But trying to do something again… that’s where you learn a lot about storytelling.

Sonya: Do you believe in aliens?

David: An interesting question and I was not prepared for it…! [laughs] The question: Does intelligent life exist elsewhere in the universe? That’s not really a question. That’s a mathematical certainty. Of course it does. The universe is far vaster than we can possibly imagine. It would be the height of arrogance to think we’re the only ones who have more than half a brain. The question is, “Have any of them visited us and are they here now?” To that, I don’t know. I feel that same way about that as I do about God. I hope that God exists, I’d like to believe He does. I don’t have that particular gift. My mother did and I saw the comfort it brought her. I’m an agnostic in that I totally accept the possibility that it exists, but I have not personally seen evidence of it.

Sonya: Which character in the movie resonates with you the most?

David: I know Colin Firth’s character… he’s the bad guy. I’m not supposed to like him. But I was watching the movie again the other day and there’s a scene where he really lays out his position with great coherence and I was thinking, “I’m with you, buddy.” [laughs] Part of that is the challenge of writing a villain. You’ve got to do it in such a way that you come to believe what he or she believes and I think I lined up with him.

Sonya: What’s the big takeaway from this film?

David: How important empathy is. To try to understand a person, even if they’re doing things you don’t understand, take a moment to think of why they might be doing it. What are they feeling? I think the world would be a much better place if we operated this way.

Disclosure Day stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, and Eve Hewson. The Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment film will be in Theaters June 12, 2026.