Midway was a passion project decades in the making for acclaimed filmmaker Roland Emmerich. The film about the decisive World War II naval battle took a long time to make the journey from page to screen, but the heavy-hitting cast was proof of Lionsgate’s faith in it – as well as the director’s love for the story as well.
With the DVD and Blu-ray out this week, Emmerich took the time to chat with Screen Rant about his inspiration and research for Midway. He also wasn’t shy about speaking his mind regarding the state of America today, or about sharing his thoughts on reboots of Stargate and Independence Day, among other properties.
Is it true that you were trying to get this film made for over two decades?
While certain elements have been moved around for narrative reasons, your film is praised for accurately building up to the battle. Can you talk to me about the research process that went into Midway?
Roland Emmerich: Yeah, I actually at one point even had it half-greenlit at Sony Pictures. But when they realized how high the budget was, they had to go to their Japanese owners, and they kind of said, “We don’t want to do this.” Because they don’t want to kind of invest in a in a movie which has that kind of price tag, and the Japanese lose the battle.
Because of that, I actually then did The Patriot, which was a script Sony had just acquired. And then Michael Bay, one or two years later, started announcing they’re doing a Pearl Harbor. I was like, “Okay, I have to wait ten years or so.”
I love that this film actually takes both sides with the Japanese and American points of view. Was that originally part of the story when you had this brewing 20 or two decades ago?
Roland Emmerich: Well, even then, it was clear that we needed to start the movie with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Without the attack on Pearl Harbor, you really don’t understand quite what’s going on. So, that was that.
And then together with Wes [Tooke], who has also read a lot about this, we started discussing how to manage a very complicated battle like that. Then we came up with the idea to have one story with Nimitz and the codebreakers as one storyline, and then the pilots of the Enterprise as the other storyline, and the third storyline is Yamamoto and the Japanese.
That was pretty much our guideline to kind of write the script, and then and then it crystallized that we liked [Dick] Best as a hero because he had family in Hawaii, he had this dramatic thing that happened to him. He had the wrong mix and still went up there, and he was one of two pilots who had two carriers in one day. So, that was a little bit of a breakthrough.
I love John Ford’s part in the film. It’s not a huge part of the movie, but I like that it really shows how it was. Can you talk to me about why you wanted to include John Ford in that part of the film?
Roland Emmerich: Yes. I always - it’s like this. When I saw this documentary about it, it reminded me of a film I really, really loved: A Bridge Too Far. And A Bridge Too Far also shows the German side, because otherwise you don’t understand the strategy, and you don’t understand who’s the foe. But I didn’t want it to portray them in a way that doesn’t do them justice.
Because everybody kind of always hears about what the Japanese did in China, but that was the Japanese army. The Navy, they were quite noble people that had all studied more or less in America. So they were not even in favor of starting this war. I mean, they had to because the Prime Minister was the head of the army, and General Tojo just decided to do that.
I read some different things about the methods of funding this movie. Can you talk about some of the difficulties of making a movie like this nowadays?
Roland Emmerich: It’s that kind of thing. When you Google the Battle of Midway, the first thing which comes up is the short film - I think it was 27 minutes - of John Ford, which he won an Oscar for.
And it’s great when you have somebody that famous who is also a top Hollywood director. It was a great way to cut to Midway for the first time; you see this guy scouting for his movie, and he got this tip from a friend very high up in the Navy and he probably knew more about it than the people on Midway because they were totally clueless about what was gonna happen. They only knew that planes all of a sudden showed up on their island. They had to be on the ready, that’s all that they knew, so they were kind of waiting for an attack. But they didn’t know that the Navy knew exactly when and where they’d show up.
You got you put together such an amazing cast. Have you made plans to work with any of those stars on future projects?
Roland Emmerich: I think every director has that problem when he wants to do a movie. It’s always actually a miracle when these kinds of movies happen. And in this case, it was strongly supported by two Chinese companies, one of which bought the distribution rights for China for a lot of money. And then two companies, which became equity players in the film. Without the Chinese, this movie would have never happened.
And then naturally you need world sales, and you need an American distributor, which was Lionsgate. But we had Lionsgate already, so they were kind of very high on the project. So, then the last piece was actually going out to Cannes and sell the film, and our world sales people sold it for more than $30 million. That was a very good thing - and that’s why you also shoot in Montreal, because it got enormous tax breaks there.
What’s a greater challenge as a director: directing a period piece or a science fiction film?
Roland Emmerich: Yes, definitely. I love Woody. I love Patrick. Every one of them was awesome. It was just a joy, and I needed really good actors because I only had 65 days to shoot it. You’ve got to have good actors.
What lessons can people take away from Midway and apply to today?
Roland Emmerich: I don’t think there’s a difference, really. Every movie has its problems. You know, with science fiction, you have the problem that you have to kind of sell it to the people so that they buy into it. And in a historical piece, you’re dealing with the fact that if you don’t buy into the characters, people don’t care.
So, every movie has its difficulties and problems. You just try to navigate it and work hard to make these things work, because movies are very expensive.
Speaking of real life, there’s a slow-moving danger towards climate change which you actually addressed 15 years earlier in Day After Tomorrow. Do you think that people still haven’t gotten that message?
Roland Emmerich: I mean, sometimes when I look at our politics… When you look at Washington, and you see all the bickering going on, and you see this president more or less unhinged - you ask yourself, “What’s happening with America?”
This was once a country in which young men stood against fascism and fought and died for democracy and freedom. What happened to that America? It was totally unified at that time, and now it’s extremely divided. And so in a way, movies like this remind to how united America once was.
Last year, the trades reported that your next project as a writer and director is Moonfall. Can you tell me a little bit about the setup and why that story is inspiring to you?
Roland Emmerich: Obviously not. I’m amazed how Greta from Sweden, a 16 year old girl, is necessary to remind the world. It’s amazing how suddenly she’s going on the streets and finally demonstrating and telling these politicians what they’re doing wrong.
I’m super pessimistic when it comes to climate change, because humans are obviously not getting it. They keep polluting this planet like there would be another one waiting, but there isn’t. And I don’t think space exploration is fast enough to kind of solve this problem, because by the time we have maybe the technology, we’ll have new wars going on. Because hundreds of millions of refugees have to move to places where they can survive.
Over the past couple of years, there’s been a lot of rumors of a Stargate reboot happening on both the big and small screen. Are you involved with any of those developments?
Roland Emmerich: Well, I’m just fascinated about the moon. At one point, I just kind of thought, “What would happen if the moon all of a sudden falls to Earth, and we realized that the moon is not what we think it is?” That was the start of an idea, and it’s been four years now that I’m working on this project. And finally I’m doing it. I have the financing together, and we start shooting in the beginning of May.
Independence Day is one of my favorite movies of all time. Disney is currently rebooting a bunch of classic Fox properties, like Planet of the Apes and Home Alone. Would you be interested in working on Independence Day 3 with Disney?
Roland Emmerich: No, not really anymore. Yes, I’m involved, but also not. Because I have so many other things to do. I have, like, two or three other projects I want to do and they’re kind of more important than - I think somebody else has to do that. MGM is trying.
More: Roland Emmerich Movies Ranked, Worst to Best
Roland Emmerich: Yeah, absolutely. I have actually a great idea for a sequel.
Midway is available on Digital, 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, and On Demand.
