‘Moonfall’ Director Roland Emmerich Reveals Biggest Challenge of Filming New Movie (Exclusive)

Moonfall is out in theatres now and tells the story of the moon crashing into Earth, leaving human civilization in jeopardy. The new film is directed by Roland Emmerich, best known for his disaster films such as Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and 2012. PopCulture.com recently caught up with Emmerich who revealed the biggest challenge of filming Moonfall that stars Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson and John Bradley amid some very tumultuous times. 

“Well, first of all, make the actors believe they’re sitting in a real shuttle,” Emmerich told PopCulture exclusively. “That was not so easy, of course. Then I think we had the problem that we had this swarm, and it was made by two companies, and it was like, kind of just never mix. And then we worked really, really diligently on how this thing should look because it was a relatively late addition to how it really looks, how it really has to kind of be a being that you haven’t seen before.”

Berry, Wilson and Bradley’s characters travel to space to get the moon back in orbit. While those scenes may have been challenging for Emmerich, the cast enjoyed their time together because it was one of the few times they could be together due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was another challenge for the Emmerich.

“I had to conceive that film actually before there was a pandemic, and I kind of started preparing it,” Emmerich said. “After two months, they all of a sudden called it all off and sent us home. We were kind of four or five months, sitting around, hoping that the movie keeps going again. And then we got lucky, and it was nearly a miracle. And then we shot the movie. But it was super, super hard to shoot this movie during COVID times because it’s like, you’re not even allowed to go closer to a character which is six feet apart from me.”

Filming Moonfall had its share of challenges, but how did Emmerich come up with the idea of this movie? “Well, first of all, I read a book called Who Built the Moon, which really inspired me in a way because I said, ‘Oh, my God, this thing could be built.’” Emmerich explained. “And I then kind of thought, ‘How can people find out?’ Then it’s clear that it has to be falling to Earth because through that you find out that it’s actually built. And then I went from there.”