Roland Emmerich

Roland Emmerich is a German screenwriter and film film director best known for his blockbuster films Independence Day and GODZILLA.

GODZILLA Biography
After  couldn't come to an agreement with Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot on making an American Godzilla movie, they turned their attention to Emmerich and frequent collaborator Dean Devlin to make the film. Although the duo turned down the opportunity a few times, they eventually agreed under the condition they handle the movie their own style.

TriStar agreed and Emmerich was recruited as the director and Devlin as the producer. However, with the film being long anticipated, there was much pressure on the release date and Emmerich made it a priority to release the film around Memorial Day.

As they made the film, Emmerich and Devlin, staying true to their word of doing the movie their own way, had their special effect supervisor and creature designer reform "Godzilla" as a smaller yet faster monster with a brand-new look that bore little resemblance to the original monster, they made the famous {{kaiju vulnerable to man-made weapons (F-18 Hornet missiles) while also having him retreat from army attacks.

The film was finally released on May 20th, 1998 and grossed about $136,314,294 domestically and $379,014,294 worldwide. However, critics and a majority of Godzilla fans weren't pleased about Godzilla's new look or his vulnerability to man-made weapons nor his cowardice from the army.

This reaction caused the planned sequels to go unmade and Emmerich would later admit he didn't like the early Godzilla films as well state he regretted rushing to get the film made by Memorial day. His version of Godzilla would later be renamed "Zilla" once TriStar let their rights to the Godzilla series expire, as Toho felt Emmerich "took the 'God' out of 'Godzilla'" by making the monster weaker in strength and form.

Post-GODZILLA
While Emmerich's film didn't get a motion picture sequel, it did spawn an animated series known as Godzilla: The Series with Devlin and himself serving as executive producers on the show. The series received acclaim for making Godzilla true to his namesake by giving him invulnerability to modern weapons and giving him back his fearless nature.

Currently, Emmerich seeks to see the new American Godzilla as he has faith in the director of that film, Gareth Edwards, and has no intention of comparing it to his own film.