Steven Spielberg is returning to UFOs and fans of one sci-fi classic may be excited

Steven Spielberg is going back to one of the genres that helped define his career.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker will release Disclosure Day on June 12, 2026, marking his return to extraterrestrial sci-fi more than two decades after War of the Worlds. The upcoming film stars Emily Blunt and reunites Spielberg with longtime collaborator David Koepp, the writer behind Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and multiple Indiana Jones films. 

But longtime Spielberg fans may be especially interested in how the project has been described.

Koepp recently revealed that Disclosure Day leans into a 1970s-style paranoid thriller atmosphere, revisiting ideas that echo Spielberg’s earlier fascination with extraterrestrial encounters. The screenwriter suggested the film could feel like a deeper exploration of themes explored in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, one of Spielberg’s defining sci-fi classics. 

The project marks the seventh collaboration between Spielberg and Koepp, whose creative partnership stretches back to Jurassic Park. Koepp also revealed that the screenplay went through an unusually extensive process, with the writer completing 42 drafts, the highest number he has written for any project. 

Alongside Blunt, Disclosure Day features a cast including Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo. Spielberg developed the original story, while Koepp handled screenplay duties. 

While full plot details remain tightly guarded, promotional information around the film suggests it follows a meteorologist and a young whistleblower who uncover evidence of extraterrestrial contact, setting off a conflict over whether the truth should be revealed to the world. 

Spielberg has also teased the scale of the film, saying it builds towards a 20-minute finale intended to leave audiences with what he described as a “united epiphany” about hidden truths. 

After years focused on historical dramas and personal storytelling, Disclosure Day signals a return to the kind of ambitious sci-fi spectacle that made Spielberg one of Hollywood’s defining filmmakers.