Roland Emmerich

Born: 10th November 1955
Where: Stuttgart, Germany

Producer/director Roland began his career in the late 70's directing German movies.

Painting and sculpting were his first artistic love but the world of film directing enticed the young Roland and he attended Film School in Munich.

Roland rejected the New German Cinema of the early 1980s in favour of "popcorn" movies.

Roland made an immediate impression with his first feature in 1981, The Noah's Ark Principle, reportedly the most expensive student project ever produced in Germany.

After opening the competition section of the 1984 Berlin Film Festival, this tale of two astronauts working in a futuristic space lab eventually played in more than 20 countries.

Its success allowed Roland to launch his own production company, Centropolis Films, through which he produced many of his subsequent projects.

Looking early to America as a market, Roland began making English-language films with his second feature in 1985, Making Contact.

Moon 44 introduced him to future collaborator Dean Devlin, then together with Devlin (as co-writer_, he made the sci-fi adventure Universal Soldier.

Having gained the respect of Hollywood's money-men, the relatively inexperienced creative team raised around £44m for the ambitious Independence Day.

The film swiftly shattered box-office records, taking over £63m at the US box-office, in less than a week.

Roland and Devlin then undertook a remake of the monster movie Godzilla, which didn't do as well as their previous efforts.