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 Known for big-budget disaster movies filled with special effects
like "Independence Day" and "Godzilla", Emmerich long wanted to
recount the giant air and sea battle in the Pacific during which
U.S. forces defeated an attacking Japanese fleet.
The June 4-7 1942 clash, the subject of a 1976 film starring
Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda, took place six months after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which had catapulted the United
States into the conflict.
But a new studio deal, financing and the 2001 release of
romantic war drama "Pearl Harbor" put Emmerich's version project
on hold, he told Reuters in an interview.
"I chose another war movie, I did 'The Patriot' but it
('Midway') never left my mind," the 63-year-old said referring
to his 2000 film set during the American Revolutionary War. "All
of a sudden 'Pearl Harbor' was there so I had to wait."
"Midway" was rekindled several years ago when work on a script
began.
The film focuses on real-life U.S. Navy bomber pilot Richard
'Dick' Best, played by British actor Ed Skrein, and Emmerich
said he worked with the U.S. navy to make the movie, having to
convince some officials about the production.
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"I had to talk to the admiral who was running Pearl Harbor, all the
different places there ... and he was very dismissive. He said 'this
is one of these Hollywood movies (which) has a cheesy love story and
uses our soldiers, to tell it'," he said.
"And I said, 'well, not really' ... I said, my movie is about Dick
Best and ... from that moment, he was so supportive .. and he ended
up even being an extra."
A special screening of "Midway" was held in Hawaii for U.S. navy
members at the base.
Despite the long wait, Emmerich said the upcoming release of the
film, which also stars Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid and Nick Jonas,
was timely.
"In the last three, four, five years, because of the whole refugee
crisis, nationalism is on the rise again, and right wing parties are
on the rise again and it's great to remind people that at one point
nationalism led to World War Two," he said.
(Reporting by Tanya Lezaic; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian;
Editing by Alexandra Hudson
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