WEBVTT - Spielberg's Closing Argument 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.000 You know, Steven Spielberg is seventy nine years old, and 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.760 he's going to be eighty years old Christmas Week this year. 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:09.000 He started making movies though, when he was seventeen years old, 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:11.640 and he had a film called Firelight, which was about 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:16.040 you probably guessed it already UFOs. Now he's had six 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.480 decades of filmmaking since then. He's built probably the most 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:24.160 influential body of alien contact storytelling that's ever been assembled. 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.640 That includes more than thirty film and TV projects that 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:32.199 he's either directed, written, or executive produced that touch on 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:36.000 NHI or UFOs or the question of are we alone? 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.400 And now, of course the buzz is that he's coming 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.040 back to the subject with Disclosure Day, which opens on 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.199 June twelfth, and it may well function as his closing 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.080 argument on the entire topic. At the recent Cinema con 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.720 Spielberg put it this way, and this is a quote. 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:53.440 I believe this movie is going to answer questions, and 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.080 this movie is going to cause a lot of people 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.520 to ask a lot of questions. All you need to 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.600 get from beginning to end and is a seat bill. 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.200 That's quite a statement from the director. Let me bring 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.840 in my co host Brent Friedman, Brent, what do you 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.240 think that's setting the bar kind of high, isn't it? 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.680 It is? And I think that if anyone could set 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.360 the bar that high, it's Steven Spielberg. As you said, 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.319 his body of work on this topic is incredible. But 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.679 it's not just the quantity of stuff he's done, it's 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.399 the quality. Some of his work in this area is 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.840 acknowledged to be the best in the business, and his 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:34.280 vision for alien contact, for NHI contact is wide ranging. 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.039 He has told dark stories, he's told light stories, he's 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.760 told funny stories. He's told pretty much every kind of 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.880 story you can tell in this genre. And so if 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:48.440 anyone could make a statement like he just did at CinemaCon, 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:49.920 it's Steven Spielberg. 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:50.880 It's so amazing. 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.120 He starts with Close Encounters and follows it with et 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.600 but along the way he's also done taken and wore 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:00.919 the World's and frankly, so many other things the whole spectrum. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.960 In order to talk about what might be coming with 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.440 Disclosure Day, though, instead of trying to just analyze his trailers, 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.160 which we did already, I thought we should try something 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.800 different this time, folks. What we're going to do is 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.160 take a look back at those thirty projects, maybe not 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.920 each one of them, but at least talk about the 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.240 body of work, if you will, and see if there's 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.040 some clues embedded in all that about what he may 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.160 be getting ready to present to the world on June twelfth. 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:29.800 And the key here is that we're not going to 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.520 do it alone. This is an important episode for us 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.079 because this is the first time we've had a guest. 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.560 Yes, very exciting. I got my office all cleaned up. Yeah, 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.160 we're company, the same thing. I thought, it's like you're 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.400 having people come over for dinner. It's see, I got 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:45.040 to clean up. 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.240 So I went over through my desk and went, I 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.480 got to get rid of some of this stuff is bad. 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:50.720 It's the wrong thing. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.119 As it turns out, I think our guest is going 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.480 to make both of our backgrounds look pretty paltry. Anyway, 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.840 we're being joined by a special guest tonight, someone who 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:03.240 literally wrote a book that Spielberg likes so much that 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:21.280 he turned it into a movie. 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:25.760 I'm Bryce Abel. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.639 Have you ever wondered if there's a secret connection between 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:29.960 Hollywood and UFOs? 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.160 And I'm Brent Friedman. You are listening to sound, light 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:34.880 and frequency. 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.800 Will Steven Spielberg's Disclosure dayby just another movie, or will 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:40.560 it answer a question once and for all? 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:41.960 Are we alone? 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:45.200 And if we aren't alone? Do they walk amongst us? 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.760 So let me introduce you, folks, to Ernie Klein, who 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.800 is here joining us from Texas. Ernie, welcome. I see 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.000 a couple of Deloreans there, not. 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:07.840 One, but two days Laureans, and my wife calls them, Yes, 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.480 I have a pair. This is my first Laurean Act 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.280 eighty eight, which is a recreation of the Dolorian in 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.240 my book and in the movie is a mashup of 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.719 the Ghostbuster's ectamobile, Doc Brown's time machine and with some 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.600 night writer and BUCKERU Bondsi thrown in. And then this 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.000 one is the Mandalorian. It's my Star Wars DeLorean has 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.120 R two unit on the back. And I'm gonna pick 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.719 this one out on Star Wars Day here next week. 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:33.440 I'm excited. 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:34.800 That is so amazing. 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.160 We should probably at least bring everybody up to speed. 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:39.960 Though you are an American science fiction writer. The book 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.960 that got turned into a movie was Ready Player one. 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.520 You wrote another book as a follow up, Armada, and 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.320 I believe you're probably working on another book right now, 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:51.880 which we could break some news and you could tell 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.720 us what it's all about, or you could not do that. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.200 Okay. I tried out to talk about it before I 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:58.960 finish it. You know how that is, You talk about 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:00.680 it before we finish slows you down. 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.000 Now, that can be certainly well. Listen. The thing that 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:04.599 I think. 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.040 Most people who are listening and are watching right now 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.200 are going to be thinking, is wait a second, this 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.919 dude had Steven Spielberg make a movie from his book, 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.240 which means I think that you were on this set 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:18.960 for a Steven Spielberg movie. 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.320 I was. I got a coloded screenwriter credit on a 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.800 Steven Spielberg movie. It's pretty yeah, pretty great for my 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:27.560 second film credit. It's pretty amazing. Well was happening? I 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.839 would joke, but it was what wasn't really a joke. 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.640 It was like Saul downhill from here whatever topt this 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.040 and that movie. We had to move our release date 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:38.520 because of the Star Wars. The Last Jedi took our 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:40.599 release dates, so they moved it to March twenty ninth, 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.880 which is my birthday. So my stevens Fullber movie came 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.080 out of my birthday. Every copy of the post you 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.040 see as my birthday at the bottom, I was like, 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.560 whoever's running the simulation, You guys are doing an awful job, 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:52.960 but I'm not buying this anymore. 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:57.120 Yeah, it's funny you say simulation just to wander off 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:59.920 into the weeds here. Some people say, well, I can 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.120 explain the whole thing that's going on with UFOs and 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.960 aliens and all that, we're all part of the simulation. 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:07.560 Do you believe that? 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:12.359 I think that once a simulation becomes indistinguishable from reality, 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.320 it no longer matters whether or not it's a simulation. 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.800 Whatever reality is that we're in may as well be 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.280 a simulation that we're trapped in. We can't get out 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.000 of it till we die, and don't find out the 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.800 nature of it until we die. If then you're still 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:27.560 not going to step in front of a moving train 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:30.560 regardless of what you think the nature of reality is. 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.840 So I think that's like a circular argument. Reality is 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:36.280 whatever it is. And when you start, when you're studying 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:38.400 the Devils Steel experiment and all of that, I feel 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:40.919 like it's if you people were inside a simulation, like 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.600 studying the pixels on the or studying the code we 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.839 regardless of what the what's happening at the at the 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.640 quantum level, we're still We're all still here and we're 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.120 sharing this reality. It's a fun argument, but it's not, 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.360 i don't know, from my perspective, not always relevant. It's 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.640 more exciting to talk about what's going on in the reality. 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.960 Whatever it is is pretty wild. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:06.599 This wall here, go ahead. 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.840 I completely agree. I feel like, if this is a simulation, 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.800 it's so good that there's no point in talking about 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.000 it as a simulation. It's so real to us that 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.160 even if someone told us and put up on a 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.240 whiteboard a formula that proved it was a simulation, it 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.120 really wouldn't change anything. It would just be like, Okay, 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.679 that's interesting. Unless someone's going to give me the God 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.720 code right where I go in and take control of 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.760 the simulation, that's a different situation. But short of that, 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:38.800 then I don't care simulation reality. It's still where I live, 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:40.840 and I have to get up every day and pay 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.200 the bills and do the work and record the podcast. 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.120 Yes, this must happen. 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:47.480 Hey, Ernie, I don't want to put you on the spot, 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:51.080 but I know people are probably thinking this. They're saying, hey, 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.440 so he's on the set with Steven Spielberg, and Spielberg's 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.680 got his headphones on and he's directing action and all that. 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.680 Does Steven Spielberg ever go, hey, Klein, get over here. 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:03.800 Oh all the time, I need to do this? What 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.040 do you think? Did he ever do that all the time? 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.680 He is the best. Just picture your dream of how 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:10.960 you would want it to be working with a director, 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.119 and even a famous one. He's been freaking out people 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.560 with how amazing his art is for so long. It's 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:19.560 the Spielberg effect. You guys. Know, when you meet him, 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:21.360 you're like, oh my god, this is the big day 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.480 of my life. I'm Steven Spielberg. It goes beyond cleaning 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.480 up your apartment. You just you prepare for it. But 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.160 he knows that, and so he has a way of 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.520 disarming people. In my experience, he was just so kind 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.560 to me and a collaborator right from the beginning. And 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.760 that's why he still makes movies. It's not for the money. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.480 He likes making the art and he enjoys the collaborative 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.800 process of working with all kinds of different people to 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.920 make all different kinds of amazing art. And he's one 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.680 of the once your name becomes synonymous with your job, 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:53.000 you've crushed it like xerox s Fielburg, like your name 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.679 is the cliche. I've got Spielberg on the line, like 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.720 it's he's like the Beatles. But he's just one guy. 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:00.640 I told him that if you're a go, I think 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:02.720 the goal of an artist is to bring as much 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.920 experience and joy and entertainment and illumination to your fellow 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:11.720 humans as possible. Who in one lifetime has pull off 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.199 that number more than Steven Spielberg and is still doing it. 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:17.400 That's why I'm not sure about this thesis of his 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:19.920 final argument. It never could count this guy out. You 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.520 might hate us again in twenty years with another thesis. 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.400 Someday somebody's going to tell an amazing the true history 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.520 of our country and all the stuff that we had 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.640 know that was going on behind the scenes. So I 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.760 think can open doors that you know other filmmaker can 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.680 open and has and might be doing it again. I 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:40.880 think he's going to do it again with Disclosure Day. 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.920 I'm really vibrating with excitement to see it, and I'm 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:46.280 excited to talk with you guys about it. 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:51.600 When you mentioned that he's become synonymous like Kleenex. And 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:55.400 I was just thinking. When JJ Abrams directed Super Eight, 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.320 every single review that came out called it Spielberg in right. 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.200 Yes, yeah, it's an amble movie. See if it comes 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:04.680 up at the beginning, that was a collaboration. And the 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:06.959 thing about it's amazing about Super eight is then the 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:10.120 Duffer Brothers went and did eight seasons of Super eight 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:14.720 stranger things because it was just kids on bikes and reimagining. 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.199 It was much more JJ's childhood and Stevens, do you 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.000 guys know the story about JJ curating a bunch of 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.240 Stevens original Super eight movies when he was a kid. 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.680 When J. J Abrams was a kid, he was involved 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.200 in some Super eight restoration project and they ended up 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.560 giving all of Stevens old original Super eight movies to 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.840 JJ and he and so like years later when they 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.160 met about his first movies, and I have to tell you, 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.720 I was that kid that worked on your Super eight movies, 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.840 and Stevens all knew that. Stephen knew the whole meeting 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:47.960 that it was this guy met when it was a kid. 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.560 He's just amazing like that, and everybody who works with him, 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:52.240 I think wants to work with him again, and nobody 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.480 walks away having a bad experience on the Steven Spilberg movie. 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:59.360 Brent and I actually met when I had an office 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.920 at Universe and in the middle of producing this television series. 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.400 We were all asked to pack up our bags and 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.960 get out quickly because they were tearing down our offices 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.040 to make way for the Jurassic Park ride. 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:15.160 Man. 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:18.800 Yeah, and by the way, Brent and I both met Spielberg. Brent, 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.400 tell us, you're I met Steven's story. 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.080 So I met him once in person, I worked with 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.360 him a couple times in person, and then I met 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.760 him years later or re met him again virtually. But 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.040 my first experience with him when I was working at 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.720 Electronic Arts back in the early two thousands. I would 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.959 have been brought on by EA to help them reboot 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.080 their Command and Conquer franchise. And it turned out that 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:47.040 right next door on the level that we were working 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:51.840 at in the EA building in La Stephen had sold 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.559 an original idea for a game to EA, and so 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.640 he had his early development team working right next door 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.320 to us. And so I don't know how this happened, 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.360 but at the time, the studio encouraged a lot of 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.360 kind of cross team collaboration. So I think once a 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.240 month our team on Command and Conquer, some of us, 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.000 particularly the narrative people, would go over and sit in 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.800 on their project and hear what they were up to, 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.440 and then they would come over and sit on our project. 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:26.400 And here just getting some objectivity into the meeting. So 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:28.120 a couple of times I got to go in and 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.600 hear what was up with this game project. And at 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.080 the time it didn't have a name. It was code 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:38.439 named LMNO. And it was, as I said, an original 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.800 idea by Stephen about a female alien who was stranded 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:43.520 here on Earth. 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:44.120 Allah. 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.640 The man who fell to Earth had some sort of 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.880 mission that I never quite understood, but she had psychic 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.800 powers and she was being hunted by government operatives. What 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.040 was cool about it to me was that I could 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.480 tell he was a gamer. He wasn't just saying video 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.000 games are popular, so I want to go make a 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:07.120 video game. In fact, as it turned out, his oldest son, Max, 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.000 was working at EA on our team. I actually became 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.480 friends with Max, and Max vouched for his dad and said, 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:15.520 don't know if he plays games all the time. That 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.000 was very impressive to me, and he was so excited 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.000 about this project, and he had so many ideas. It 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:23.960 was energizing to be in the room with him. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.160 I have a Spielberg game story, but it's going to 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.200 lead us back to the big question. 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.400 About Spielberg that we have for you, Ernie. 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.439 But the first time I met him was while we 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.280 were still doing Dark Skies and I got hired to 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.480 write a video game for his ambling company because they 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:42.920 were going to have a video game division. The name 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.200 of the video game was Ghost in the Machine. It 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.640 was about a kind of an AI intelligence that came 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.960 from alien contact or whatever. And of course, in the 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.839 middle of writing that, they decided never to produce video 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.000 games again and they shuttered part of it. 0:13:58.480 --> 0:13:58.840 That was that. 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.079 But when I met him, he came into the meeting. 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.640 I was in his office waiting for him. They sat 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.200 me down and he shook my hand and said great 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.480 to see you again, which I always loved because I thought, 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:11.040 if the guy thinks that he's met me before, how 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.720 great is that? Who can And then he said the 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:15.600 thing that blew my mind. He goes, I'm a big 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:18.840 fan of Dark Skies. Now that takes me to the 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.080 question for you, dark Skies of course, because we've talked 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.480 about it is where Brent and I were approached by 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:27.400 folks that said they were from the Office of Naval Intelligence. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.400 They wanted to make a deal to allow UFO information 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:36.440 access for us to then help provide access for them 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.880 into dark skies, that kind of thing, And we know 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:43.520 that we got offered some kind of deal. But even 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.000 as we were being offered that and talked to about that, 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.760 we were called very clearly that Spielberg over the years 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:55.160 ever since Close Encounters has been rumored to well, you know, 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.840 people told him things, they gave him insight. So I'm 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:00.840 just going to ask you straight out. Did you ever 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.200 have a conversation about UFOs with Spielberg where he would 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.000 imply in any way whatever that people had told them 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:08.920 things I did not. 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.320 I never felt comfortable bringing up that subject because we 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:14.840 were together. We were always promoting the movie and always 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.280 geeking out about movies, and talked about his movies and 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:22.880 specifically talked about Close Encounters. Michael Kahn, who edited Close Encounters, 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.800 also edited Ready Player one, and I got to hang 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.640 out with him when Alan Silvestri was scoring the movie 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.320 and Michael conn I was starstruck and Michael conn I 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.080 guess hasn't met too many people who were struck by him, 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.360 but I was like he set up an editing bay 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.600 at Stephen's house in Mobile, Alabama, and was editing Close 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:45.120 Encounters each night while they were filming it, and making 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.720 like rough cut as they were going. And Stephen considers 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.240 him a collaborator on Close Encounters, Michael Kahn, and he's 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.120 edited a bunch of Stephen's movies. He's a legend. I've 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.840 actually found a quote in a book of interviews by 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.920 Stephen where he says something and basically is similar to 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:02.600 what he just said it south By Southwest when he 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.560 came to town last last month, which is that I 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.040 don't know anything any more than anybody else. He said 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.920 this back in nineteen seventy eight or seventy seven, when 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.280 Close Encounters came out. It's an enigma. And I don't 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.640 always answer all the questions at the end of my movies. 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:18.880 I answer most of the big questions, but I'm okay 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.720 with leaving some things a mystery. And I don't know 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.840 all the answers about UFOs, but I think it's a 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.240 fascinating subject and I love talking about it, and I 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.960 think it's fascinating for as a human story, and that 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.560 was he's doing press for Close Encounters in seventy seven. 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.480 So if he had been approached before that, I think 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.040 it would have been hard. It would have put him 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.400 in a position to be dishonest in public, which Carl 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.920 Sagan was clearly fine with doing. But seven doesn't strike 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:46.200 me as the kind of guy who would be a 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.320 good liar because it's such a genuine person. And I 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.360 think if they came to him like you guys, if 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.400 they came to him with the song and dance about 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:57.200 how they wanted to feed him the truth, I think 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.240 he knew enough about them and just a way that 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:04.320 he was depicting the military in Close Encounters, he knew 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:06.439 enough about them to know not to trust them and 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.880 that they would be feeding him spin and want him 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:10.760 to pass on there. 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.360 But he's got them shutting down this vast area of Wyoming. 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.880 Yeah. I do remember seeing him talk about the letter 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:20.679 he got from the Air Force asking him and all 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.159 their reasons for and he just got excited. He was 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.880 gleeful about it. I knew something that was just more 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.040 confirmation that there was something up. I was telling you guys, 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.800 about that documentary about the making of close Encounters in Mobile, 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.359 Alabama called who Are You People? And it's really interesting 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.359 to see the making of that film from the locals perspective. 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:41.359 But one of the they talked about a lot of 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:43.399 scenes that got cut, and one of them they had 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.080 to film a scene in a passenger airliner, and the 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.320 people who film the scene talk about it had got cut, 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.600 but it was they all see a UFO during their flight, 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:53.920 and then the plane lands and Air Force officials get 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.600 on the plane and walk down the aisle and take 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.600 everybody's cameras. And this one woman talks about I was 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:01.640 supposed to be angry at the sky as he yanks 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:03.119 the camera out of my hand. I would love to 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:05.760 see the scene, but it's never been interesting. I never 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:08.320 got that vibe and the Project Sirpo thing. I will 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.879 tell you something interesting about Project Sirpo you guys might 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.439 not know, is so that comes out in two thousand 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:16.040 and five, right, it's leaked on those message boards, and 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.560 it's leaked in the same way, in the same vibe 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.840 as like Majestic twelve and other stuff that seems like 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:27.840 a controlled release. And they discuss the way that the 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:31.800 spacecraft of the Zetra Reticulans or work on the planet 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.439 Serpo in in this document and they talk about the 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:40.520 layered business magnesium stuff that hal put Off was just 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.679 talking about like thirty years later. I actually when I 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.040 met with To the Stars Academy, they let me hold 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:51.000 the layered the arts parts layered business magnesium in my hand. 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:53.040 I think it's part of their part of the coding 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.680 process when they were trying to get people to work 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.280 with them, as they let them hold to the art sparks. Yeah, 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.440 I know it works. I was excited, but I asked 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:04.520 how I'll put Off about this. I was like, Hey, 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.600 how come this stuff about the layered business magnesium was 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.640 leaked into Project Cirpo stuff back in two I asked 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:12.560 Jim Simivan about this too, and they both told me the 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.760 same thing. They're like, yeah, sometimes when we want something, 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.000 you know, leaked something out, we'll bury it in amount 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.639 of misinformation. There'll be a little truth in there. And 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:24.480 then so when the truth comes out and then somebody 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:28.919 says layered business magnesium whatever, you got that from Project Sirpo, 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.040 and it discredits it, and it also it's it's crafty. 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:35.720 It's like tradecraft. But they both admitted to me that 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:40.440 Project Serpo, that little bit of it and had resurfaced 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:42.960 in the To the Stars Academy years where they talked 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.160 about being a wave guide for terror Hertz energy and 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:48.800 Lily won and how it took this around and had everybody, 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:51.280 all these metaal ares just analyze it, and it was 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.639 like layered at the micro level. And Steve Justice gave me, 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:56.800 gave it to me and put it in my hand 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.159 and said, we can't make this. He showed me a 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.600 brick this big, and he's like, this is what it 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:04.919 looks like if we try to layer business and magnesium. 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.000