UFO disclosure film from director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer goes to Apple

After directing the legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick for legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Joseph Kosinski went right back to work with Bruckheimer to make the Formula One racing film F1, which is scheduled to reach theatres on June 27th. Last month, we heard that  Bruckheimer and Kosinski would be continuing their working relationship after sending F1 into the world by collaborating on a UFO disclosure-themed film that’s being compared to a UFO-themed take on the classic 1976 political thriller All the President’s Men. At the time, Apple Original Films was looking likely to come out the winner in the bidding war over the project – and now, The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Apple has indeed closed the deal, forking over “dozens of millions of dollars” for it. At one point, there were at least nine bids on the table, as Apple was competing with the likes of Amazon, Skydance, Lionsgate, Sony, Warner Bros, Paramount, 20th Century, and Universal.

Kosinski will be directing the film from a screenplay written by Zach Baylin, whose credits include The Order and King Richard (for which Baylin earned an Oscar nomination). Bruckheimer will, obviously, be producing.

Deadline previously revealed that David Grusch, “a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and Pentagon whistleblower who gained attention in 2023 for his claims about the U.S. government’s involvement in unidentified aerial phenomena research,” is on board as an executive producer and consultant. They go on to note, Once a niche, easy-to-dismiss topic, UAPs (formerly known as UFOs) have moved from the fringes of conspiracy theories into mainstream discussion in recent years, largely due to declassified military footage and government acknowledgment. Part of this shift in perception came with 2017 reporting from the New York Times that revealed the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a group at the Pentagon tasked with investigating UAPs. In subsequent years, the U.S. Department of Defense has confirmed the authenticity of several declassified Navy videos showing fast-moving objects that pilots could not identify. Congressional hearings in 2022 and 2023 further legitimized the topic, with intelligence officials emphasizing national security concerns. Grusch himself spoke out in 2023, asserting that the U.S. government had been secretly recovering and studying non-human craft, which of course sparked even more public interest.

The film is said to be a large-scale conspiracy thriller about two men working in national security who uncover a secret program to recover and reverse-engineer crashed UAPs.

The Hollywood Reporter’s sources say that Kosinski “secured an eight-figure deal that puts him near the top of the director ladder, with fees that are comparable to such figures as Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg. Baylin is said to be making in the mid-seven figure range, more if he receives sole writing credit, also putting him in the top echelon of his profession. And Bruckheimer, whose career spans decades and includes the Top Gun and The Pirates of the Caribbean movies, is said to receive a top market producing fee of mid-seven figures.” For F1, Apple has a theatrical distribution deal with Warner Bros. They’re expected to seek out a theatrical partner for this project as well. “The theatrical component would include backend participation, potentially further enriching the deal.“

Are you be in seeing a Jerry Bruckheimer / Joseph Kosinski conspiracy thriller about UFO disclosure? What do you think of the film landing at Apple? Share your thoughts on this project by leaving a comment below.

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