Steven Spielberg is back in extraterrestrial territory, and this time the Catskills are part of the picture.
The first trailer for Disclosure Day dropped this week, offering an eerie, tightly guarded glimpse of Spielberg’s next feature and confirming what Hudson Valley residents have been quietly tracking for months: one of the most anticipated films of 2026 was partially shot right here. Slated for a June 12 theatrical release, the film marks Spielberg’s return to the kind of cosmic unease he last explored decades ago—and the Catskills play a supporting role.
Written by longtime collaborator David Koepp from a story by Spielberg himself, Disclosure Day centers on a world grappling with evidence that humanity may not be alone. The trailer keeps its cards close, but the mood is unmistakable: strange atmospheric phenomena, disquieting news broadcasts, animals behaving oddly, and a mounting sense that something vast and unknowable is pressing in from the edges. It’s classic Spielberg suspense—less laser beams than dread.
The cast is stacked. Emily Blunt appears as a meteorologist whose on-air behavior suggests she knows more than she’s letting on. She’s joined by Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell, and Elizabeth Marvel. The score comes courtesy of John Williams, continuing one of cinema’s most storied creative partnerships.
For local film watchers, the real thrill is geographic. Portions of Disclosure Day were shot in the Catskills in spring 2025, with scenes filmed in and around Catskill and Haines Falls. Casting calls sought local extras to populate diners, hotels, and roadside scenes—blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments that nonetheless anchor the film’s global anxieties in recognizable small-town spaces. Additional filming took place in New York City and New Jersey, but the Catskills locations lend a grounded, rural counterpoint to the film’s bigger questions.
Spielberg’s choice to return to UFO-adjacent material is no small thing. From Close Encounters of the Third Kind to E.T., his films have often framed the unknown not just as spectacle, but as a mirror for human fear, wonder, and moral reckoning. Disclosure Day appears poised to continue that lineage, updated for a moment when the idea of “disclosure” already hums through headlines and late-night forums.
For Hudson Valley audiences, the trailer’s release adds an extra charge: the sense that this global story passed through familiar streets and landscapes on its way to the screen. Come next summer, when audiences worldwide look skyward, a piece of that moment will belong to the Catskills.
