As Steven Spielberg releases ‘Revelation Day,’ we reveal who Hollywood turns to for outsider secrets

In the past half century since the release of Steven Spielberg“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Disclosure Day,” which opens today, the perception surrounding the so-called UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) in Hollywood and society at large has changed seismically.

For example: a strong class of consultants specializing in UAPs and outdoor life helping filmmakers and studios with a growing portfolio of subject-oriented projects.

Jim Semivana retired officer in the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service, founded the UAP-focused entertainment company, To The Stars, and Tom DeLongeformer guitarist of Blink 182, in 2017.

Here it is David Grusch – a former US Air Force officer turned whistleblower – who is now a producer on several high-profile projects including one Jerry Bruckheimer. Grusch testified before Congress in 2023 that various government agencies were putting together secret UFO programs and finding non-human objects in crashes. Here it is Richard Dotya former Air Force intelligence officer with a growing list of writing credits, according to IMDb.

Foremost in this group of UAP thought leaders is a filmmaker and journalist Jeremy Corbell his 2018 film, “Hunt for the Skinwalker,” is considered a moment to pull UAPs closer to the mainstream. Corbell has been partnering with UAP’s hottest reporter for more than a decade George Knapp, who wrote the book “Hunt for Skinwalker” based on it.

“There’s been a huge resurgence of talk about UAPs and exposure. Interest is burning and the result is that art is imitating life and life is now imitating art,” Corbell told Page Six Hollywood. Corbell, who was the subject of the 2026 documentary, “Sleeping Dog” directed by Michael Lazovsky, said the UAP consultant “the industry” is full of deceit, fraud and corruption. “There is a lot of cheating going on in this industry,” he said.

Then there’s the Hollywood Disclosure Alliance, a non-profit organization that aims to bridge the gap between journalists and UAP researchers to combat what they call a “government-imposed embargo on truth.”

HDA was founded in 2023 by broadcaster Dan Harry again Stephen Bassettdirector of the Paradigm Research Group and the country’s first registered UFO lobbyist. The group includes Hollywood creators – like actors Michael Ian Black, Dave FoleyDania RamirezThomas Jane – and UFO researchers. “In fact, it is a communication organization that helps people who are interested in events and types of entertainment to come together to express the true and positive views of this thing,” it said. Paul Hynekthe CFO of HDA. (Hynek is also the son of legendary “UFOlogist” J. Allen Hynek.)

Sources close to Spielberg say that the icon did not rely on any outside experts in “Disclosure Day,” but that was not the case in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” back in 1977. Spielberg worked closely with J. Allen Hynek, who was part of the Air Force’s “Project Blue Book” – the code name for UFO research. Hynek is credited with developing the “Close Encounters” genre that Spielberg based his movie on.

Paul Hynek tells P6H that his father was shocked when Spielberg first approached him, because the world was very skeptical in the ’70s. “And Hollywood is very dystopian about UFOs,” he said. He said his father praised the film for its “sympathetic” portrayal of people who claim to have encountered UFOs.

Paul recalled visiting the set and meeting Spielberg himself, a relationship that continued. “Overall the film really helped to legitimize the incident,” he said. “[It] it enabled more people to come forward.”