Storied recounts 'The Most Puzzling UFO Case of the 20th Century' for World UFO Day 1

Happy first of two World UFO Days! I'm observing today by sharing Dr. Emily Zarka of PBS Storied recounting The Most Puzzling UFO Case of the 20th Century.

In 1952, a terrifying creature was spotted in Flatwoods, West Virginia — a 10-foot-tall creature with glowing eyes, a spade-shaped head, and cloaked in a metal skirt. Was it an alien, a Cold War experiment, or mass hysteria?

Dr. Z doesn't make up her mind to resolve her question, although she certainly leans heavily on cultural context influencing how people interpret what they see.

Speaking of cultural context, there is a UFO movie out now. Watch Disclosure Day | Final Trailer.

Universal Pictures is proud to release a new original event film created and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars SAG winner and Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Oscar® winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple) and two-time Oscar® nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin).

Based on a story by Spielberg, the screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes the scripts for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Combined, those films earned more than $3 billion worldwide. Koepp also wrote the script for this 2025’s Jurassic World Rebirth.

Disclosure Day is produced by five-time Academy Award® nominee Kristie Macosko Krieger (The Fabelmans, West Side Story) and by Spielberg for Amblin Entertainment. The executive producers are Adam Somner and Chris Brigham.

Steven Spielberg is one of the industry’s most successful and influential filmmakers. The top-grossing director of all time, Spielberg has helmed such blockbusters as Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones franchise and Jurassic Park.

Among his myriad honors, he is a three-time Academy Award® winner, including Oscars® for Best Director and Best Picture for Schindler’s List, which received a total of seven Oscars®, and for Best Director for Saving Private Ryan. His most recent film, The Fabelmans, was released by Universal in 2022 and received seven Academy Award® nominations, including for Directing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Picture.

While I fully expect to see Disclosure Day earn nominations at the Critics Choice Super Awards next month and the Saturn Awards in January, if they stick to this year's schedule, I also expect it to lose to Project Hail Mary in most of its categories, especially Best Science Fiction Film or equivalent. Its best bets are best actress for Emily Blunt followed by supporting actor for Colman Domingo. That written, will it influence how people see UFOs/UAPs? Yes, but not as much as previous Spielberg movies on the subject.

I close with National Day Calendar's World UFO Day.

Is anyone out there? On this episode of the National Day Spotlight (https://nationaldaycalendar.com/), Marlo Anderson (https://marloanderson.com/) and co-host Alice Anderson are diving into the unexplained mysteries of the cosmos for World UFO Day (https://nationaldaycalendar.com/celeb...) . They’ll explore why humanity keeps looking to the skies for answers and celebrate the fun of cosmic curiosity. Tune in for an episode that is truly otherworldly!

That's a wrap for this week's series of holiday entries. I have a musical post planned for tomorrow followed by a particularly doomy preview of the drum corps season, which begins Friday. Stay tuned.