Roland Emmerich was a celebrated director of small-budget science fiction films when he teamed up with American actor/producer Dean Devlin to make the high-kicking Jean-Claude Van Damme film Universal Soldier in 1992. The movie was a box-office success, and Emmerich followed it up with the interstellar action flick Stargate, a surprise hit that spawned a television series. His sci-fi blockbusters Independence Day (1996, with Will Smith) and Godzilla (1998, with Matthew Broderick) and The Patriot (2000, with Mel Gibson) placed him solidly in the class of big-time movie makers.