Steven Spielberg's bombshell UFO admission: 'I now believe the believers'

Steven Spielberg has said he now believes people who claim to have seen UFOs deserve to be taken seriously, pointing to what he describes as a growing body of evidence and mainstream reporting on the subject.

The filmmaker, who has spent decades exploring extraterrestrial themes on screen, said he has never personally witnessed a UFO but has become more open to accounts from others.

Speaking while promoting his new film “Disclosure Day”, Spielberg said increased access to video evidence, along with testimony from military and political figures, has helped shift UFO discussion into the mainstream.

He said: "Well, the younger me wouldn't have been exposed to the incredible plethora of visual documentation of what's been going on."

He added that the subject had moved beyond fringe discussion, saying it was now supported by a consistent pattern of witness testimony.

Spielberg said on “The Daily”: "Seeing is believing and until I see something myself. And why I have not seen a UFO – I don't understand why they haven't come to me yet. I mean, I feel like their agent. So I have not had any sightings whatsoever. However, having said that, so much of the believers, I now believe the believers."

The director said he began paying closer attention as UFO reports became more widely discussed in documentaries and public hearings involving officials from government and the military, reports Fox News.

He said: "...I really feel that things started to get into the mainstream. And then after that, there was a lot of documentaries were being made, and I saw all of them – every doc made about this. And you can't make a doc unless people come forward. Now, there, it's not under oath, but a lot of people from Congress, from the military started coming forward."

Spielberg said his latest project is rooted in decades of interest in science fiction and extraterrestrial storytelling.

He said: "The foundation upon which I built my science fiction story is a very, very credible foundation, just based on everything that I've absorbed over many, many decades, but especially over the last decade."

“There is circumstantial evidence from tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people who have claimed, not just in America, but all over the world, to have seen something or met people who have had seen things," he added.

The new film, “Disclosure Day”, stars Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor and follows a whistleblower and a television meteorologist uncovering a long-hidden government secret about extraterrestrial life.

The film, directed by Steven Spielberg, marks a return to UFO themes that defined earlier works such as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T.”

The movie centres on the revelation that alien life has been known about for decades, triggering a global effort to expose the truth.