By Reeves Wiedeman
Publication Date: 2026-01-12 10:00:00
Photo illustration: Eddie Guy; Photos: Getty Images
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One weekend in 2006, Dean Devlin, a film producer, was driving across Los Angeles to deal with an emergency. His new film, flyboys, had received such bad reviews this weekend that one of the stars was suddenly hospitalized. On the way to visit the actor, another possible crisis popped up on his phone. “I was scared when the phone rang and Larry Ellison called,” Devlin said.
Devlin made a name for himself in the 1990s with a series of blockbusters – Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla – but he struggled to raise the necessary money flyboys, a script about a group of World War I fighter pilots. Then, by a lucky coincidence, he found out…