Twenty years after first toying with the idea, German film director Roland Emmerich brings his World War II drama "Midway" to cinemas next month, focusing on the 1942 Battle of Midway.

Known for big-budget disaster movies filled with special effects like "Independence Day" and "Godzilla," Emmerich long wanted to recount the giant air and sea battle in the Pacific during which U.S. forces defeated an attacking Japanese fleet.

The June 4-7, 1942, clash, the subject of a 1976 film starring Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda, took place six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which had catapulted the United States into the conflict.