Failing to find success as an actor in films and TV, this son of film producer Don Devlin ("My Bodyguard" 1980; "The Witches of Eastwick" 1987) and former TV actress Pilar Devlin (best known for a guest shot on the original "Star Trek") turned to producing and screenwriting with eventually stellar results at the box office. In collaboration with German writer-director Roland Emmerich, Devlin co-wrote and/or produced such enjoyable if minor sci-fi outings as "Universal Soldier" (1992), "Stargate" (1994) and, most popular of all, "Independence Day" (1996). No one's idea of genre classics, these knowingly derivative movies delivered maximum bang for the buck, achieving fairly impressive special effects sequences on relatively modest budgets.
Devlin began making his own thrifty little Super-8mm sci-fi movies as a Los Angeles youth, winning a student film award at age 13. His showbiz connections won him lots of early access to film sets--and his first feature credits as a production assistant and actor on his father's production of "My Bodyguard"--but his lackluster grades kept him out of film school (just as did those of his hero, Steven Spielberg). Devlin moved to NYC where he took a job as a chauffeur to actor Al Pacino. He parked long enough to do some stage work and soon segued into standup comedy, bit parts in features and TV guest shots. With his intriguing biracial appearance (Jewish New Yorker on his father's side, Filipino on his mother's), the young Devlin was often cast as Latinos. His boyishness tended to typecast him as callow youths. Devlin played the recurring role of a legal intern for a brief stint on "L.A. Law" and a neophyte reporter on the short-lived series "Hard Copy" (CBS, 1987).
Frustrated by the lack of worthwhile roles for Asian actors, Devlin went abroad for work and landed in "Moon 44" (1990), an undistinguished international sci-fi production helmed by Emmerich. The two immediately bonded over a love for the genre and the actor convinced the director to let him write. He joined Emmerich's Centropolis films as a partner. Returning to the States, Devlin paid some bills with TV guest shots before making his screenwriting debut as a co-writer on Emmerich's "Universal Soldier", a diverting vehicle for Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. The modestly budgeted film racked up over $100 million worldwide. Devlin became a producer with their next collaboration, the silly but entertaining pseudo-Egyptian sci-fi epic "Stargate", which he co-wrote with Emmerich. This $60 million outing surprised the industry by grossing over $200 million.
Having gained the respect of Hollywood's money men, the relatively inexperienced filmmaking team raised about $70 million for their most ambitious production, "Independence Day". Overloaded with FX and gargantuan set pieces, this project would have required over $100 million to realize its pulpy vision of an alien invasion of Earth--in the hands of most producers. Devlin proved a miracle worker in his first solo outing as a producer. (He and Emmerich again collaborated on the screenplay.) A disarmingly old-fashioned outing, owing equal debts to 1950s alien invasion movies and 70s disaster pics, "Independence Day" broke all previous box-office records as it garnered over $100 million in domestic box-office receipts in less than a week. A star producing-writing-directing team was born.
The pair segued to the small screen to script the pilot and co-executive produce "The Visitor" (Fox, 1997), a drama centering on a man (John Corbett) who returns to the present after having disappeared four decades earlier. Devlin also co-wrote the big screen remake of "Godzilla" (1998).