LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- For Roland Emmerich , the easy choice would have been to join the family business . Roland Emmerich and his younger sister Ute as children in Germany . They now work together in Hollywood . His father had founded a thriving garden machinery company , but young Roland 's interest in lawnmowers , and their like , was limited . `` I knew very early that I did n't want to do that , '' Emmerich says . `` But I also did n't know what I wanted to do , so I was dabbling in a lot of things . And then actually after a while , it slowly occurred to me that maybe film would be great . '' He entered film school with the intention of becoming a production designer but came out a director . `` In film school , I had to make movies , so I made movies and was quite successful and all of a sudden I was a director . '' The way he tells it makes it sound simple . And maybe it was . He went to one of Germany 's leading film schools , The University of Television and Film Munich , which boasts an impressive alumni of respected directors : Wim Wenders , Bernd Eichinger , Uli Edel and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck , among others . He had the backing of a loving family ; according to his sister Ute his `` very , very supportive '' father lent him office space in his factory and helped finance his early films . Ute shows Revealed the family album » . Nor was he the first German director to make it big in Hollywood ; Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder had well and truly paved the way . What made Roland Emmerich different , and his Hollywood assent difficult , was his near obsession with special effects and monumental disasters ; explosions , floods , tidal waves , and general destruction , both alien and earthly . Not only were his films expensive to make , but gallingly for German critics they were n't , well , very German . `` I was making movies like I 'm doing now , but it was like a whole different world at that time in Germany , '' Emmerich says . `` They did Wim Wenders movies and all these kind of German movies and I just could n't make movies like that . I wanted to make movies like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas . I just did it and they were relatively successful , but critically more and more hated . They said : 'Why is he making movies like this here ? ' '' So now he 's making films in Los Angeles , where he has a home just a few minutes drive from Hollywood , and his younger sister Ute . Roland gives Revealed a tour of his home » . `` Ute was like me , '' Roland says . `` She did n't want to work in the family company and it was a good opportunity to work for me , it was more exciting . '' The siblings set up their own production company , Centroplis Entertainment , through which they 've made 14 feature films . The move to Hollywood came after Roland directed `` Moon 44 '' , released in 1990 ; a science fiction action film set in 2038 about robots , convicts and companies fighting over mining rights in outer space . It earned him an invitation to Los Angeles and a job directing `` Universal Soldier . '' Ute remembers , `` It was decided that we close our office [ in Germany ] and just try and see how it would work out for a year . Our parents , I think , were hoping that we would come back within a year , but eighteen years later , and so many movies and successes later , we are still here , '' she says . Roland has made himself very much at home in Los Angeles . Ten years ago he bought a house -- his own slice of Hollywood history -- a three bedroom mansion built in 1919 by Jesse Lasky , who , with Cecil B. DeMille , produced `` The Squaw Man , '' Hollywood 's first feature film . `` I told Constance , my real estate broker , 'Look , do n't come to me with something which does n't have either Hollywood history or a really , really big garden ' . I just wanted to have a big garden because I grew up in a house with a big garden . '' In the end , he got both . The garden is an impressive oasis of towering palms , tangled vines and lush ferns , all lining an imposing staircase that leads to a pool where the director hosts parties for friends and colleagues . While Hollywood has embraced Roland Emmerich 's action-packed , effect-laden style of epic story-telling , the director is less than enamored with its lifeblood , the film industry . `` I do n't really like the movie business , I have to say . It 's a very cold , brutal business . It 's not a cozy living . But , on the other hand , I really like making movies , '' he says . `` I 'm constantly torn between , should I keep going or not . And then I always want to make another movie and then I have to deal with it . But every time I come into a situation , I 'm always talking about early retirement , which makes all my friends laugh out loud . '' They might laugh out louder if he ever contemplated a return to the family business .
Roland Emmerich gave up potential roles in family films to go to film school . Initially wanted to become a fashion designer , but was drawn to directing . Left Germany for America to direct ` ` Universal Soldier '' , released 1992 . Emmerich : ` ` I do n't really like the movie business . It 's not a cozy living ''