Can you believe that it’s been almost 20 years since Independence Day taught us the value of American patriotism in the face of near global extinction of the human race? Neither can I. Still, some people seem to think that two decades later, people are still dying to know the rest of the story, and one of those people is ID4 co-writer and director Roland Emmerich.

After telling a more low key story of White House demolition in the upcoming thriller White House Down, Emmerich seems eager to revisit that first time he wrecked the Executive Mansion, and get going on a sequel to Independence Day. While out and about at a film festival recently (and overheard by /Film), Emmerich says that there is a plan for Independence Day 2, and maybe Independence Day 3…

“That’s actually what we talked a lot about. The mythology of why did the aliens come in the first place, what is the bigger story of this whole thing? And we talked a lot about swarm intelligence. And [the humans] are individual intelligence. Even though we kill each other and have wars against each other, we have something special. We have this domino human spirit to believe in good and over coming enemies. And it’s a little bit about that and when you get a bigger mythology going, I think then you have the chance to do not only one or two or three but you can create a series and that’s what we want to do.”

Of course, I’m more or less sure that the point of ID4 was famous landmarks exploding, and not the underline motivations and differences between the humans and the aliens, but hey, maybe Emmerich’s got something good cooking. Like in 2012 when the whole Earth is destroyed and everybody dies except all the rich people and John Cusack and his family.

No word on who might star, but look for Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum to be made lucrative offers to return if this thing ever gets past the being endlessly talked about stage.

More news as it develops.

Source: Blastr

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Because there were so many unanswered questions at the end of the original Independence Day, there’s a serious outcry from the masses for a sequel to that 1996 blockbuster.  Or there’s also the possibility that execs just want to rake in huge piles of cash like they did before.  Either way, they’re working on more – two in fact.  The new flicks are tentatively titled Independence Day Forever, Parts I and II.  In a recent interview, director of the first movie and the sequels, Roland Emmerich dropped some knowledge on what to expect from these new additions to what will now be a franchise.

The general gist of it is the aliens that humankind thrashed in the first flick sent out a distress call to their buddies back in alien-homeworld-land.  The movie starts 20 years later and this new wave of baddies has shown up to mess shit up yet again.

According to Emmerich:

The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back. And they know that the only way you can really travel in space is through wormholes. So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that’s 20 or 25 years.

He also talked a bit about the new Earth and how it’s changed over the years:

It’s a changed world. It’s like parallel history. [Humans] have harnessed all this alien technology. We don’t know how to duplicate it because it’s organically-grown technology, but we know how to take an antigravity device and put it in a human airplane

And mentioned some of what to expect from characters and casting:

It’s still some of the same characters, but also new younger characters; it’s a little bit like the sons take over. The first one ends on a little success, but only enough to give the humans hope. And then in the second one they free themselves again [from the aliens].

So far it looks like Bill Pullman is ready to return, though Will Smith hasn’t said anything yet.  The scripts are both done and undergoing a rewrite courtesy of Amazing Spider-Man writer, James Vanderbilt.

So is there anyone out there who is actually eager to see Independence Day make a return to theaters?  Or is it just a case of Emmerich and friends smelling the money at the end of the rainbow?

Thanks to /film for the heads-up.

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Way back in the year of 1996, a little film by the name of Independence Day came to theaters.  Some you may remember this oft-forgotten flick, mostly because it made freakin’ millions of dollars and was one of the biggest movies of its time.  Featuring a tried-and-true formulaic script involving aliens trying to take over the world and human beings subsequently beating them, a sequel to the film, Independence Day Forever, has been rumored almost since the original was first released.  And it looks like they may finally be about ready to get started, at least if Bill Pullman is to be believed.

Pullman, who played the U.S. Prez in the original flick, had a few things to say about the upcoming project in an interview with Crave Online.  In addition to confirming his involvement, he also talked a bit about…

When it should begin production:

Within a year, yeah, something like that I guess.  I worried about taking this part because it’s heating up. I thought, ‘I don’t know if I should do the comedy’ and I talked to Dean [Devlin] and Roland [Emmerich] and they said, “No, do it. We’ll work around it. If it goes, we’ll work around it.”

Whether he’ll have to take some time off from his current 1600 Penn television paycheck:

Well, I don’t know if it needs to be hiatus.  I think they’re willing to work around shooting.

And about his and Will Smith’s (potential) involvement:

The Will Smith part of it may be ongoing but I think there’s strategies for both. I like what I have to do in both of them. I’m not in an old age home in a wheelchair being wheeled out for one more moment. It’s a very interesting conception of what happens to Whitmore between then and when it picks back up.

I can’t say I was a fan of the original, but there will certainly be plenty of people happy to hear that ID2 is finally looking like a real thing.  So prepare for yet another dose of alien vs. human action-packed mid-grade cinema!

Thanks to ScreenRant for the heads-up.

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Can you believe it’s been 16 years since Independence Day came out? Watching it on AMC last week it seems so quaint now, so innocent. Of course, it was probably the fact that AMC was running the flick ad nauseam last week that gave writer/producer Dean Devlin the idea to start stirring up sequel talk again.

Devlin recently talked to The Hollywood Reporter about re-uniting with ID4 director Roland Emmerich, who he hasn’t collaborated with in 10 years, about getting back into an alien invasion frame of mind. The genre’s never been hotter, so maybe they want to strike while the iron’s hot. But seriously, why now, Dean?

“We resisted doing the sequel for years because we still wanted to honor the first one,” says Devlin. “The first one gave us all careers and we really love that movie and loved the experience. We didn’t want to make a movie because it was financially a good idea, we only wanted to do it when we had an idea and a concept that creatively felt like it honored the first one–that it felt like an organic sequel as opposed to ‘let’s just go make some more money.’”

I suppose that makes sense, Independence Day grew organically from Star Wars, War of the Worlds and disaster movies of the 70s, so Devlin’s assertion that the sequel idea just kind of happened makes sense.

“I feel like we got it. I think it took a long time, but I feel like we finally got something that really feels like, ‘that’s worth seeing as a sequel to Independence Day.’”

So when might this sequel start getting underway. Ain’t nobody from the first film getting any younger you know…

“We’re beginning a long process of talking to everybody,” Devil said. “We’ll just have to see what happens.”

And apparently, 3 TV spin-offs and 2 TV movies isn’t enough to drown Devlin’s interest in doing his own sequel to Stargate, the 1994 movie he co-wrote with Emmerich that spawned nearly 400 hours of television beloved by fans the world over. Since only Devlin knows what’s best of Stargate he’s still like to go full speed ahead and realize his Stargate trilogy.

“Stargate has always had this empty hole,” Devlin said. “When we made the first one, we always intended on doing part two and three, and we were prevented for years. And our hope is that we can get another chance at Stargate and tell the entire story we wanted to tell.”

Funny, you never heard Robert Altman talk about going back and undoing all the damage wrought by Alan Alda and his ilk.

More news as it (or if it) develops.

Source: Blastr

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Though Will Smith is presently headlining the third movie in the Men in Black series, a film that recently passed the $500 million worldwide box office threshold, he apparently is losing his taste for sequels, telling BBC News:

“I don’t want to be the sequel guy. I figure I’ve got about six or seven more years where I can run and jump a little bit and then I’m going butt and gut for the rest of my career. Butt and gut.”

Smith then immediately added a “Wooooooooo!!!”, because he sounds exactly like Jay Pharoah.

In keeping with his new-found sequel bias, the Bad Boys 2 star, who has previously been loosely linked to sequels for Independence Day and Hancock, also told the BBC the cold hard truth about the proposed I Am Legend sequel… eventually.

“Producers are working on it,” Smith said, adding, “I’m not actually working on it. If it’s great, I’m into it.”, before finally admitting that he probably wouldn’t reconsider and, I suppose, actually work on it.

Spoilers. You’ve been warned.

Fans and other general viewers of the 2007 Francis Lawrence helmed sci-fi/horror epic will no doubt recall that Smith’s Robert Neville character died at the end. Those who also read the Richard Matheson novel (also titled, I Am Legend) that the film was based on, will no doubt recall that the film veered wildly from the source material, not in Neville’s end, but in the way the story concludes.

Smith‘s “death” in the film prompted many to speculate that his involvement in a future Legend project would indicate a need for any future film to be a prequel, despite the numerous flashbacks that detailed both Neville’s back story and the way that the virus spread —  but now I have to wonder if we could be in a for a sequel.

In the novel, Neville begins to more fully witness the humanity of the vampirish creatures and realizes that he is now the “new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever”, the new “legend” prior to his death. Producers could visit that revelation with a new protagonist pivoting off of the original film.

Lets be honest though, the alternate ending to the movie starts down this path, and it’s actually a vast improvement on the Hollywood-sacrificial-hero-porn that went out to the masses at first in the theatrical cut. So any hope that a  truer, more bleak ending might be fleshed out is likely just rabid hope, spun off into a void, never to be seen again. But then again, these people are allegedly working on another I Am Legend film sans the warm light of Will Smith‘s presence, so perhaps they’re a gaggle of dreamers and fools hell bent on chasing rainbows… or something.

Sources: BBC News via Blastr, Box Office Mojo, MTV, IO9

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