In two weeks, we will at long last get a follow-up to record-breaking 1996 box office smash ‘Independence Day’. Twenty years later, will fans embrace this new installment? That remains to be seen.
But it turns out this is a second attempt at a sequel. Director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin planned a separate second film over ten years ago that never came to fruition, because as Emmerich stated, the concept was “weak.”
Emmerich went on to detail the aborted film’s concept, saying certain elements from it do factor into the new film, ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’:
“It was after 9/11 and Dean and I wanted to make the movie about peace, and it just didn’t work. There’s still an element of that in the new one, but that version was only about that.
“We shoot aliens down accidentally and then at the end of the movie they land on the White House lawn and say ‘we come in peace’ and that was it. It was just too weak an idea and we didn’t really want to do it. [It] didn’t have an Independence Day feel. Only the alien ship was destroyed!”
So expect more of the rampant devastation that made the first film such a fun popcorn flick. (And unfortunately laid the groundwork for many more inferior action movies about sh** getting blown up.)
Emmerich did say that when he and Devlin concocted the first ‘Independence Day’, it was as a one-off movie. What changed his mind?
“Over the years I realized how iconic the film had become for people and I was repeatedly asked by [20th Century] Fox to do it.”
Is ‘Resurgence’ it, then? Or will there be a third film, as is the norm these days?
“If it’s successful enough, yes [there’ll be a third movie], because it’s set up for a sequel… In 20 years? No, I wouldn’t want to make it with a Zimmer frame!”
Are you excited to be getting a second ‘Independence Day’ after 20 years? Do you think this brand can reach the heights established by the first, leading to a franchise?
Directed by Roland Emmerich, ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ stars Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner, Sela Ward, Liam Hemsworth, Maika Monroe and Jesse Usher and will invade theaters on June 24.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
