Corona | Coming Attractions

Here's the first trailer for next summer's Independence Day Resurgence. If you've been wondering where the aliens from the original ID4 have been hiding, wonder no more.

The rumor comes from a reliable source known to IESB, the site breaking the scoop, and it is this: Will Smith has signed on to star in two sequels to Independence Day. And Smith could be in front of the rolling cameras as soon as next year.

The site adds that Roland Emmerich would be back to call the shots as the director of both pictures after he's done making Anonymous, his next picture.

Here's the thing: if a contract is signed with Smith then it's not going to be a long wait before official confirmation emerges. You just don't keep two sequels to one of the biggest movies of all-time, set to star the world's biggest movie star, a secret for that long.

During the promotion for his new disaster movie 2012 director Roland Emmerich was asked by Latino Review's Kellvin Chavez just what the status was on the Independence Day sequel that's been trapped in development hell. Emmerich confirmed that he and producer Dean Devlin have developed a "great story, a very cool one," but that the delay has come from the movie studio, 20th Century Fox, working out if they could afford to make a follow-up that brought back Will Smith's character.

"Dean Devlin and I are still set to make a sequel likely because we've found some sort of idea and we approached FOX and FOX has not quite figured out how to incorporate Dean’s and my deal, and Will’s (Smith) deal," Emmerich explained. "Will wants to do it in some sort of a package they can live with.  So it's just been in negations now since forever, and naturally FOX says 'Why don’t you do it without Will Smith?' I said Will is essential for us, for this movie and actually for the audience too. And, so, it's in limbo and lately the studios are fighting. Like gross players, and Will is a gross player and is probably the only gross player right now who’s worth his gross. So we’ll see what happens. I would love to do it."
 

IESB corraled Fox chairman Tom Rothman and got him to talk shop about potential remakes, sequels and spinoffs the studio has or is considering making. One of the projects is the long-rumored Independence Day sequel. Here's what was said...

IESB: I've asked you this before, I've talked to Dean Devlin, I've talked to [Roland] Emmerich, I think you know what I am talking about...

TR: ID4 2?

IESB: I know the story, there was a great script, Roland and Dean didn't want to do it, but I talked to Dean and he said he was open to the idea of doing a sequel. It was a huge hit, I still enjoy watching that film.

TR: We would love to do it, it's really a matter of Roland, it's up to Roland. He knows that we'd love to do it. I don't think there is a script but there have been a lot of ideas, but the truth of the matter is he's been making other films. He made Day After Tomorrow for us, big hit movie, he's doing 2012 for Sony. But, any day that Roland wanted to do that, we would be very excited to do it because I think, yes, that story definitely can and should continue.

At last Monday's Saturn awards held in Hollywood, Cinescape's Christopher Allan Smith spoke with Dean Devlin to see if he could give more info about the ID4 sequel. Devlin did just that.

"I think we’ve finally found a concept we like," said Devlin. "Something Roland and I are very excited about, and we’re now trying to work it into a movie and hopefully we’ll start writing the script sometime in the next year."

Devlin said that the "wave of feeling" that swept America after last year's September 11 attacks contributed greatly to the core concept behind the ID4 sequel. "After September 11, there was something in the culture that reminded us of the message of the movie and how people came together," explained the producer/writer. "We were deeply effected about that. We were asked a lot of questions in the press in relation to seeing those images. So it spured a lot of discussion, and out of those discussions came a way of doing the film. And we move from that."

Dean Devlin has commented again on the possibility of a sequel to ID4 and this time there now seems to be interest from the filmmakers to continue the story. Speaking with Sci-Fi Wire, the producer said "Roland [Emmerich] and I, we're back to work on doing a sequel to Independence Day. I think we finally found a story that we wanted to tell."

Devlin didn't let slip any details about what the duo's new idea for ID4-2 is, but he did say they would try and assemble the same cast from the first picture again. "Then there's another science fiction film that Roland and I are working on, called The Hunt," Devlin said. "So hopefully both of those will get started within the next year."

While speaking to EON Magazine about Centropolis' decision to part ways on developing the sequel to 1998's Godzilla, producer Dean Devlin also commented on the possibility of returning to create a sequel to the blockbuster 1996 hit Independence Day. It's also the first on-the-record comment we've seen from any of the original film's key crew members about working on a sequel.

"I've always said we don't have any plans to do a sequel to ID4 unless we have that knock-out idea - that's the reason to do it," Devlin told EON. "I know I sound repetitive saying this, but when James Cameron did the sequel to ALIEN - that was a great idea for a sequel. It was a totally original movie and kept all the things you loved about the original without essentially reshooting the original. Unless we have an idea that was that original to the first ID4 then there wouldn't be a reason for us to do a sequel."

Ah ha! Reader Scott Mees tells us a slightly different story than what yesterday's scooper told us. According to this scooper, when Bill Pullman was on Conan the other night he briefly mentioned that negotiations had just begun on the film, not that they were complete as our previous scooper told us. That would mean nobody has yet signed up yet to star in a sequel or anything else.

So were you watching Late Night With Conan O'Brien last Friday night? Our scooper was, and when actor Bill Pullman came on the program, one of the things he mentioned was that negotiations for Independence Day 2 were complete at Fox Studios. If you saw it too let us know. Hell, if you work for Fox and know the deal, let us know that too.

With all the hype surrounding Devlin and Emmerich's talks with 20th Century Fox about an ID4 sequel, the webmaster at The Upcoming Movie List had the opportunity to chat with a member of the Centropolis team about what is actually happening. "Nothing at all," the unnamed Centropolis employee told the UML. "It's just been some chat, that got a little blown up when it went in the trades. Maybe someday. For now the guys are concentrating on other stuff."

Wait a year and see how things change. Variety and CNN have reported that Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are in early discussions with Twentieth Century Fox about plans for an Independence Day sequel. CNN's coverage said that Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith may reprise their roles. Since it's been so long since the duo discussed their concepts for a sequel shortly after the first ID4 opening, we're unsure if they're discussing the same ideas we first reported about on this page back in April 1997.

In the wake of the bad feelings Devlin and Emmerich have at Fox for the cancellation of their television series The Visitor and their multi-million dollar deal with Sony Pictures, don't look for the star duo to return to craft a sequel to their 1996 monster hit Independence Day. In what appears to be one of the final nails in the coffin, a scooper reports that ID4 co-writer and producer Dean Devlin responded to a question about an ID4 sequel at a Creation convention. Devlin answered by telling the audience that neither he nor Roland Emmerich will ever make a sequel to ID4, saying they have other things they would rather do.

That would leave Twentieth Century Fox without their creators should the studio ever actively seek to develop a sequel to the 1996 film. It would also mean that the proposed story concept we were told about last spring would also be dead since it was also Devlin and Emmerich's concept.

This scooper was told in early April by the President of 20th Century Fox Eastern Europe that the ID4-2 shooting will not begin before 2001. Emmerich and Devlin are definitely involved.

A reliable source has told Coming Attractions of a possible new storyline developing for an ID4 sequel. It should be stressed that this is only a possible storyline being discussed by the film's creators and may not be developed.

According to the source, the sequel would begin with the humans finding out that a emergency distress beacon was broadcast from the aliens moments before their destruction. The signal will undoubtedly reach the remainder of their race. Scientists guess that any follow-up attack will take five years to arrive.

In the subsequent five years Earth rebuilds from the rubble and backengineers the alien technology. This new technology picks up signals coming from deep space - a larger strike force is heading towards Earth, intent upon revenge.

As early in development as it is now, only two characters would return in the sequel. The President would begin to suffer and mentally deteriorate as a side-effect of the alien mind-meld he experienced in Area 51. Also returning would be Randy Quaid's son (portayed by Jimmy Duvall), this time as pilot of the new hybrid of human-alien combat craft in the military.

For five years the Earth prepares a strike force to repulse the second wave. When the moment arrives, the new alien vessel that enters the solar system is even more massive and powerful than the last one - and they're prepared. Earth forces lose their battle in space. The giant ship arrives near Earth and then begins dispatching millions of troops across the world - forcing a land battle.

That's all supposed to be in the first hour of screen time.

Plans are for Dean Devlin to begin writing the sequel after his work on Godzilla is complete. Roland Emmerich should also return as a collaborator. The word is this is to be a Summer 1999 release, either in direct competition of the new Star Wars feature or as a one-two punch for Fox at theaters, depending upon if the studio gets the distribution rights to Lucas' prequels.

The anonymous source is known to us and has been reliable in the past, but again we wish to stress that this is an idea being kicked around right now. It could change or be replaced by another, depending upon a wide variety of factors: involvement with key actors, for example. But you've been warned: plans are already afoot. The title they've playing around with? ID4EVER.

While commenting on their greenlight to start writing the script for Godzilla, Dean Devlin dismissed any sequel to their 1996 blockbuster. Devlin felt that there wasn't enough to motivate them creatively right now, and that any sequel they attempted at this stage of time would be for financial reasons only. He also doesn't like the idea of someone else attempting the sequel project.