Over at EW.com there’s a story on Ronald Emmerich and his plans for two sequels to his 1996 blockbuster Independence Day. As you recall, the invading alien race may have destroyed the White House and the Empire State Building, but it was the combined efforts of Agent J, The Fly, Cousin Eddy and Lone Star that saved the day!
Emmerich, who has been a modern-day Irwin Allen in terms of his depiction of on-screen destruction, may limit himself to just The White House (again) in White House Down, but he’s got big ideas in store for two Independence Day sequels – ID Forever Part 1 and ID Forever Part II.
According to the EW piece, the films take place 20 years after the original, when a distress call sent by the first wave of aliens finally brings reinforcements to Earth. “The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back,” explains the director, “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.”
Emmerich is also working with the art department in creating a new world look now that the humans have been able to harness alien technology.
“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,” Emmerich explains.
Regarding casting, Bill Pullman is on board, but Will Smith has not committed to the sequel. What I want to know is if Jeff Goldblum will be back. As a man who battled dinosaurs and aliens in two of the biggest films of the ’90s he needs to have another close encounter.
And if you need a reminder of how fun Independence Day was as THE B-movie blockbuster of 1996, check out the original teaser trailer.
