20 years after the original blockbusterIndependence Dayset the box office on fire in 1996, thealienswill finally return in this month’s highly-anticipated sequelIndependence Day: Resurgence.Roland Emmerichis back to direct, working from a script with hisIndependence Dayco-writerDean Devlin. In the two decades between these two movies, there were several different stories that the filmmakers were working on, one of which would have been much more peaceful than what fans will see on the big screen June 24.
This week,Independence Day: ResurgencedirectorRoland Emmerichwill be serving as the guest online editor forEmpirewhere his first task was to hold a Q&A for fans. Nearly 15 year ago, bothRoland EmmerichandDean Devilwere paid by 20th Century Fox to write a script forIndependence Day 2, and they not only turned in the script, but returned the money they were paid, because they didn’t think the script was good enough. Here’s what the director had to say about that early version of the sequel.
“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!”
A decade later,Roland EmmerichandDean Devlinteamed up again and came up with the story forIndependence Day: Resurgence, which brings backJeff Goldblum(David Levinson),Bill Pullman(President Whitmore),Brent Spiner(Dr. Brackish Okun),Vivica A. Fox(Jasmine Hiller) andJudd Hirsch(Julius Levinson). There are also a slew of new characters played byLiam Hemsworth,Maika Monroe,William Fitchner,Charlotte Gainsbourg,AngelbabyandSela Ward. When asked why it took 20 years to make a sequel,Roland Emmerichrevealed he never actually planned on making a follow-up in the first place.
“I’d never planned to make a sequel - I always felt thatIndependence Daywas a standalone film. But 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. What really did it was just how amazing film technology is these days and how restricted I felt in ‘95/‘96 when I did the original one. But it’s not a traditional sequel.”
For fans who want to see the original blockbuster on the big screen again, we reported earlier this month that 20th Century Fox is holding adouble featureof bothIndependence DayandIndependence Day: Resurgencefor one night only on Thursday, June 23. The originalIndependence Daywas the first movie in history to make over $500 million worldwide, so we’ll have to wait and see if theID4sequel will be just as big of a hit. Stay tuned for more onIndependence Day: Resurgenceas we get closer to the June 24 release date.
