There's been talk of sequels to Independence Day for years now. Back in March director Roland Emmerich confirmed that he was continuing to work on a pair of new instalments, tentatively titled ID Forever. In June that was back-pedalled to a single film, and while the word on the street was that Bill Pullman was keen to return, Emmerich seemed to think that Will Smith's involvement was unlikely. Too big and too expensive seemed to be the reason for Smith's absence, but perhaps in the wake of the After Earth disappointment that has changed. While it's far from a done deal, Emmerich now says that talks with Smith are now on the horizon again.
"It's changing every month," Emmerich told Digital Spy. "To put a sequel together of that magnitude is an enormous undertaking. I've been saying that Will Smith isn't going to be in it because he didn't want to do it, but now we have a meeting planned where we're going to talk about it again. So anything can happen!"
He says with or without Smith, "for sure" the film will either be ready for 2015, or more probably 2016.
That's not the only example of Emmerich revisiting past glories. In the same interview he reveals that he's looking into more adventures in the** Stargate** universe.
"Stargate was originally planned as a trilogy," says the director, but with years of television now to be considered canon, an immediate sequel to the movie is no longer tenable. With the franchise now dormant however, Emmerich says he "went to MGM, who now has the rights, and proposed a movie reboot" intended as the first of three.
"Pretty soon," he says, "we'll look for a writer and start..."