Brooke Bunny
Roland Emmerich, out promoting the home release of “White House Down”, tells The Playlist that getting the “Independence Day” sequel up is proving to be difficult. At the same time, he’s convinced it’ll happen – but not without fatigue.
The filmmaker said it’s “A daily battle … The budget, the schedules, the actors … ” and refused to say whether Will Smith had yet to committed appearing in it.
Smith, who has been reluctant to sign on for the sequel to the 1996 hit, isn’t going to stop the film from happening; Emmerich says two versions of the script exist, one that features Smith’s character, and one that doesn’t. The ball is totally in his court.
“It’s looking good [for the version with Smith]”, Emmerich slipped, after being pushed.
The plan was for the movie to be the first of two “Independence Day” sequels but after the trouble he’s had getting this one going, and the amount of time it’d take to produce a second sequel, the filmmaker has opted just to make one.
“I thought about spending four years of my life on one movie and I didn’t want to turn into something from the movie. It’s a movie about aliens, I don’t want to turn into an alien.”
Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum are as good as locked for the sequel, with Michael B.Jordan rumoured to be playing Smith’s grown-up son in the picture (whether or not Will himself makes an appearance or not). The picture is due for release July 3, 2015.
