It’s been nearly two decades since director Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day hit the big screen and it’s looking like a sequel is finally coming together. In a new conversation with Empire, Emmerich discussed his plans for the 20th Century Fox project and provided brief updates on two other science fiction properties he’s involved with: Singularity and Foundation, both set up at Columbia Pictures.
“I should get the script pretty soon,” says Emmerich of the Independence Day followup. “Then I’ll try to get it into good shape for one or two months and, if that happens, we’ll announce it and start production We’ve created a mythology around these aliens, which is really cool. You have to create a mythology because people want to see a bigger picture.”
As he’s previously stated, Emmerich would like to see the world of Independence Day continue past the first sequel, which is set to end on a cliffhanger of sorts.
“We’ll only do the first part,” he says of his current plans, “because we want to have the audience decide if they want to see the second. Otherwise it feels arrogant. But I’m pretty confident, with the right script ”
Although Independence Day 2 has been announced for a July 3, 2015 release, Emmerich is quick to point out that that date is not set in stone and, depending on how things come together, the film may wind up claiming an alternate release date.
Singularity, meanwhile, is still in the writing stages, but Emmerich is quite pleased with the direction the project is taking.
“That is on very, very good grounds again,” he says. “We just overdid its complexity, we packed too much in it, but we lost two or three subplots and suddenly realized, ‘Oh my God, this works!’ I definitely want to make this movie.”
Likewise, Foundation (based on Isaac Asimov’s genre-defining trilogy) is still being developed, now eyeing a place on the small screen.
“We’re trying to do it as a big mini-series,” says Emmerich, “but even there you would have to change the story itself and set it in a time when the galaxy has fallen apart and then you’re pretty much making a TV show with all these characters and playing all the scenes out. You can [do that] and we’ll see what happens. We tried so hard [to make it into a movie], honestly, because it’s one of my most favorite books. I just love it.”
The video game adaptation Asteroids, however, is off Emmerich’s table altogether due to his overloaded schedule. The most recent update has Jez Butterworth rewriting the script.
(Photo Credit: Patrick Hoffmann / WENN.com)
