An Independence Day sequel is finally in its final stages of heading toward production, as the head honchos over at 20th Century Fox have just given the probable blockbuster the green light, reports Deadline .
The Independence Day sequel, based on the original hit film that featured a behind the scenes look at Area 51, Will Smith giving an alien a beat down, and a Golden Retriever jumping out of the way of a rolling wave of explosive fire just in time, has been given a starting production date for May.
So with their Thanksgiving week work of actually establishing a production start date for the Independence Day sequel, the powers that be now have their next task ahead, which is to get Roland Emmerich a directing deal that is as signed, sealed and delivered as the nuke delivered into the alien ship by Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith in Independence Day 1.
While also showing a profound sense of humor, Emmerich hinted at many Independence Day follow-ups back in 2013, reports Entertainment Weekly .
“The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back, 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.”
As for a release date, while the Independence Day sequel originally aimed for a July 1, 2016 release, Independence Day II now reportedly has that bumped up to June 24, 2016, so they better get that script finalized and some sound stages reserved!
Word has it that Will Smith and his cigar smoking, alien-beating, spaceship flying character, Captain Steve Hiller (a pilot that would give even Tom Cruise’s Maverick all he could handle) will not be back for the Independence Day sequel , but this isn’t a shock as Deadline reportedly already knew this all the way back in February.
That said, casting for the Independence Day sequel will start once Emmerich is locked in to direct.
Two Independence Day films were originally a possibility, shot back-to-back style a la The Lord of the Rings films. But Fox is now just green lighting the one Independence Day sequel for the time being.
Multiple screenwriters have been involved with developing the new Independence Day script, including Nicolas Wright, James A. Woods, Carter Blanchard, Emmerich, Dean Devlin, and James Vanderbilt.
Emmerich is also slated to produce the new Independence Day film, along with Devlin and another, Harald Kloser.
The original 1996 Independence Day took in a whopping $811 million worldwide and will be interesting to see if the Will Smith-less Independence Day sequel can achieve similar numbers.
[Image via YouTube]
