Will Smith returning for INDEPENDENCE DAY sequels?
Roland Emmerich recently had to put the breaks on his TV show based on his hit film, 2012, but the director is not hurting for work, especially if this latest rumor is to be believed. Emmerich has been planning two sequels to INDEPENDENCE DAY for a while now. This is what he had to say in back in November:
“What we want to do in the next – it’s actually two movies – we want to do a bigger arc…INDEPENDENCE DAY was always like the king who leads his troops into battle against an evil force, and that stays like that…The idea is just to continue the story and actually I don’t know how many years ago this was—twelve, thirteen, fourteen years ago—and just continue where it ended.”
One of the biggest obstacles holding back production was the absence of Will Smith, but it looks like that might no longer be an issue.
IESB is reporting that a source has informed them that Smith has been locked in by 20th Century Fox to star in the two upcoming sequels, which will be filmed back-to-back. The reason Will Smith was so tough to acquire is his price tag, which is $20 million up front.
Now that the studio is rolling in AVATAR money, it makes sense to invest in what seems like a sure thing. Whatever your feelings on INDEPENDENCE DAY might be, millions of people love the movie. Whether they first saw it in theaters or discovered it on TNT or TBS, the sequels have a built-in audience and people will go see them.
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