The last bit of news we heard about the sequels to INDEPENDENCE DAY was September when the titles were revealed to be ID FOREVER PART 1 and 2. Not the greatest title in the world, but it’ll do. Now, with WHITE HOUSE DOWN poised to be pretty damn good, director Roland Emmerich is bringing some details about what to expect from the new films.
Emmerich revealed that he wrote the scripts with original INDEPENDENCE DAY cohort Dean Devlin and they are currently being rewritten by WHITE HOUSE DOWN scribe James Vanderbilt. Here is the concept for the new movies, which take place 20 years after the first movie after a distress call from the aliens is answered, sending reinforcements to our planet for another attack.
”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.”
Nice way to work in the fact the movie will be made two decades after the original. This would also allow the cast to be replaced with younger characters if they cannot sway Will Smith to return. Bill Pullman has already committed to coming back as President Thomas Whitmore. But, with the Earth having been decimated by the aliens, how would our cities look twenty years in the future?
“It’s a changed world. It’s like parallel history. [Humans] have harnessed all this alien technology. We don’t know how to duplicate it because it’s organically-grown technology, but we know how to take an antigravity device and put it in a human airplane.”
Emmerich also promises that with two films being planned that ID FOREVER PART ONE will not likely end on a happy note.
“The first one ends on a little success, but only enough to give the humans hope. And then in the second one they free themselves again [from the aliens].”
I loved the original INDEPENDENCE DAY when it opened and hope this movie retains the fun action of the original. Lately, Emmerich has gotten in his own way with over the top movies like 2012, 10,000 BC, and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. WHITE HOUSE DOWN has been getting a lot of good buzz (the trailer premiers later today!), so I hope this actually happens.