Independence Day 2 Might Not Make Its 2015 Release After All
This article is more than 2 years old
It seems like movie studios and directors are finally realizing summer 2015 will feature a over-bloated slate of big summer blockbusters with The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Man of Steel: Batman Vs. Superman, and Jurassic World. Roland Emmerich is unsure if he can deliver an Independence Day sequel on the day Twentieth Century Fox would want it in theaters.
While on the Empire Magazine podcast, Emmerich revealed that getting Independence Day 2 is much harder than originally expected and its current release date of July 3, 2015 is more of a placeholder than anything else. “You have to set a release date otherwise another film moves into it,” said Emmerich. While the release date is still up in the air, the 57-year-old director says that the sequel film will be his next project. “I should get the script pretty soon, 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,” he said.
A few days ago, Paramount Pictures announced that Terminator 5 will be pushed back from late June to early July and will directly compete with Independence Day 2 on July 1, 2015. It appears that Paramount knew something about Fox and Emmerich’s apprehensions with the ID4 2 release date. At the moment, all signs point to a showdown between Independence Day 2 and Terminator 5, so we’ll know more as soon as both film sequels go into production.
In the same interview with Empire, Roland Emmerich also cleared up rumors of two Independence Day sequels. It was believed that the sequel film would be split between two movies with ID Forever – Part One and ID Forever – Part Two. Apparently, that’s not the case. “We’ll only do the first part 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…” said Emmerich.
Currently, writer James Vanderbilt (White House Down, Zodiac) is writing the screenplay for Independence Day 2 with Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. It’s believed that the story will take place in real time, about 20 years after the events of the first film, and will feature the aliens returning to Earth for round two. This time around though, the humans are ready with new weapons based on alien technology.
Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum are expected to return to the film series and reprise their roles as former-President Thomas J. Whitmore and David Levinson, respectively. Will Smith is not expected to return, but maybe his career can take a deeper nosedive and he’d return to Independence Day. After Earth didn’t exactly conquer box offices, so let’s hope Smith comes back to the series. At least give us cameo!
Fox has to release Independence Day on July Fourth weekend, if not in 2015 then in 2016. It would be pointless to release an Independence Day movie on any other weekend, except on the holiday. If Fox holds it for July 1, 2016, then it would make sense to take advantage of this date because it would also be the film’s 20th anniversary. The first film was released on July 2, 1996.
At the moment, Independence Day 2 is still scheduled to hit theaters on July 3, 2015.
