Director Roland Emmerich is currently in talks with Will Smith to star in the sequel to his 1996 summer blockbuster Independence Day. Emmerich has been thinking of putting a sequel together for years now, but this is the first time he felt Smith was willing to join the project. Emmerich told Digital Spy, “It’s changing every month. To put a sequel together of that magnitude is an enormous undertaking. I’ve been saying that Will Smith isn’t going to be in it because he didn’t want to do it, but now we have a meeting planned where we’re going to talk about it again. So anything can happen!”
In addition to Smith possibly reprising his role as the fighter pilot Captain Steven Hiller, Bill Pullman has also expressed interest in joining the sequel. Pullman played the role of fictional U.S. President Thomas J. Whitmore in the original alien invasion flick.
Emmerich has claimed that regardless of Smith’s involvement the Independence Day sequel should be ready for a 2015 or 2016 release.
Emmerich is also busy putting together a sequel for another one of his sci-fi films, 1994’s Stargate. Emmerich states this was originally planned as a trilogy, however with years of the television show now added to the story, sequels are a bit tricky. Emmerich has pitched MGM with a reboot of the movie, planned as the first of three films.
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