Independence Day Sequel? Dean Devlin Gives the Scoop!

I’m not sure yet as to whether I should be excited or be exasperated with the idea of a sequel to the 1996 film Independence Day, but it looks like it just might happen. ID4 struck gold 16 years ago with Will Smith’s easygoing affability and sense of humor paired with the masterful Jeff Goldblum. That’s a hard act to follow but Dean Devlin (writer of ID4) stated that he and Roland Emmerich (writer/director of ID4) have finally come up with a story that is worthy of a sequel.  Steve Weintraub of Collider spoke with Devlin on the red carpet of the Saturn Awards, and he said, “I think that the story that we finally cracked is finally worthy of a sequel. And I think that the people who have been fans will feel like they got the movie they were waiting for.”

That sounds great but how do you know if you can really trust what he’s saying? For starters, this is the second script Devlin has written for the sequel. The first one didn’t live up to his standards of a fantastic flick so he refunded the money that was paid to him! “Many years ago, I was actually hired to write the sequel to Independence Day. And I wrote a sequel. And they paid me a boatload of money to go write this thing. And after I wrote it, I read it and I gave them back the money and I said, ‘look, this is an okay movie I just wrote. But it’s not worthy of the sequel to Independence Day.’ And I literally gave back the money.” That’s certainly rare in that business, but impressive. It makes me think that Devlin really cares about what kind of product he’s producing so maybe…just maybe, the sequel might not suck. Yay!

The film hasn’t been confirmed yet though with Devlin reporting, “I don’t know if it is going to happen. But I can tell you that we’re spending a lot of effort, that we’re writing together for the first time in eleven years. And we want to make it happen.” He couldn’t say anything about the script so which characters planned to return remains a mystery for now. He was able to say that ID4 2 will take place in real time- 16 years after the original film.

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!