As it stands, 2015 is set to be one of the biggest blockbuster seasons in film history, with Joss Whedon's The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Zack Snyder's Batman/Superman movie, Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World, Edgar Wright's Ant-Man, and Alan Taylor's Terminator all set on the release calendar, but it turns out that Roland Emmerich's Independence Day 2 may not be part of the festivities. Back in late June it was reported that Fox had officially set the sequel for release on the July 4th weekend in 2015, but judging from the director's comments in a recent interview with Empire that may be a deadline that ends up getting pushed back.
While talking about putting all of the pieces in place and getting ready for production on the Empire podcast, Emmerich actually downplayed how fast the project was coming together and suggested that the current release date may actually just be a placeholder. Said the director, "You have to set a release date otherwise another film moves into it." But while the movie may not actually be ready to hit theaters on July 3, 2015, he goes on to promise that the sequel will be his next project provided that they can get the script in a place he's comfortable with. "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.
Adding an extra twist to these quotes is the recent release date change for the aforementioned Terminator reboot. Originally Paramount Pictures had dated the sci-fi blockbuster for June 26th, 2015, but just yesterday it was announced that they have shifted the movie to Wednesday July 1st, the same weekend as Independence Day 2. Is it possible that Paramount heard that the Emmerich movie isn't going to make its release date and is now staking its claim before anyone else can get to it?
In the same interview with Empire, Emmerich also cleared up some of the rumors going around suggesting that the plan is to make two Independence Day sequels back-to-back. Instead, the plan is to do the logical thing and make sure that there are people who actually want to see part two before moving forward to make part three. "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..."
As we previously reported, James Vanderbilt - who partnered with Emmerich on this summer's White House Down - is currently writing the script for the sequel, which is set 20 years after the first movie in a world where alien technology has helped changed the entire world. It's been said that both Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman will be back to reprise their roles from the original film, while Will Smith remains a maybe. If the film is going to be ready for summer 2015 it will have to start production in the first half of next year, so we should know fairly soon whether or not it will actually happen.
