Roland Emmerich is largely known as the director of the epic movie, but recently he has started to change his tone. While he'll likely always be known as the director of films like Independence Day, 2012, Godzilla, and The Day After Tomorrow, his latest title, Anonymous, was a smaller story about the William Shakespeare conspiracy. I'm sure it won't be long until he's back doing the big disaster movies, but for now it looks like he's going to be keeping things small.
Deadline is reporting that Emmerich is now in talks to direct White House Down, a new action movie being developed over at Sony. The script was written by James Vanderbilt, whose previous titles include Zodiac, The Rundown, The Losers, and the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man. The story, compared to Die Hard when first pitched, is about a paramilitary group that swoops down to take over the White House. Given the Die Hard comparison I'm willing to be that there's a wrench in the gears that serves as the hero.
What's interesting about this project is that it would kind of serve as an in-between for Emmerich. It's not quite the drama that Anonymous was, and it won't be the schlocky, overdone epic that was 2012. This is a project squarely in the middle and could, perhaps, be a perfect fit for him. If he can successfully capture any of Die Hard's magic then it could be counted as a win.
