Independence Day 2?

Here’s a bit of news about a project that I had no idea was even being considered, a sequel to quite possibly the greatest movie of all time, INDEPENDENCE DAY. Back in 2008, Fox CEO Tim Rothman talked to IESB about the project who had this to say about another possible film:

“We would love to do it, it’s really a matter of Roland, it’s up to Roland. He knows that we’d love to do it. I don’t think there is a script but there have been a lot of ideas, but the truth of the matter is he’s been making other films. He made “Day After Tomorrow” for us, big hit movie, he’s doing “2012” for Sony. But, any day that Roland wanted to do that, we would be very excited to do it because I think, yes, that story definitely can and should continue.”

This would imply that the decision rests solely with Roland Emmerich, so when Latino Review got the chance to talk to him recently, they broached the subject and got a fairly informative answer out of him.

“Dean Devlin and I are still set to make a sequel likely because we’ve found some sort of idea and we approached FOX and FOX has not quite figured out how to incorporate Dean’s and my deal, and Will’s (Smith) deal. Will wants to do it in some sort of a package they can live with. So it’s just been in negations now since forever, and naturally FOX says “Why don’t you do it without Will Smith?” I said Will is essential for us, for this movie and actually for the audience too. And, so, it’s in limbo and lately the studios are fighting. Like gross players, and Will is a gross player and is probably the only gross player right now who’s worth his gross. So we’ll see what happens. I would love to do it. “

Emmerich goes on to say that yes, there is a script, but he can’t tell you anything about it. I never once considered this movie getting a sequel, though thinking back, it does kind of make sense. And obviously, if Will Smith returned, this thing would make obscene amounts of money. The problem is, we know Emmerich’s next project is the crazily ambitious FOUNDATION which I reported on an hour ago, so the issue would seem to be, when exactly could this get made?