Apparently, there was and always has been a sequel planned for the 1996 Will Smith blockbuster. Back in 1996 when the film opened, it made over $300 million which sent the studios scrambling to come up with a worthy sequel that would regenerate that kind of box office dollars.

According to our friends over at Latino Review (“friends” like that cool guy in your English class who you knew was cool but he didn’t even know you existed, but you told people you were friends anyway), Roland Emmerich, the director of Independence Day, already has a story planned, a story he calls, “…a very really good great story, a very cool one.” Roland might need a little help with his grammar and sentence structure, but you get the idea: he has a really great story planned for the Independence Day sequel.

But, due to our current financial and economic crisis, the sequel is at a stall right now because everyone involved, producers, actors, crew, etc. want a bigger cut. They want more money. Fox is wanting to move forward with the “very really good great story” and fast track the film into production, with or without all of the original cast/crew, but thankfully, Roland won’t allow it.

“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 negotiations 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.“

I still can’t seem to wrap my head around a ID4 sequel and maybe it’s good news that the movie is stalled and that Will Smith wants more money to do it. I mean, come on, he’s already said to the aliens, “Now that’s what I call a close encounter.” What’s he going to say now? “Now that’s what I call another close encounter.”

What are your thoughts? What other sequels could you see happening?

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