Movie News: Roland Emmerich Reveals Story Details For Independence Day Sequels

by Eric Eisenberg

There has been talk about a sequel to the classic 90s sci-fi blockbuster Independence Day for years now, but for all that's been said about the project it has always seemed like a distant possibility. But now it seems all-too real.

With the first trailer for the new thriller White House Down arriving today, director Roland Emmerich sat down for a chat with Entertainment Weekly and during the conversation the filmmaker revealed a brief plot synopsis for what will end up be a two part sequel: ID Forever Part I and ID Forever Part II. According to Emmerich, who wrote the first draft of the script before handing it off to screenwriter James Vanderbilt (who worked with the director on the upcoming White House thriller), the story for the new film will be set 20 years after the events of the first film and center on a distress call that the aliens sent back to their home planet during the initial invasion of Earth.

"The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back," Emmerich said. "And they know that the only way you can really travel in space is through wormholes. So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that’s 20 or 25 years."

More than being just about another alien invasion, however, the film will also see how our world was affected by the events of the original and the technology left over from the attack. Because of the organic nature of the aliens' machinery, humans haven't been able to recreate the material, but have been able to implement it - such as using anti-gravity machines in airplanes.

As for the cast, Bill Pullman is set to reprise his role as Thomas J. Whitmore, but the bulk of the story will "focus on a new generation of human heroes, including the stepson of Will Smith’s Independence Day character."

Going for the "20 years later" angle could mean that the film is aiming for a 2016 release date, which obviously means that we still have a good long wait before the sequels are actually realized and put into production. Let's hope that they're worth the wait.