Independence Day to be re-released in 3-D; sequels being developed

ID-3D + 2&3
by Reymundo Salao

Next year, we will once again get to see really large alien motherships emerging from the clouds as the 1996 movie INDEPENDENCE DAY will be rereleased in 3D. INDEPENDENCE DAY 3-D, which is set for a July 4, 2013 release date, seems to generate interest on this alien invasion movie once again, and will probably be a device to gauge interest for a sequel that is being developed by its creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin.

Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin confirmed that they are committed to finally get Independence Day 2 off the ground. Fox was planning back-to-back sequels with or without Will Smith’s involvement, and now producer Dean Devlin has announced that he and Emmerich are actively working on Independence Day 2.  Moreover, they’re also hoping to continue and ultimately finish the intended trilogy they began with the 1994 sci-fi film Stargate with two new sequels. In a recent interview with Heat Vision, Devlin had this to say:

“I can tell you that Roland and I have been working together for the first time in 11 years and we’re every excited about the idea of doing it.  Whether or not we can make this happen, if we can get all the pieces to come together, that’s gonna be challenging. But creatively, for the very first time since we did the original, I feel we have a worthy concept, a worthy path to go.”

Oh I think they really are just desperately trying to rise up above other new sci-fi masters that have overshadowed them. It seems kind of obvious that they really ignored this project, the studios were wanting them to make it long ago.

Devlin continues:
“We resisted doing the sequel for years because we still wanted to honor the first one. The first one gave us all careers, and we really love that movie and loved the experience. We didn’t want to make a movie because it was financially a good idea, we only wanted to do it when we had an idea and a concept that creatively felt like it honored the first one — that it felt like an organic sequel as opposed to ‘let’s just go make some more money.”

Well said, though. Devlin confirmed that they’re “beginning a long process of talking to everybody,” so it remains to be seen which (if any) cast members return. Well many would agree, it has to have Jeff Goldblum at least.

Back when it came out in 1996, INDEPENDENCE DAY was an outstanding and spectacular alien-invasion-action hit. Everybody that time was hungry for something big and explosive like the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. That was why Independence Day was welcomed with big wide arms when it came out. But fast forward to today, the concept of Independence Day is so common, and does not easily hold up because of silly plot devices (they beat the aliens with a computer virus? WTF!)