Independence Day – Fox Deny Development

Published on November 16, 2009 by Craig Sharp · View Comments

Independence Day Whitehouse Arguably the biggest news doing the rounds this past Friday was that of “Master of Disaster” Roland Emmerich and his plans for a two-part Independence Day followup. Sharing his ideas with MTV (and thus inadvertently with the entire world), Emmerich’s musings were taken by some to be a green light for the sequels.

However, the IESB, aiming to go one better and get confirmation on the project’s screenwriter, approached Fox directly to confirm a few details and of course they were told in no uncertain terms that there is no Independence Day movie in production. From their own lips:

A few days ago, IESB was given a tip that there was some possible movement on a sequel with a new screenwriter, when IESB spoke to various Fox reps to confirm the name of screenwriter we were told point blank, there are no sequels to ID4 in development.

So while Roland might have a couple of ideas for a sequel to a film that reached $817,400,891 in worldwide box office receipts plus DVD sales (its hovering the billion dollar mark in total sales including TV rights and DVD sales), 20th Century Fox has not even moved into the idea phase for the sequel.

Of course FilmShaft covered the story on Friday under the title “Independence Day 2 AND 3 Will Invade Theatres” and I’m absolutely certain it will. I’m also absolutely certain that Fox were telling the truth and that, at this time, they are certainly not looking at ID4 sequels.

However it’s worth bearing in mind that this is an idea in the early stages, in it’s infancy. I’m also absolutely certain that Emmerich is working on a sequel but it’s been thirteen years already so what’s the rush right? Trust me, when Emmerich is ready, Fox will look at the sequel, until then rest easy in the knowledge that one day it’ll be here.