Every couple of years, the possibility of INDEPENDENCE DAY sequels rear their head and ideas float out there for us all to get excited by. The original film was a massive success in summer 1996, I ended up seeing it three times in the cinema. It had spectacle and charm and didn’t spare us some good characters amongst the thrills. It’s been fifteen years now since the first film and every few years or so the possibility of a sequel is raised. The main obstacle to this? The fact that since ’96 Will Smith has become a giant humungous superstar whose films make millions of dollars. Therefore his price tag has gone up. Not many people realise this but the first INDEPENDENCE DAY was fairly modestly budgeted for a blockbuster and a lot of the effects favoured practical techniques over expensive CG.

Now it seems that something has begun moving again on the sequels, with or without Smith. The reason Smith has priced himself out of the films is due to his demands which apparently include, 50 million up front, the film to be shot close to where he lives and also for his wife Jada Pinkett and daughter Willow to have roles in the film. Nepotism eh? Supposedly the screenplays that are currently being written are intended to be filmed back to back but will be stand alone stories that also come together to make one big story. Yeah we’ve heard that before, either way the scripts are expected to be turned in to Fox this December and further announcements will follow.

This is one sequel I am surprised has never appeared in a world where we have five RESIDENT EVIL films. After the success of RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Fox have got to be looking through their back catalogue to see which films they can prequelise or sequelise and INDEPENDENCE DAY makes sense from a financial point of view. Will people still flock to it without Will Smith though?

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