ComingSoon.net hit the red carpet for the 2012 Saturn Awards earlier tonight and had the chance to chat with Independence Day producer Dean Devlin about the recent news that a sequel for the film might just be on the way. It sounds like it’s a strong possibility.
“I hope so,” says Devlin. “I can’t say that it’s going to happen, but I can say for the first time that for the first time in eleven years, Roland Emmerich and I are working together. There are a lot of moving pieces that are coming together. I don’t know if it will come together, but we want it to happen. This is the first time since we made the original that Roland and I are excited about doing it and feeling like we have the right idea and we have our fingers crossed.”
So, how much pressure did they get to do a sequel to the 1996 blockbuster?
“We felt enormous pressure,” he tells us. “Over the years everyone has always asked us about it. We never wanted to do it unless it felt germane to the story. In fact, ten years ago I was hired to write a sequel to ‘Independence Day’ and they paid me a lot of money. After I finished the script, I gave the money back and I said, “Don’t even read the script. The script is okay, but we can’t make an okay sequel to ‘Independence Day.'” This is what gave me a career. The fans deserve better than this. And I really decided then that I was never going to do a sequel. Until about a year and a half ago when Roland called me up and said, ‘Let’s try again.’ So we went out to Palm Springs and we cracked it. We said, ‘That’s a real sequel. That’s a sequel that makes sense to do. That’s a sequel that won’t disappoint the fans. That one feels like we always intended to do that in the first place.’ So I want it to happen. I don’t know if it will.”
CraveOnline got a chance to speak to Devlin as well, an interview in which he specifically says that Independence Day sequel will address the original film’s biggest plot hole. You can check that out here.
The original film, meanwhile, is slated for a 3D re-release on July 3, 2013.
