Oh what a difference an M. Night Shyamalan movie makes. Earlier this year, director Roland Emmerich confirmed that Will Smith would not return to the role of Captain Steven Hiller for ID Forever Part 1 – the first of two planned sequels to 1996’s blockbuster Independence Day.
However, according to Emmerich, it appears that Smith may have had a change of heart – no doubt due to the critical and commercial failure of this summer’s After Earth – and could be looking to shake off the Shyamalan effect by returning to his first major box office success.
“It changes every month,” Emmerich told Digital Spy during a promotional interview for White House Down. “I sometimes say ‘No, Will Smith will not be in it,’ because he didn’t want to do it before but now we have a meeting planned where we want to talk about it again.”
ID Forever Part 1 has been written by Emmerich and regular producing partner Dean Devlin, with James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, The Amazing Spider-Man) providing a polish. It’s set some twenty years after the original, with alien reinforcements arriving to threaten humanity once more. The film is currently slated for release on July 3rd, 2015.
Originally published September 5, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
