While the sequels to his 1996 film Independence Day are likely his most-anticipated projects, director Roland Emmerich has a number of other ideas planned for his upcoming schedule. In addition to the two-part sequel, Emmerich recently talked about his slimmed-down script for the sci-fi pic, Singularity, as well as an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation planned for the small screen. Bad news on the Asteroids front as Emmerich's plate is too full to take on that particular Lorenzo di Bonaventura-produced project. Hit the jump for more on what Emmerich has coming up.
In a recent interview with Empire, Emmerich talked at length about his future projects. On the issue of the two-part Independence Day sequel, it looks like Emmerich will take the costlier route of filming the first part before moving on to its conclusion:
"We'll only do the first part, because we want to have the audience decide if they want to see the second, otherwise it feels arrogant. But I'm pretty confident, with the right script..."
Although the studio has set the film's opening for July 3, 2015, but Emmerich expounds on the behind-the-scenes business of release dates:
"You have to set a release date otherwise another film moves into it, [but] Independence Day is my next movie, if I get the right script. I should get the script pretty soon, then I'll try to get it into good shape for one or two months, and if that happens, we'll announce it and start production."
That being said, he's already got a pretty good understanding of what the film will entail:
"The idea for it came out of 2012, and what you can do with technology these days ... It's a parallel history. Humans rebuild whatever they have - bigger, newer, shinier - and then they forget. Maybe, 20 years later, [the aliens are] never coming back..."
When asked if the computer virus will work a second time around, Emmerich said:
"They won't fall for that again."
And it looks like we'll get to know a bit more about the aliens this time around:
"We've created a mythology around these aliens, which is really cool. You have to create a mythology because people want to see a bigger picture."
On the long-developing Singularity:
"That is on very, very good grounds again. We just overdid its complexity, we packed too much in it, but we lost two or three subplots and suddenly realised, 'Oh my God, this works!' I definitely want to make this movie."
And the big screen might not be enough to hold all of Emmerich's explosions as a TV adaptation of Asimov's Foundation series is in the works:
"We're trying to do it as a big mini-series, but even there you would have to change the story itself and set it in a time when the galaxy has fallen apart - and then you're pretty much making a TV show with all these characters and playing all the scenes out. You can [do that] and we'll see what happens. We tried so hard [to make it into a movie], honestly, because it's one of my most favourite books. I just love it."
Finally, Emmerich revealed the reason he passed on Asteroids, saying:
"[Producer] Lorenzo di Bonaventura offered it to me first and it had exactly what I like - a two brothers story that was very interesting for me - but I had so many other projects and they didn't want to wait around for me."