Independence Day sequel plans revealed

Roland Emmerich has revealed his vision for the follow up to his 1996 blockbuster Independence Day .

The White House Down director has said there will be two sequels: ID Forever Part I and ID Forever Part II . The scripts for both have been finalised by Emmerich and writing/producing partner Dean Devlin , with WHD writer James Vanderbilt set to jump in for a rewrite.

The original, starring Will Smith ( Men in Black ), Jeff Goldblum ( Jurassic Park ) and Bill Pullman ( The Grudge ) smashed the box office becoming one of the highest grossing films of all time. The sequels take place 20 years later when a distress signal sent by the first onslaught finally brings another wave of extra-terrestrial invaders to Earth.

As Emmerich explained to Entertainment Weekly , ”The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back. And they know that the only way you can really travel in space is through wormholes. So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that’s 20 or 25 years".

Emmerich also added that he has been working on designs for the film with an art team. “It’s a changed world. It’s like parallel history. [ Humans ] have harnessed all this alien technology. We don’t know how to duplicate it because it’s organically-grown technology, but we know how to take an antigravity device and put it in a human airplane."

Bill Pullman is set to return, but Will Smith's involvement remains uncertain . “It’s still some of the same characters, but also new younger characters; it’s a little bit like the sons take over,” explained Emmerich, who promised that the first sequel would end on something of a cliffhanger. “The first one ends on a little success, but only enough to give the humans hope. And then in the second one they free themselves again [ from the aliens ].”

Surely everything has been destroyed already? Emmerich begs to differ: "We’ve rebuilt". Looks like it's back on!