Will Smith In For Independence Day 2 & 3

bowman9991 writes "If one isn't enough, there are reports that two sequels to Roland Emmerich's 1996 alien invasion blockbuster Independence Day are in the works. Will Smith is back too. Apparently he delayed a sequel earlier by asking for too much money." Other rumors include using an iPad to destroy the alien space ships this time, and letting Obama fly a biplane. Data will have a 5-minute monologue about what it means to be human.

Comments

Will Smith asking for too much money?

[elrous0]

Any amount sufficient to put him through an acting class would be a worthwhile investment. For that matter, throw in a few directing classes for Roland Emmerich while you're splurging. But (and this is a REALLY crazy idea), I think they might be even better served this time by spending at least 1/100th of the money on the actual screenplay that they're spending on catering.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[somersault]

Actually, for the last few years Will Smith has been one of my favourite actors. Have you seen Seven Pounds, The Pursuit of Happyness or Ali for example? All serious movies in which he does a good job, and of course he still does a good job in lighter movies too. The fact that I can take him seriously in the serious movies after watching so much Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a kid says to me that he's a good actor..

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Ubergrendle]

I'm fairly certain when no one bittorents these movies, the MPAA will credit it to a) advances in DRM, or b) creating a big budget 3D theatre experience that can't be recreated at home. In reality, it will be because a hole in the space time continuum will be ripped open through the collasal gravity well of SUCK.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[mdarksbane]

Will Smith seems like one of those actors who is really dependent on good direction. By that I mean someone who doesn't just let him run out of control with a scene. Personally I see that in a lot of comedians - they've got talent, but you need someone who can direct that talent instead of just letting them go on way past the point where the joke was funny or the character was believable.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[lee1]

Watch Six Degrees of Separation, from about 1993. I think this movie shows that he's actually a very talented actor who's been used as an action hero by some bad directors in movies with execrable scripts. If you think of Independence Day when you think if Will Smith, then this film (actually a filmed play, with a single set, if I recall correctly) will be a big surprise.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Moryath]

He had a funny role playing himself on TV for a while, but really, these days - have you seen any recent interviews? Many of his statements haven't been good. He aligns himself with the cult of $cientology, never claiming to "join" but always talking them up.

And then there's the weirdness of his buying his talentless son a star role in a movie, and getting the desperate-for-money Jackie Chan to star in what is blasphemously being called now "the Karate Kid" (or in China, "the Kung-Fu Kid")... ack.

Far as I can tell, Will Smith is played out and would be better just retiring.

Now as for Independence Day... they REALLY think they can get two more movies out of that premise? Eek.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[geekoid]

Will Smith is a fine actor. Look at any film that is about a character, and not about action.

Early in his career, Will Smith decided to do Sci-Fi films bacause 8 of the top 10 grossing movies are Sci-Fi. Not a bad career decsion, but that means most of his movies are about themes outside the character.

Watch Ali. The man can act.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[kimvette]

Maybe if he does join scientology he can create a Battlefield Earth sequel. ;)

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[afidel]

Sci-Fi films bacause 8 of the top 10 grossing movies are Sci-Fi

Which brings up a very good point, why do the major networks hate Sci-Fi so much? Is it because Sci-Fi works well for a feature length movie but not for a serial production show with a much smaller per-hour budget?

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Grishnakh]

Don't forget One Hour Photo. He wasn't funny at all in that movie.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[CAIMLAS]

I used to hate Will Smith. Particularly around the time of Independence Day. Before Hitch, most of his stuff was crap, but Enemy of the State was quite (surprisingly) good, and the first acting I saw from the man that didn't agitate me.

Now, he's one of my favorites - not of all time, but certainly one of my favorite current actors. His movies have been predictably good for the past 5 or so years, and not only because they're "good movies":

Why?

[ground.zero.612]

Seriously, why do movies generate so much nerd rage? It's not like it was called "Independence Day: the real life prophecy of the truths to come."

It was a movie, made to entertain the masses. Was it any worse than Men in Black? I happened to have enjoyed both films actually. Queue the continued nerd rage in 3...2...1...

Re:Why?

[edittard]

Queue the continued nerd rage in 3...2...1...

Righto. Should we form the line to the left or the right?

Re:Why?

[Grizzley9]

Yeah, because all of nerdom hates The Black Knight.

Re:Why?

[Thanshin]

Independence Day 2:

The aliens were the ships. What we thought were the aliens were the ship's parasites. Having discovered a planet that cleans them of parasites, the aliens come en masse to be cleaned. The earth fight endless "alien" hordes, never understanding we've become a galactic "spa" for the aliens.

Independence Day 3:

The aliens finally aknowledge the existance of the parasite cleaners who call themselves "hunams". They decide that the "hunams" are Earth's parasites and, fearing contagion, declare the solar system a bio-hazard zone and nuke it from galactical orbit.

Re:Why?

[RMingin]

JESUS, dude! SPOILERS!

Re:Crap

[celibate for life]

The 1st Matrix movie was good. I don't see the analogy.

April Fools' Day?

[DiademBedfordshire]

Please let it be an early April Fools' Day joke.

April Fools?

[LtGordon]

Wednesday March 31, @09:29AM

I think they jumped the gun. At least I hope that's the case.

Re:Crap

[HungryHobo]

It's a pity they never made any sequels to that movie.
It was really fantastic.

goddamnit

[roman_mir]

Aren't there other interesting stories that could be told through the art of movies that are not stupid?

Can't they finally shoot the Ring World or something like that with the same Will Smith as the main character?

Jesus holly fucker.

Oh dear lord.

[Pandanapper]

The huddled masses of special effects lovers will pay their last drop of blood to see it too. You don't even need a storyline.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[eldavojohn]

The huddled masses of special effects lovers will pay their last drop of blood to see it too. You don't even need a storyline.

Of course, why do you think they've announced Men in Black 3, Hancock 2 and (*shudder*) I, Robot 2?

And keep in mind that these are just sequels that Will Smith is involved with. Rarely I go to the theater but one of the big detractors is when every single goddamn preview before the feature film is about a sequel. It started happening frequently a couple years ago and now is just completely out of hand.

I imagine the 3D effect is going to exacerbate this situation. "Yeah, we done did Watchmen but now we need an excuse to capitalize off of Watchmen in 3D so we'll hack together a script for Watchmen 2: Who Watches Those Who Are Watching the Watchmen? Do you smell boatloads of money?"

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Zenaku]

Okay. I know I'm about to get into one of those hypothetical nerd arguments that nobody can win, but what the hell. I'm waiting for an utterly inadequate laptop to deploy a shamefully bloated enterprise app to a local instance of Websphere, so I've got 10 minutes to kill.

If we're assuming aliens that can live on Earth the assumption must be that Earth-like planets are common, why would the aliens risk starting interstellar war for resources that are apparently quite common

There is no reason to assume that interstellar travel is fast or inexpensive. Maybe it took the aliens a thousand years and 10 generations to get here, and they haven't got the resources to get to the next closest earth-like planet.

Second, aliens capable of interstellar travel would be capable of wiping us out with little to no effort.

What are you basing this on? Oh yes of course, the idea that "Technology" constitutes a single field, and that advancement in one area automatically means advancement in others. Where did everyone get this idea? If we invent a cure for cancer tomorrow, will we suddenly know how to build a matter teleporter? It is perfectly conceivable that a species could develop interstellar travel without inventing a way to instantly and selectively kill off a particular species on a planet. Saying it is laughable is like being surprised that we can put a man on the moon, but still can't cure the common cold. The two things have nothing to do with one another.

Have to agree with you about Jeff Goldblum -- in a single afternoon -- deciphering the alien equivalent of TCP/IP and hacking up a computer virus capable of running on alien hardware. Beyond ridiculous.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[timholman]

Have to agree with you about Jeff Goldblum -- in a single afternoon -- deciphering the alien equivalent of TCP/IP and hacking up a computer virus capable of running on alien hardware. Beyond ridiculous.

That was absolutely one of the most cringeworthy aspects of the movie, and they could have fixed it with a single scene.

Data: "But it's strange - despite their formidable technology, their computer and communications networks are extremely straightforward - no encryption at all. We've spent years reverse-engineering the command codes for their systems. We've had a lot of success - for all the good it has done us."

Goldblum: "What - an advanced race like this, and the idea of passwords and encryption didn't occur to them?"

Pullman: "No - they're telepaths. They can't lie or hide anything from each other - and we're the only other advanced civilization they're ever encountered. No other race they've destroyed had computers."

Goldblum: "Give me everything you have on their computer systems and command codes. I have an idea ..."

Sure, it would have still been a stretch, but a lot easier to swallow.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[timholman]

That doesn't work because the aliens were able to decipher and hack into the satellites. Therefore, the aliens are probably highly advanced in cryptography.

Right - and that's the plot point I would have removed. After all, the entire idea of them needing our satellites to coordinate their attack was blindingly stupid. What, these advanced aliens can't synchronize their own clocks prior to an attack?

The "satellite hacking" bit was written into the movie to give Goldblum something to figure out and try to warn everyone about. It never made sense in the context of the aliens' capabilities. It was just the best idea the writers could come up with.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[mjwx]

Sure, it would have still been a stretch, but a lot easier to swallow.

But he used a mac, they "just work".

I surely can't be the only one

[inigopete]

...who found it ironic that a film with "Independence" in the title had quite so many product placements in it.

Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[rolfwind]

epic film, you've seen them all.

Same emotional highs and lows, same treatment of relationships, same everything.

You'd think a creative person would want to move on and do something different.

Foundation

[Kranerian]

The article says,

"If true, this is bad news for the already delayed Asimov Foundation trilogy: it’s likely Roland Emmerich will direct the Independance Day film after his latest film Anonymous about the life of William Shakespeare, delaying the Foundation start date even further."

Bad news? No. They seem to be under the impression that we want him to direct the Foundation Trilogy. Anything bringing the possibility of him not doing it is good news indeed.

Re:Foundation

[dswensen]

No, it might not.

Well timed, actually

[DoofusOfDeath]

In these two sequels, it will be the House of Representatives and the Senate buildings that get vaporized. In 3D.

This will shatter all revenue records.

Naming Technicality

[NonUniqueNickname]

As a trilogy it would no longer be Independence Day. They would have to rename it to Independence Long Weekend.

Re:Naming Technicality

[je ne sais quoi]

No, they're actually moving onto the next holidays in the calendar and hoping to make a franchise of it with a year's worth of holidays. The first sequel will be Labor day, where the aliens will attack the beaches while WIll Smith is getting his last summer vacation in. The next will be Columbus day, where the alien space-sailors will contact us and sleep with our women and transfer an alien version of small pox and STDs that will threaten to wipe out up to 90% of the human population while the aliens are busy melting down our jewelry to ship back to the alien home world. Fortunately Will Smith and his laptop will be there to upload some anti-bodies into the alien bio-mainframe to stop the viruses.

Re:Naming Technicality

[Bassman59]

Independence Day 2: Electric Boogaloo

Thank you!! (wish I had mod points)

Yeah, that'll be the reason...

[91degrees]

Fox can now offer more as they are swimming in the massive financial returns reaped from James Cameron's Avatar.

Yeah, because the multi-billion dollar News Corporation couldn't quite manage that before.

Seriously, the amount they'll pay for a movie is based on how much they expect it to make. Not how much they have in their coffers.

HOLY HELL

[decipher_saint]

Just make new goddamn movies, how hard is that???

You want my movie-going dollar? Stop giving me an experience I could rent more than 10 years ago.

Good

[benbean]

If for no other reason than the attendant publicity might finally teach the people of the Internet how to correctly spell "independence".

I would also like to see "You, Your and You're", a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston or Sandra Bullock.

Re:Good

[grasshoppa]

Jennifer Aniston AND Sandra Bullock
That works better for me.

One last hope!

[ThePangolino]

Rumors have recently been denied by a guy named Will Smith. http://www.imdb.com/news/ni1926356/

Bill Pullman anyone?

[GPLDAN]

Come on... you forgot Bill Pullman as the kick-ass Fighter Pilot President. His role was so influential, GW Bush actually mimicked the role!

What the Matrix sequels should have been

[Junior J. Junior III]

It's a pity they never made any sequels to that movie.
It was really fantastic.

Matrix 2: A complete re-telling of the first story, this time told as a documentary with dramatic re-enactments, produced by a mainstream media infopinionewstainment law enforcement/most wanted show, colluding with the government of the Matrix world. Morpheus and Neo demonized and shown to be degenerate, immoral, psychopaths, and terrorists. By allegory this would show what our own culture does to radicals. The film ends with Neo being captured, the cliffhanger being his arraignment. Albino milli vanilli twins are conspicuously absent, and there is no goth night club anywhere.

Matrix 3: The trial of Neo. Rather than using kung fu, he has to use legal fu to get out of his predicament. The trial is mostly a show trial, the charges are bogus, well, ok the charges are legitimate but the order that Neo was trying to bring down was anything but... and somehow Neo's got to be able to take the stand in order to expose the truth of what the Matrix is to the virtual public.

That would have made the trilogy completely awesome.

Re:Crap

[krou]

I suspect it'll be ID4-2-3D ...

Re:Crap

[mike2R]

You know, I rather like Independence Day. I'm not trying to claim it was a work of art or anything, but it was a fun alien invasion movie.

Admittedly I'm a sucker for fight-or-humanity-will-perish speeches...

Re:Crap

[Captain Hook]

wouldn't ID4-2 be ID2?

meh

[JackSpratts]

could live without both smith and emmerich. would like to see goldblum though. but hey, since we're dreaming, how about a sequel to buckaroo bonzai there bigboot?

bigboo tay

- js.

Plot Spoiler!

[gambit3]

In this one, the aliens come back with a different OS, and now running Antivirus!

Why do people complain...

[MistrBlank]

I really hate the complaints over the ending of Independence Day.

-It was already established that the aliens were using our computer systems, at the very least our satellite networking to communicate, it isn't a stretch

-The ending is a nod to War of the Worlds where a virus stopped and killed them.

-It's an EFF'ING MOVIE. It's supposed to be entertaining and it's a movie about aliens, it's already asking you to suspend belief about the world around us.

Re:Why do people complain...

[Stregano]

Jeff Goldblum using a pre-osx mac to create a computer virus and be able to figure out how to hack into an alien mothership and plant the virus.

Randy Quaid saving the Earth from aliens is much more believable than that.

Re:Advertising for the original movie...

[dingen]

Maybe they'll just skip the prequel trilogy and go straight for ID5 and 6.

Reminds me of the Independence Day review

[clickety6]

Can't find it now, but it was along the lines of:

"Independence Day. Aliens arrive on Earth in giant spaceships and proceed to destroy the White House.
However, they later turn out not top be friendly after all".

Re:Crap

[thebasicsteve]

Nope, definitely ID10-T.

Re:Stop the xkcd karma whoring

[L4t3r4lu5]

Slashdot FAQ

"Note that being moderated Funny doesn't help your karma. You have to be smart, not just a smart-ass." - CmdrTaco

Re:Crap

[mike2R]

My all time favourite is from Babylon 5 movie In the Beginning. First you have Londo talking about how the humans fought in the Earth Mimbari war - here, and then immediately after it the President speaking before the Battle of the Line - here.

Re:Crap

[Maxo-Texas]

The "1st"?

You speak as if there were Matrix sequels.

Bill Pullman

[The Dancing Panda]

For everyone bashing Will Smith. He's the most popular actor around right now. There are several movie critics who stopped publishing reviews for his movies because what they say doesn't matter. Everyone's going to go see it anyway, because it's a Will Smith movie.

I still consider Bill Pullman to be the greatest president of our generation.

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.

Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today.

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.

We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation.

We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!

We will not vanish without a fight!

We're going to live on!

We're going to survive!"

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

Re:Crap

[bjl1960]

that movie was f*cking hilarious...