Roland Emmerich Talks Up 'Independence Day' Sequels, Teases Will Smith As President

For years there have been rumors of a pair of Independence Day sequels that would bring aliens back to Earth, only to find that we'd learned a lot from the previous invasion and re-engineered enough alien tech to put up a formidable fight.

Roland Emmerich hasn't done much to expand upon the rumors in the past, besides agreeing that he'd like to make the films, but now he's finally talking in a bit more detail.

Speaking to MTV (months ago, but only run today by the site) Emmerich said that he has ideas for two sequels: ID4-ever Parts I and II. Setting aside the atrocious titles (which are titles we've known for a while) let's go to the director's actual comments about the film(s):

It's an alternate reality kind of movie...We pick up the story, what would have happened after this kind of attack? Naturally, the alien technology has changed everything.

MTV also asked if the White House would be rebuilt in the wake of the destruction of the landmark in the original film. And if so, who is president of the US? Emmerich said,

Or, who will be president? Who will be president? See?

Yep, we see. Will Smith's character, heroically victorious against the alien forces in the original, somehow takes the country's top office.

MTV also asked Bill Pullman, aka the POTUS in the original, about the ideas.

It would be a challenge, just creatively with the studio, how much money it would take to make it, whether Will would come and do it and what the story would be...Isn't [Emmerich's persistence] beautiful? He is one guy who may be able to pull it off. He doesn't let it die. And people seem to want to hear that it's gonna be done...There's a twinkle in his eye when he talks about it.