Director Roland Emmerich discusses the hasty rewrites needed for Independence Day: Resurgence following Will Smith's departure from the film. Emmerich is known for his raucous disaster spectacles, including Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012. Upon its release in 1996, Independence Day captured the attention of theater-goers worldwide on its way to becoming the highest-grossing movie of the year. It also acted as a star-making vehicle for Smith, who was mainly known for his comedic antics on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, though he had starred in Bad Boys in 1995.
Given the success of Independence Day, a sequel movie seemed like a foregone conclusion. However, audiences would have to wait 20 years for it to materialize in the form of 2016's Independence Day: Resurgence. The sequel saw Emmerich back in the director's chair, with some returning cast in Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, and Brent Spiner. Unfortunately, Resurgence missed with critics and audiences, who found it lacking the fun of the original film, though its worldwide gross made it financially successful. Many pointed to the absence of Smith in Independence Day 2 as a contributing factor, as the film killed his character off in a dialogue exchange, with audiences getting little more than a photo of Captain Steve Hiller.
In a recent interview with The Wrap, Emmerich opened up about Smith's exit from Independence Day: Resurgence. While Emmerich asserts his pride in the film, he also states that the team had "one problem: Will Smith decided while we were preparing, to drop out." Emmerich describes Smith's departure as a "huge blow." However, since the director and his crew had already spent over $10 million, Emmerich chose to push on, sequestering himself and two other writers in his apartment, where they rushed to rewrite the entire script in only two weeks. Check out Emmerich's comments below:
"I’m proud of Independence Day: Resurgence but we had one problem: Will Smith decided while we were preparing, to drop out. That was a huge, huge blow to me. At that point I had to decide, should I keep going or not? I realized we had spent $10 or 12 million and you don’t drop out easily ... I got two young writers and we locked ourselves in my New York apartment, because one couldn’t leave New York, he had a TV show there. And we wrote a new script in two weeks. We had to. There were daily calls from [Fox president] Emma Watts at that time."
It is rumored that Smith left Independence Day: Resurgence to make Suicide Squad instead. David Ayer's Suicide Squad was released the same year, and was similarly met with mixed critical and audience reception, while still still being financially successful. However, given the lackluster reviews of Resurgence, the rushed rewrites prompted by Smith's exit could be seen as a major reason the quality of the film suffered. Having to write out what was likely a prominent character in Steve Hiller means that the script needed more than just a bit of work, which could have ultimately tarnished the final product and storyline.
Despite being plagued with behind-the-scenes issues on Resurgence, Emmerich had plans for more Independence Day movies, as the second film ended with the tease of more, and an Independence Day 3 was planned. However, while Emmerich has stated that he would like to revisit the franchise at some point in the future, he's still hard at work crafting his unique brand of disaster films. Emmerich's next spectacle, Moonfall, releases February 4 and sees Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson working to stop the moon from crashing into Earth. So, while audiences may not get to see a follow-up to Independence Day: Resurgence, Emmerich is still offering bombastic theater-going experiences.
Source: The Wrap