It was two decades ago that director Roland Emmerich changed the face of blockbuster filmmaking withIndependence Day.
Some things remain (Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Brent Spiner and Vivica A. Theyre referring to the events of the first movie as the War of 96.
Its a totally different world than ours in a way.
These films are very optimistic in a way.
Do you feel that kind of optimism about the real world?
I dont feel it about the real world at all.
But you still allow yourself to dream, right?
I hope it doesnt need some bad aliens to unite us.
But its a different world.
Its not also really a sequel.
Theyre in a totally different spot in their lives.
And theres a new generation that grew up just ready to fight and defend their planet.
How has the technology of making the movie actually changed since doing the first one?
The first one was certainly groundbreaking for its time…
Even though we won an Oscar for visual effects, I was super frustrated in the first one.
I remember that, constantly saying, Oh my god.
Why cant we do this?
Why cant we do that?
We also didnt have as much money, in a way.
I felt like everything was possible.
You are not the first director to say that.
The technology had to catch up a lot.
I have a lot of projects where I have not dared maybe to touch.
But now Im saying, Oh, maybe I should do this now.
I dont put any scissors in my head, in my imagination now.
Thats kind of the big difference.
The first one I said, OK.
I can do this but not that.
What would some of those projects be?
Are they adaptations or original ideas that you have?
I have one project calledHappy Birthday, Mr. President, which is about the death of Marilyn Monroe.
I dont like to use actors as historic figures.
Thats not totally possible, but pretty soon.
Independence Daywas your seventh film.
It was your first real big budget film at the time.
And now, in that 20 years, youve done so many other movies.
How have you changed personally as a director in the way you work?
Im probably as obsessed as I ever was.
I dont know whats wrong with me.
Now because of digital cameras we can make more takes.
I have to say a lot of people constantly tell me that.
Maybe thats my German side of it.
I plan my movies pretty good so when Im shooting I know exactly what I want.
There are some directors who kind of have to find what they want.
It actually never was.
I think its like a professional pride, in a way.
Was it difficult to make the story fresh without just kind of doing a rerun of the first film?
We said to ourselves all the recurring actors have to start at a totally different point.
Then there was this kind of interesting new generation for me.
It may be also because I had turned 60 that it made it, for me, really interesting.
All these young pilots come from different backgrounds.
Two of them are kind of royalty.
One is the daughter of Bill Pullman and the other one is the stepson of Will Smith.
But the one thing that binds them is they all have this need for fighting for their planet.
Thats kind of what unifies them.
There was talk at one point of shooting two sequels back to back.
Obviously you havent done that.
But do you still have an idea for a third film if this one does well?
Its a very concrete idea for the third one.
And secondly, too many movies have done it now, so it doesnt have that novel aspect anymore.
Could you see yourself doing something like that for television at this point?
Im a big fan ofGame of Thrones.
Thats very high quality.
It would have to be that high quality.
Im a film man.
Yes, I would love to do something like that.
But I have no concrete project.
But its still in the making.
Its at the studio and were trying to put it back together.
Probably I will not direct because there is absolutely other stuff I want to do.
Whats the next thing…?
Well, you know, I never tell people my next film.
I finished a film.
I have to promote it for four or five weeks.
So the first thing thats on my agenda is vacation.
[laughs]
Independence Day: Resurgenceis out in theaters Friday (June 24).
