Independence Day Director Rules Will Smith Out of Sequel

Roland Emmerich, director of Independence Day, spoke with the New York Daily News today about his upcoming film White House Down, and along the way was pressed for details about the Independence Day sequel announced earlier this week by 20th Century Fox.While Emmerich was not previously confirmed as attached to the film, it was widely assumed that he would be, especially since he’s spoken about his desire to make one intermittently for years.”Will Smith can not come back because he’s too expensive, but he’d also be too much of a marquee name,” Emmerich told the newspaper. “It would be too much. We have like maybe half of the people that you know would know from the first film and the other half people who are new.”Saying that the new film isn’t quite a reboot, but something “really unusual,” Emmerich added that he hopes to follow it up much sooner than this time around, calling it “the first of a two part story, tentatively titled ID Forever Part I and Part II.”