Although Twentieth Century Fox has been keen on having a sequel or two to their 1996 hit Independence Day, one thing has always been a formidable bump in the road- the price tag for the acting services of one Will Smith. But now that Fox has some cash burning a hole in its corporate pockets thanks to a little film called Avatar, they may just be willing to pay that price.
IESB is reporting that an unnamed source is telling them that Fox has locked Smith into a deal for a second and third Independence Day film, possibly set to film back-to-back. But don’t start making plans to camp out at your local cineplex waiting for this to open. Independence Day director Dean Devlin is first committed to the thriller Anonymous, while Smith’s next project will either be a third Men In Black installment or the fantasy The City That Sailed. Even with everything else is in place at the completion of those two projects, the earliest that cameras could roll would be 2011.
Of course, given that the original Independence Day grossed just north of a billion dollars worldwide in 1996, one has to ask the question why Fox didn’t feel like meeting Smith’s quote, which was probably a bit less than the reported $20 million and a percentage of gross profits he commands now, then.
Remember, Fox has not officially confirmed the story and IESB is quick to point out that they have not been able to verify things through a second source, so take it all with the requisite pinch of salt.
