20 Century Fox is gearing up to make a sequel to the 1996 smash hit "Independence Day" but one of the lead actors might not be back to fight off an alien invasion. According to Deadline, Will Smith has decided that he doesn't want to be a part of "Independence Day 2."
Producers are hoping to have the project completed by July 4 weekend, 2016 in time for the first film's 20th anniversary. The release of "Independence Day" grossed $811 million worldwide and helped launch Smith's acting career.
Just because Smith, who played pilot Captain Steven Hiller, won't be back for the sequel doesn't mean the studio plans on nixing the project. A source told Deadline, that the film's writer is working on two scripts - one that features Smith as the lead and another without Hiller.
"I don't believe that Smith has had the final conversation yet with [director Roland] Emmerich, but that will likely happen shortly," Deadline writes. "I was told not to set this in stone, because Smith has been back and forth on whether to make the movie, although I hear he is pretty much decided."
According to Yahoo UK, money could be the big reason Smith has been going back-and-forth about a sequel. Emmerich told the site that the actor would be asking for a pretty high salary in order to come back.
"Not only his salary, his back-end," director Roland Emmerich said.
According to Yahoo, back-end deals usually involve movie stars receiving a percentage of box office gross. Because of Smith's success he could demand these types of deals before he even says yes to doing the movie.
"20 Century Fox [the studio making 'Independence Day'] is kind of fighting back-end at the forefront of all the studios," he said. "They cannot pay 25 percent to Will Smith, if they do, they will not do the movie."
Even if the actor isn't involved, Emmerich said he's still excited to do the film because of how far technology and computer graphics has come.
"When I did '2012' I almost realized how far visual effects had come along," he said. "They are far superior than they were in like 1995/96 [when the first film was made]. I said to myself we should work on the next 'Independence Day' because today we can do such incredible images. 'Independence Day' is about something so incredible happening. When you have talent for knowing what looks big and what looks not big in a movie, that's like kind of why I want to do it. I'll show you what a real invasion could look like."
