Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the architects of cinema's most popular alien invasion, have slightly differing accounts of how the original plans for Independence Day came to them. But they both agree that it began with the now-famous image of a massive spaceship looming over a city skyline.
The Origin Story
Emmerich recalls explaining the scope of the concept to Devlin at the latter's home: 'He lived in an area on a hill, so I said, let's go to the window – all of what you see would be [covered by] the underside of a spaceship. He said, where's the humor? And I said, there's a guy knocking out an alien saying "welcome to Earth." Then we learned that Tim Burton was doing Mars Attacks! We knew that movie was coming out in August, and we said, well, there's a great date before: Fourth of July. And that's why the movie is called Independence Day.'
Devlin has a different account: 'As I remember it, we were doing press for Stargate, and a reporter said, do you believe that aliens actually built the pyramids? We said no, and the reporter got angry. Then Roland said, what if we woke up tomorrow morning and walked outside to get the newspaper and above it was a 15-mile-wide spaceship blotting out the sun? Then he turned to me and said, I think I have our next movie.'
Bidding War and Casting
Emmerich and Devlin turned the idea into a full draft in weeks, inciting a multiple-studio bidding war. The film boosted the careers of everyone involved, especially Will Smith, putting him on the path to becoming the biggest star in the world. At the time of its release, it became the second biggest global grosser of all time, second only to Jurassic Park.
The film also starred Jeff Goldblum as a satellite engineer. The filmmakers modeled the story after the 1974 disaster movie The Towering Inferno. They had a clear idea for the central trio: Goldblum, Smith, and Kevin Spacey. Spacey was originally earmarked to play the US president, but Fox execs said no to both Spacey and Smith. The filmmakers stood their ground and the studio relented: they could have one of their preferred stars, but not both. 'We said OK, it's Will Smith,' says Devlin. Emmerich adds: 'We will find another president.'
Rewriting the President's Speech
The president role was rewritten for Bill Pullman, playing the commander-in-chief as 'the sweetest guy in the world trying to deal with compromise,' Devlin says. Pullman delivered what is probably Devlin's most famous piece of writing: the president's rousing speech. Devlin describes: 'I said to Roland, it's very much the St Crispin's Day speech in Henry V. Roland goes, oh great, we just have to write a speech as great as Henry V. So I said, I'm just going to vomit something out for now, but later we'll rewrite it. Time came to shoot the scene, and I realized I never went back to do that heavy rewrite. I panicked and raced to set. Bill knocked it out of the park and the extras went nuts. The only change I made was I added the line at the end: "Today we celebrate our Independence Day." I only added that because the studio wanted to change the name of the movie to Doomsday.'
Practical Effects and Success
The 72-day shoot was unusually short for a movie of this scale. Emmerich notes that many effects were done practically: 'The explosion of the White House was a model. We shot a lot of stuff with painted backgrounds and photographic backgrounds.' The film won an Oscar for visual effects. The teaser trailer was one of the highest-testing in studio history. The film's release was unexpectedly huge; Emmerich recalls 'endless lines' at theaters.
The Sequel Disappointment
The pair reunited for 2016's Independence Day: Resurgence, which neither speaks of fondly. 'It was a horrible, terrible experience. I'd like to pretend it didn't happen,' says Devlin. Emmerich adds: 'Will at the very last minute dropped out to do Suicide Squad. My first idea was not to do it. But there were so many people already involved. We had to come up with a whole new storyline. It was all very rushed.' Despite this, both are open to a third film involving Smith.
