Two decades after the release of the epic Independence Day in 1996, filmmaker Roland Emmerich is now back with its sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, a science fiction disaster film made at a budget of about $200 million. The film stars Bill Pullman, Liam Hemsworth, and Judd Hirsch among others, and the story revolves around how the world returned to normalcy after the attack by aliens.
It begins at a Russian outpost on Saturn’s moon Rhea, the farthest human settlement in the Solar System. The outpost is destroyed along with most of Saturn’s rings when what looks like a black hole opens right next to it. The story then cuts back to a small African country in Congo, where David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) is investigating strange reports from the downed City-Destroyer that crashed nearby.
Shot at Los Angeles, London, Dubai and Singapore, Emmerich says that this film marks a return to the universe he and his co-writer-cum-producer Dean Devlin created two decades ago. “This world is very special to me, and I wanted to do justice to it and the characters,” says the filmmaker.
He added that making the sequel was a chance to employ visual effects that were far superior to those available 20 years ago. Slated for a release on June 24, the film will also be screened in Tamil.