Hi, Bryan Here….
Director Roland Emmerich has been talking to masses these last few days on his sequel to ‘Independence Day‘. A couple of days ago, he said that Will Smith won’t be returning as the lead as he is too expensive, but he is trying to work out a del with him for a small cameo role. However, he did say today when talking to movie.com, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum would be back in their respective roles.
That is all he said though. He offered no insight on what their characters would be up to. One would think that Pullman would still be some form of a leader with Goldblum’s character in charge of all the scientific stuff. I’m only waiting to hear if Judd Hirsch (Goldblum’s dad in the film) will return as well to provide some comic relief like last time.
As far as Will Smith goes, I don’t quite understand the whole money situation. He’s too much? What, are they making and indie ‘Indepence Day‘ with a budget of only $30 million? No, of course not. It’s going to be in the hundreds of millions. So why can’t they afford Will Smith? My opinion is that Will Smith draws a crowd and is very watchable and likable. He needs to be in the sequel or it won’t do as well as it could. Plus, we need to hear him yell, “Welcome to Earth” again.
Maybe Emmerich will add Bill Paxton to the cast and we can have a battle of the Bills.
Your thoughts?
I think after the “After Earth” poor showing, I think that it is a little more challenging for Will Smith to justify the salary. It is just a timing issue, if this was a year earlier or later, they probably would have reached a deal.
Of course, this could all be positioning too… the producers may be saying this as a bargaining position. This lack of pursuing him along with the afore mentioned floppiness may be the perfect timing to try and get a mega-star on the cheap.
I think Will Smith either wants $25-$20 million, or a smaller salary for a big back end profit point. They should do it. It won’t be the same without him.