Twenty-five years after the film’s debut, Independence Day director Roland Emmerich says he had to fight Fox to get the film to open on July 4.
Independence Day Director Roland Emmerich revealed in a new oral history celebrating the film’s 25th anniversary that he had to fight for the film to open on July 4.
“I told the studio, ‘There’s a Tim Burton movie. It’s a comedy. The comedy can’t come out first,'” Emmerich said. The Hollywood Reporter. “‘So we have to tie Independence Day.'” The comedy Emmerich was referring to was Burton’s Attacks on Mars, which was scheduled to hit theaters in August 1996.
The director added that the film’s planned release date was questioned after then-studio director Bill Mechanic said the title did not perform well in testing. “[He] He came up to me and said, ‘We tested the title. It is not working very well. We want to open this movie on Memorial Day, ‘”Emmerich explained.” I said,’ Bad luck. It is still Independence Day. It will be released on Independence Day. ‘
During the same conversation, Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin also revealed that the studio disagreed with showing the White House being blown up by aliens in the film.
“One of the things we had from the beginning was the idea of blowing up the White House in a television commercial,” Devlin recalled. Emmerich added: “I got the idea that the announcement is: July 2, you see the shadows; July 3, you have fire coming in; July 4, the White House explodes. It was such a simple concept, and Fox I hated it “.
Devlin further revealed that Fox thought the scene would be portrayed as insensitive following the bombings by anti-government extremists in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Devlin noted that his argument was, “Yes, but that was not done by aliens.” They decided to keep the scene and debuted as part of the first trailer for the film, which premiered during Super Bowl XXX in 1996.
Directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Vivica A. Fox, and Brent Spiner. Emmerich, Pullman, Goldblum, and Fox also returned for the 2016 sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, which added Jessie Usher and Liam Hemsworth.
Fountain: THR
About the Author
Reference-www.cbr.com
