Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich talk about the new Stargate reboot…

So we all are looking forward to seeing the world destroyed again in Independence Day: Resurgence but we should also remember that director Roland Emmerich is returning to his other iconic sci-fi franchise… Stargate.

Now it seems, as we reported many moons ago, Emmerich and co-creator Dean Devlin are returning to the franchise that probably sent them to the big time long before the aliens blew up The White House (two year, actually).

Stargate wasn’t just a movie, remember but also a very successful TV series, well, three actually, that consisted of over 350 episodes, so it’s a pretty big deal.

However, here’s the clincher – the new movie will be a reboot.

Emmerich and Devlin had planned Stargate as a trilogy and couldn’t make it happen back in the day, or so goes the story: “and because of what happened with the rights and changes at the studio and all kinds of strange things, we never got to do parts two and three,” says Devlin.

However, now they have the pull to do just that and they intend to tell the story they wanted to originally: “At the time that we made it, every single studio in Hollywood had told me that science fiction was dead,” says Devlin, “And Roland and I really love science fiction, so I think that’s partly why it worked and resonated. It wasn’t a cynical attempt to try and make something that was crowd-pleasing.”

The new entry in the series is being developed at MGM and Warners (MGM have the rights from the first time around) and is being penned by James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright, writers of Independence Day: Resurgence.

Devlin said that, although he loves where the franchise went originally, he and Emmerich really wanted to get back to the planned story: “It was taken away from us, and it’s tough to have your children raised by other parents, even if they do a very good job. … For us, it’s not putting down what has been done. It’s to let us finish telling our story.”

MGM President, Jonathan Glickman, felt the same and added: “the only way to really give a boost of adrenaline and give the franchise the rebirth that it deserves was to bring back Roland and Dean.”

However, although the new plan is the old plan (?!), Devlin adds that, in the current movie making industry, planned trilogies are only the beginning if something is successful enough: “Today, studios tend to not think of movies as trilogies or sequels (but) as cinematic universes. So as we’ve been developing it, we found all these avenues that allow it to expand. The foundation is exactly the same as what we wanted to do, but now the possibilities are much wider.”

As for the tone of the series and how it will differ from the original Kurt Russell and James Spader starrer, Emmerich told Empire that some of what the TV series did with the concept will be incorporated into the new movie(s): “Elements of [the series] will flow into the reboot, definitely. The amount of characters, for instance. It’s not a two-hander like the first one with James Spader and Kurt Russell, this time it’s a bigger group. Yes, there’s still the James Spader character and the Kurt Russell character, but other people are equally important. James and Kurt won’t come back – maybe as cameos – it’ll be a younger cast.”

We’re looking forward to seeing the new take on the franchise although, and we feel this way a lot these days – cough Ghostbusters cough – we wish there was a way to stay in the same universe and take the story in the new direction as it always troubles us when a beloved – and still relevant – series or franchise gets rebooted to the ruination of all that went before.

But, hey, maybe that’s just us…

Source: Variety and Empire Magazine