As he continues to do press ahead of the release of his end-of-the-world effects thriller 2012, director Roland Emmerich has been asked by Latino Review about the state of a sequel to Independence Day. As the site notes, this was a project that, back in 2008, Fox said was basically being held up by the director.

So Latino Review put that to him, and got a slightly different take on matters. "Dean Devlin and I are still set to make a sequel likely because we've found some sort of idea," he said. "We approached Fox, and Fox has not quite figured out how to incorporate Dean's and my deal, and Will's [Smith] deal."

He then talked about how the studio had talked about doing the film without Will Smith, presumably to help cut down on the budget, but Emmerich seems to have put his foot down on the matter. "It's in limbo and lately the studios are fighting," he notes, going on to say, "So we'll see what happens. I would love to do it".

He does also, as part of the piece, confirm that there's a story already in place should the green light button be pressed.

From where we sit, mind - and feel free to disagree - it never really occurred to us that getting Will Smith back on board was a vital component of Independence Day 2. Truthfully, when we talk about the original film, it's more a chat about the movie's effects than even acknowledging that Will Smith was even in it. That's nothing against Will Smith, it's just one of those kind of movies. Factor in that Smith wasn't really a global star in quite the same way back in 1996 when the film came out, and we're finding ourselves oddly sympathetic to Fox's position.

You can find the Latino Review piece here.