Roland Emmerich and his producing partner Dean Devlin are developing a big-screen reboot of their sci-fi adventure Stargate.
The director, whose sequel to his 1996 hit Independence Day opens in cinemas this week, is working with Devlin on a refresh of the franchise, which began with the 1994 film starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. Unlike Independence Day: Resurgence, it will not be a straightforward sequel.
Devlin told Variety that the original film was intended to be the start of a trilogy, but due to “rights and changes at the studio and all kinds of strange things, we never got to do parts two and three”.
“It’s not a story that can take place 20 years later,” Devlin said. “So the only way to really tell that trilogy is to go back from the beginning and start the story all over again.”
The script is currently being worked on by Resurgence writers James A Woods and Nicolas Wright and is being positioned as the start of a wider series of films.
“Today, studios tend to not think of movies as trilogies or sequels [but] as cinematic universes,” Devlin said. “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.”
The original film made $197m (£135m) internationally and was followed up with two TV movies, three TV series and an animated show. “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,” Devlin said.
