Independence Day 2 director confirms film will include gay character
Roland Emmerich, the director of blockbuster film Independence Day, and its upcoming sequel, has let slip in an interview that the the new film will include a gay character.
Despite secrets about the film, due for a 2015 release, being kept quiet, Emmerich gave away a snippet of information during the interview with the Huffington Post.
The director and LGBT activist discussed the film in the interview, and also said that he had been closely following two key equal marriage cases in the US Supreme Court. He was then asked if he would consider including gay rights in the storyline of one of his films.
“Actually in the next Independence Day there is a gay character,” Emmerich said. When asked for more information, he declined.
He said “I don’t know”, when asked if the White House would be blown up again in the sequel.
Emmerich did confirm, however that Bill Pullman, who played President Whitmore in the original, will return, but said that Will Smith would not because he is too expensive.
“We have maybe half of the people that you would know from the first film, and the other half people who are new,” Emmerich continued.
The openly-gay director said back in April that he would like to work on a more low-budget film about the 1969 Stonewall riots, the anniversary of which is on Friday.
“It’s one of these civil rights moments, like Rosa Parks,” Emmerich said, speaking to Empire magazine. “And very little is known about it. Even gay people don’t know much about it.”
“We have maybe half of the people that you would know from the first film, and the other half people who are new,” Emmerich added.
