Roland Emmerich Planning A Secret, Big New Project At Sony

Bill Pullman stands in conversation with Vivica A Fox, Will Smith, and Ross Bagley in Independence Day.
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

UPDATE: Deadline is reporting that the movie is called Singularity and is a sci-fi film, but they don't have much more info either.

Columbia Pictures has long been in the Roland Emmerich business, and with good reason. Yes, the master of disaster porn tends to make ridiculous, over-the-top, plot-heavy movies, but that's not what makes a studio build a decades-long relationship with a studio. The answer to that conundrum is money, which Emmerich's movies for Sony have made lots and lots of, starting in 1992 with the relatively successful Universal Soldier, going through the 90s with the monstrously successful Independence Day and Godzilla, and leading up to 2009's gleefully schlocky 2012 and the upcoming, WTF-inducing Anonymous (please watch the trailer before we go any further).

Who knows how Anonymous, a historical drama about the authenticity of Shakespeare's plays, will fare when it hits theaters this fall. It might not even matter for Emmerich, as it turns out, as he's already sold Columbia on his next project. According to THR they've picked up his next effort, which has no title and no plot they're willing to reveal. Emmerich wrote the script and plans to direct it, and rumor has it this is a planned "return to epic scope" for the director-- maybe the Independence Day sequel he keeps promising?

Emmerich had also been recently rumored as a potential director for Asteroids, the adaptation of the Atari video game, but it's unclear if this new secret project precludes that happening or not. Regardless, we know we'll be seeing plenty more from Emmerich in the coming years, and as an unrepentant fan of his gloriously huge films, I'm thrilled to hear it.

Katey Rich

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend