Exclusive: Roland Emmerich Reveals What’s Coming for ‘Independence Day 2′

Though iconic, disaster-movie director Roland Emmerich will let loose his latest project, 'White House Down,' to the masses this week, talk has already honed in on his next big movie -- 'Independence Day 2.' Since Fox set a release date for July 3, 2015, inquiring minds want to know the latest details.

In the midst of all the recent information spilling out about the project, we spoke with Emmerich, who said he brought on his 'White House Down' scribe, James Vanderbilt, to give the present script a rewrite.

Currently, as Emmerich told ScreenCrush, 'Independence Day 2' doesn't have an "approved script," though he and Dean Devlin co-wrote a treatment that Vanderbilt is in the midst of rewriting. "There will be many more rewrites until we shoot the film, so a lot of things will maybe still change."

The director said in recent interviews that Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum will be reprising their roles from the first film, while Will Smith will not, due to the fact that "he's too expensive." Emmerich did confirm to us that, as was the case with the first 'Independence Day,' Pullman and Goldblum will play two of the leads in the sequel, and, as Emmerich teased, will be joined by at least one other lead.

I already talked to some well-known actors about availability, but I don't want to reveal anything because it's just -- you don't do that. It'll be a mix ... You bring old, original characters back, but also you bring younger, newer characters. And then you invent a couple of side characters, which are also kind of well-known actors. It will be a very complex, big cast. I think, also, that's what the people expect from 'Independence Day [2]' because the first one had so many characters and there were no clear leads in the movie. There were actually three leads. There was Bill Pullman, the Jeff Goldblum character -- and the most screen time actually had Jeff Goldblum.

Funny enough, Emmerich still won't come out and state that 'Independence Day 2' is officially his next project. As he told ScreenCrush, "I'm pretty sure this will all come together and that this will be my next movie, yeah. It's not 100% because nothing ever is 100%. It only is on the first shooting day," which he's planning for early next year.

Check back later for our full interview with Roland Emmerich, including details on 'White House Down,' crafting Channing Tatum into the script, more on 'Independence Day 2,' and his future project 'Singularity,' which is still happening.