Back in February 2011, director Roland Emmerich revealed that he had not even started the script for Independence Day 2. Today, the filmmaker's Independence Day co-writer Dean Devlin said they finally have a story locked in that they want to make.

"I can tell you that Roland and I have been working together for the first time in 11 years and we're very excited about the idea of doing it. Whether or not we can make this happen, if we can get all the pieces to come together, that's gonna be challenging. But creatively, for the very first time since we did the original, I feel we have a worthy concept, a worthy path to go."

The writer-producer also talked about how he didn't want to make a sequel for so many years, to honor the experience of making the first movie.

"We resisted doing the sequel for years because we still wanted to honor the first one. The first one gave us all careers, and we really love that movie and loved the experience. We didn't want to make a movie because it was financially a good idea, we only wanted to do it when we had an idea and a concept that creatively felt like it honored the first one -- that it felt like an organic sequel as opposed to 'Let's just go make some more money.' I feel like we got it. I think it took a long time, but I feel like we finally got something that really feels like, 'That's worth seeing as a sequel to Independence Day.'"

We also reported in October 2011 that the sequel could face a major casting snag, with Will Smith reportedly demanding upwards of $50 million to appear in both Independence Day 2 and Independence Day 3. Dean Devlin says that they are just starting to talk to cast members, and that no deals are in place yet.

"We're beginning a long process of talking to everybody. We'll just have to see what happens."

In related sequel news, Dean Devlin also said that he would like to make a follow-up to his 1994 sci-fi tale Stargate, which spawned the TV shows Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, and Stargate Universe. Here's what he had to say about their initial plan to make a Stargate theatrical trilogy.

"Stargate has always had this empty hole. When we made the first one, we always intended on doing part two and three, and we were prevented for years. And our hope is that we can get another chance at Stargate and tell the entire story we wanted to tell."