It’s been a long time since Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich created the sci-fi franchise, Stargate – a light piece of fluff with Kurt Russell and James Spader that somehow grew, following a decent box office run, into a huge television franchise, Stargate SG-1 and its various offshoots.
You might think that, due to the TV show and the subsequent big-screen success of Devlin and Emmerich, that a movie sequel was never going to happen.
Not so, says Devlin, who revealed today at the San Diego Comic-Con that he always thought of Stargate as a trilogy – and he plans to finish the story.
“The interesting thing is that now we’ve done Flyboys as an independent film, we made a deal with MGM to release the film,” said Devlin, referring to the WWI fighter pilot flick that he was ostensibly there to promote. “I have made a several picture deal to release films through MGM and suddenly now I’m finally in a position where I can do those sequels, and so I’m in talks with MGM about doing parts two and three, which I’ve always wanted to do.
“I think we’ll probably let this live as its own thing and try not to interfere in the SG universe,” added Devlin, “because there’s such a big bible now that you could enter really tricky territory. And I think this can stand on its own, so we’ll be careful not to tread on any toes.”
It’s very early days, so there’s no word on plot or, indeed, on whether Russell or Spader would return – but, given that they’re a decade older, it’s unlikely. It’s also probable that Emmerich won’t return for the movie – he and Devlin haven’t worked together since The Patriot, in 2000.
One more element that’s also up in the air is whether there’s an appetite for a sequel to a film that was initially nothing more than a modest hit, and was most notable for its excellent special effects, the intriguing central premise (people can travel anywhere across the universe via the titular teleportation device) and Kurt Russell’s severe buzz-cut.
But the movie world is no stranger to sequels outperforming their original after a strong DVD/TV/VHS afterlife – think T2 and the Austin Powers sequels - and , given the cascade of warm applause that greeted Devlin’s announcement, this project may be more keenly anticipated than you think.