Can Chumbawamba be replaced with a sequel to Independence Day?

So, incredibly bummer summer news, you guys: Chumbawamba, a band that has actually been around for 30 years and became fleetingly famous for exactly one song that made sense only to people from the UK, has announced that they've broken up. And this means that something needs to fill the void of "ideas and melodies, endless meetings and European tours, press releases, singalong choruses and Dada sound poetry."

I can think of no better filler than another Independence Day movie. Who's with me?

When we last left our trusty planet rescuers in Independence Day, it was 1996 (that's 16 years ago, kids), Bill Pullman's character was the new President of Earth, Jeff Goldblum was the most accomplished cable repair guy in the universe, and Will Smith was a newly-minted blockbuster star. And all their characters were getting incredibly laid that night. Earth was safe from the swarming fleet of needlessly violent aliens (who, really, could have been compared to the white Europeans who came to North American and decided that the Native Americans who already lived there, um, didn't anymore), and their entire operation was destroyed.

Or so we thought. At least that's what ID4 co-writer/producer Dean Devlin wants us to think. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he says that he's re-teamed up with fellow co-writer/director Roland Emmerich for the first time in over a decade and they've both come up with a story that will make a sequel totally worthwhile and not just a blatant money-grabber. Well, that's a relief.

"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," Devlin explained. "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," he continued. "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.' "

Independence Day is a ridiculous movie, and that's exactly what it was supposed to be, and that's why I love it. This is easily one of the best examples of a movie whose expectations are different from something like, say, Avatar. When one watches Independence Day, they should only be expecting the following things: Will Smithisms, Jeff Goldblum stammering, a presidential speech that no nonfictional president would ever be able to deliver, and scary, scary aliens blowing up the freaking world. And that is exactly what we got, and that is why Independence Day is great.

So, what to expect from a sequel? If Goldblum is not on board, then I'm not sure I am, either. We're already going to miss Harry Connick, Jr., so Goldblum would just be missed way too much. (I hope Jeff Goldblum is aware of this.) Pullman's President Whitmore will no longer be president, so it's understandable if he's not on board. Smith... will probably do it, and it looks like he wants his meddling kids in it, too. But Crushable has another theory: Smith's character, Steven Hiller, as this movie's president. That "crazy enough to work" idea came from Emmerich in late 2010, and I have to say that if that's where they're going to take this movie, then I will follow. It makes some actual sense, too: Hiller was part of saving the world and has an exemplary military record as a result. Because he can fly alien spacecraft just by watching it, and this makes his foreign policy credentials bulletproof. Goldblum's character would never try to become president, and would probably be claiming to have invented Siri.

Guys, this might be a great idea. I think Devlin, Emmerich, and Smith should just take this thing off the deep end and go for it. The special effects will be amazing, it will make tons of money regardless of the reviews it gets -- and it might even be just as awesome as the first one. Maybe. But at least we can say it wasn't hastily thrown together for the empty purpose of making money. Devlin and Emmerich really look like they want to go on this ride again, and if they can pull it off, I say let's do it. Let's kick the tires and light the fires, Big Daddy.

As for Chumbawamba, there will be no sequel. But at least we'll have Run DMC.

(The Hollywood Reporter via Huffington Post)

• [tristan eldritch]

  Is this some kind of free jazz news reporting or something?  Atonality in journalism?  How are these things connected?

  • [Wreckrob8]

    There are always connections. You only have to want to find them.

  • [Colin Timothy Gagnon]

    No, no.  This is a brilliant, brilliant headline.

    • [tristan eldritch]

       Of course it’s a brilliant headline, that’s why i was so disappointed!  I was like “What a juxtaposition!  What’s the link?  Have Chumbawamba quit music in order to make belated sequels to 90s blockbusters?  Will Con Air be next?  Has a new kind of drug been discovered that causes synesthesia between belated sequels and Dadaist pop groups?”  The possibilities seemed endless.

  • [Joseph Francis]

     Is this post about me? It’s about me, isn’t it, because I did the CG on ID4. You guys, stop stalking me!
    :D

  • [hypnosifl]

    Speaking of strange connections, tristan, just two days ago I discovered your blog (I was googling for info on Kenneth Grant after reading this discussion of Alan Moore’s latest occult adventure) and I was immediately caught up perusing your many fascinating posts on arcane lore (one of your posts motivated me to read the fantastic weird tale “The House on the Borderland”, so thanks for that)…and now suddenly I come across you posting on boingboing! Amazing, the coincidences that pop up when one engages in internet scrying…

    • [tristan eldritch]

       Oh, thanks a lot, glad you enjoyed Borderland!

• [Romeo Vitelli]

  Of course, the aliens would be unstoppable this time around once they discover anti-virus software…

  • [Roger Strong]

    Western companies had no qualms about creating the “Great Firewall of China” or selling software to Syria to identify and locate dissidents. They wouldn’t hesitate to sell anti-virus software to the aliens.

  • [SomeGuyNamedMark]

     I still haven’t forgiven that movie for creating the worst plot device in history.

  • [Jim Saul]

    There you go… the antivirus software turns out to be incompatible with other systems and causes additional system failures.

    The aliens and our heroes race to get to the one artifact that can turn the tide one way or the other…

    The Boot Recovery Disk!

    “Today we declare our independence… from tech support!”

• [Dan Huby]

  What is in the Tubthumping lyrics that only makes sense to people in the UK?

  • [Todd Zaba]

     Agreed. Everything else in the post makes sense, except for that sentence. As an American, I am assuming I might be ignorant of some higher level commentary going on in the lyrics. If that is the case, please enlighten us.

  • [Dr P Fenderson]

    “In the UK, a tubthumper is a politician… The liner notes on the album Tubthumper, from which “Tubthumping” was the first single, put the song in a radical context, quoting a UK anti-road protester, Paris 1968 graffiti, details about the famous McLibel case and the short story “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubthumping

• [planettom]

  < Pullman's President Whitmore will no longer be president…

  I wouldn't discount the possibility that if a U.S. President managed to stop an alien invasion by personally flying an F-18 into battle and effectively saving the entire Earth, he would not only be designated President for Life, but President of Earth…For Life!

• [bzishi]

  And this time with the alien technology, the humans will be traveling to another system to exterminate/enslave/subjugate the native life and claim the planet for its resources.

  Oh, wait. That could never happen. What was I thinking?

  • [bcsizemo]

    It’s like we’d almost get a proper aliens movie then.

• [Teirhan]

  I of course wish to draw everyone to the glorious ideal that is Maoist Independence Day.  

• [MaximumOvertroll]

  16 years after saving the world americans elect a war hero… actually plauseable.

• [MaximumOvertroll]

  Independence day 2: memorial day weekend

  • [Jorpho]

    I propose  “Labor Day: The Rebuilding.”

  • [xian]

    They’re gonna BBQ the fuck out of those aliens.

• [Boundegar]

  Wait, a black president?  Somebody alert the Tea Party!

  …who are totally not racist.

  • [bcsizemo]

    If you really think about it the aliens targeted major cities first.  So in theory that’d leave a lot of your rural country folk unharmed.  Just imagine the political ramifications if the top 10 major US cities were gone…

• [angusm]

  When Chumbawamba is presented as an alternative to an “Independence Day” sequel, suddenly Chumbawamba doesn’t look so bad.

• [katkins]

  “I wouldn’t discount the possibility that if a U.S. President managed to stop an alien invasion by personally flying an F-18 into battle and effectively saving the entire Earth, he would not only be designated President for Life, but President of Earth…For Life!”

  Ah.  This explains W.

  • [Jim Saul]

    So what happened to the guy who crashed his into the ship and did the real damage? The one who was held and probed as established earlier in the movie?

    Oh yeah… McCain.

• [stammelford]

  Last I heard, Emmerich was too busy destroying Foundation to continue the planned Independence Day 2 (and 3…).  Proof that there is no just god.

  • [chris coreline]

    Foundation? you don’t mean…. no…. they wouldn’t dare.

    • [stammelford]

       Yep. Look it up.

• [Jorpho]

  Funny, I seem to recall that there were already murmurs of a sequel coming from way up in the chain right after the movie came out.

  • [penguinchris]

    Of course there would be since it was such a huge money maker… but it seems that the point here is that they didn’t do the sequel right away because they knew it would just be a cash grab and would suck. That makes me think surprisingly highly of the creators!

    I really don’t think Independence Day would be held in as high regard as it is (and yes, it is, even if most of it is actually terrible) if they’d had a shitty sequel right away and I applaud the filmmakers for realizing that too, for once.

• [Teller]

  I think Mr Emmerich’s plan is a prequel: The Day After Tomorrow Is Independence Day.

• [gauch0]

  How about Independence Day re-imagined as a Broadway one-man show starring Jeff Goldblum?

• [Baldhead]

  The thing that baffled me about hearing that Chumbawumba broke up is that publications like Rolling Stone imagined we’d care. One hit, 15 years ago. I suspect the number of people who knew they were still around was onlly slightly larger than the membership of the band itself.

  • [Lurking_Grue]

     Dude! They are my favorite Anarcho, Punk, Dance, Folk bands. 

    Seriously, I did have most of their major albums.   

  • [CastanhasDoPara]

    I’ll give you that over the years Chumbawamba has had many many different members but I’d wager an entire container ship worth of donuts that the fans still vastly out-number the members.

    Also while I’m here. I just love it that when I mention that I like Chumbawamba I get the goofiest looks from people who invariably say, “you like that stupid drinking song??!!” To which I should reply “if you ask me, that song being picked up in the states and broadcast a bazillion times on douche-rock stations was probably the single biggest fuck-up for the band.” Though I’m often less charitable and  just go with, “fucking ignorant yank.” Though if I can find somebody that will listen for a quick minute I’ll usually tell them to go look for “Homophobia”, “Give the Anarchist a Cigarette”, or the First Two albums. If you listen to any of those items it should quickly become apparent that American radio only plays garbage and that Chumbawamba is actually a really fucking good band.

    So check it out before you just blindly bash a group that you’ve only been spoon-fed one over-played poorly understood “one-hit”. Please and thanks.

  • [Steve Taylor]

    Hell no – love ‘em to bits. The thought of them breaking up makes me almost as sad as the thought of an Independence Day sequel.

• [i_prefer_yeti]

  The answer to the question is an unequivocal yes.

  Indeed, Chumbawamba can actually be replaced by a far less ambitious project such as: Megashark vs. Guy Fieri.

  Welcome Jamie!

• [howaboutthisdangit]

  As a former president, Pullman’s character would be an unofficial ambassador who brings the aliens to the negotiating table when all else has failed.

• [Mister44]

  You know, the whole CD Tubthumping is on is actually pretty good. I really like “The Good Ship Lifestyle”

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Now I feel compelled to ask if you also have Right Said Fred on CD.

    • [Steve Taylor]

       That’s incredibly harsh. Also incongruous.

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        Also incongruous.

        Not from the US perspective. They’re both considered one-hit disco wonders from somewhere over yonder.

    • [Mister44]

      No – I don’t. I am sure I have some embarrassing pop CDs in the overall collection.

• [chris jimson]

  I think what we need is a prequel to “Independence Day”– everybody loves prequels.

  How about the touching story of the aliens leaving their own planet with a tear in their eye, meanwhile at the same time back on Earth, Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum’s ancestors are using their fins to walk on land for the first time, saying goodbye to their watery home with a tear in their eye.

• [Richard Morris]

  Chumbawumba should not be judged by their hits. They were the voice of the radical British 80′s left. Starting with anarco-punk “Picture of Starving Children sell records” they have always been a political band. “English Rebel songs 1381-1984″ has one of the best selection of protest songs around charting a radical tradition back to 1381. They have collected the songs of rebel everywhere. Tubthumping was an attempt to take the message to a wider audience, which it succeeded. 

• [MattAtDoyle]

  I believe they should make a sequel to the movie “What About Bob?” entitled “Now What About Bob?” Jessie Eisenberg can play a confused lamp. At the same time, they can shoot a prequel, “Who’s Bob?” in which a CGI Bill Murray does nothing but eat loaf after loaf of bread for 2 hours.

• [penguinchris]

  And all their characters were getting incredibly laid that night.

  I feel as though I need to remind you that the first lady dies in the film, and so I somehow doubt that Pullman’s character got laid that night, though I suppose it’s possible. 

• [Jenn Chlebus]

  WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT. Jeff Goldblum… Will Smith…. I don’t care if it’s ID4.2 or a Buckaroo Banzai reboot. I want to see those two on camera together again. I have for years.

  Actually… Will Smith would make a convincing Buckaroo….

• [P.F. Bruns]

  It’s so obvious why there needs to be a sequel to Independence Day.  Think of the characters going through the same tribulations as Stantz, Zeddemore, Spengler, and Venkman in Ghostbusters 2

• [elron]

  This is really a small-minded article -making fun of an excellent band, Chumbawamba, just to wallow in fan-boy pleasure over the possibility of a sequel to Independence Day –a silly, poorly written blockbuster that ripped off Star Wars and Childhood’s End.