This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
If the planet is going to be destroyed, it's time to call up Roland Emmerich.
The director of the 1996 action drama "Independence Day" is back for the sequel, "Independence Day: Resurgence," set 20 years later as a new generation of fighters (including Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher) must do battle with more marauding space aliens.
Some of the original crew is back: Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox and Brent Spiner. (Will Smith is notably absent from this list.)
Shooting the movie, Emmerich said at the recent CinemaCon in Las Vegas, "felt like a class reunion with some new kids thrown in."
One of the "new kids" is Sela Ward, playing America's first female president.
Said Ward, "I felt like I was such a bad-ass president, I might throw my hat into the ring."
"Independence Day: Resurgence" opens in theaters June 24. See the full list of movies set for this summer at http://www.sltrib.com/entertainment/3817653-155/summer-movie-preview-blasts-from-the .