Master destroyer Roland Emmerich wants to do another "Independence Day," but apparently, it's not that easy to get the ball rolling on a sequel to the 1996 sci-fi hit flick, which bagged $817 million worldwide.

Emmerich is currently out promoting his new action film "2012," and the guys at Latino Review asked the filmmaker about the status of a potential second "ID4." Right now, things don't look all that great.

Emmerich said he and Dean Devlin are ready to develop the project, but Fox is having issues working out the filmmakers' and Will Smith's deals. And, of course, you can't have "ID4" without Will, right?

Here's what he had to say:

Will wants to do it in some sort of a package they can live with.  So it's just been in negations now since forever, and naturally FOX says “Why don’t you do it without Will Smith?” I said Will is essential for us, for this movie and actually for the audience too. And, so, it's in limbo and lately the studios are fighting.

Yeah, Smith is an expensive guy, sure, but he can pull in a bunch of money as well. I'm pretty sure a second "ID4" would eventually pay off for everybody with Will Smith in the lead, but then again, studios are quite careful these days.

Meanwhile, it seems that the "blowing up Earth" biz is still booming, no? Head to Latino Review for more.