A few years after Independence Day premiered in theatres, Roland Emmerich faced immense pressure to write and direct a sequel. His sci-fi disaster movie was the highest-grossing film of 1996, raking in more than $US300 million at the domestic box office and $US800 million worldwide. It set a new standard for Hollywood blockbusters. Naturally, executives wanted another.

But Emmerich’s concerns lay elsewhere. He had recently swung by a bookstore after wrapping production on another project and picked up The Coming Global Superstorm, a book that blended fact and fiction while exploring the possibility of unprecedented environmental catastrophe in the near future. The details could seem a bit far-fetched. And yet, deep into pondering potential dangers that were more rooted in reality, Emmerich realised he had no time for alien invasions.

Washington Post