Exclusive: Roland Emmerich says Stargate franchise rights issues are too complicated to deal with

Back in 1994, writer/director Roland Emmerich and co-writer Dean Devlin brought us the sci-fi adventure film Stargate, a box office hit that launched a franchise, being followed by multiple TV shows, books, comic books, video games, and direct-to-video features. The most popular of those follow-ups was the TV series Stargate SG-1, which ran for ten seasons and then wrapped up with the aforementioned DTV movies. It’s been a while since we got any new Stargate to watch, though – and not for lack of trying. Back in 2014, it was announced that Emmerich and Devlin would be rebooting the franchise with a new trilogy of films, starting the story over again from the beginning and tell it to its completion. Then developed the idea for a couple of years, but then it all fell apart. Last year, we learned that Stargate is one of the properties Amazon is looking to revive now that they required MGM, the home of Stargate… but if they move forward with this idea, we shouldn’t expect Roland Emmerich to be involved. In an EXCLUSIVE interview with JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray, Emmerich indicated that he’s not interested in returning to Stargate anymore.

Bumbray caught up with Emmerich at the San Diego Comic-Con, where he was promoting his epic historical series Those About to Die, which is now streaming on Peacock. When Bumbray mentioned that he would like to see Emmerich spearhead a new Stargate TV series, the filmmaker replied, “The problem there is, it’s a very, very difficult IP. Different people own the IP and it’s very, very difficult to do stuff like that.” When Bumbray said Emmerich should be the one to make Stargate, if anyone’s going to, Emmerich said, “Yeah, but I don’t want to do it, really. I gave up.” So it seems the rights situation is so complicated, Emmerich doesn’t want to deal with it anymore.

The original Stargate had the following synopsis: In modern-day Egypt, professor Daniel Jackson teams up with retired Army Col. Jack O’Neil to unlock the code of an interstellar gateway to an ancient Egypt-like world. They arrive on a planet ruled by the despotic Ra, who holds the key to the Earth travelers’ safe return. Now, in order to escape from their intergalactic purgatory, Jackson and O’Neil must convince the planet’s people that Ra must be overthrown.

The film starred Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Viveca Lindfors, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, Leon Rippy, John Diehl, Carlos Lauchu, Djimon Hounsou, Erick Avari, French Stewart, Christopher John Fields, Derek Webster, Jack Moore, Steve Giannelli, Rae Allen, and Richard Kind.

What do you think of the Stargate franchise? Would you like to see Roland Emmerich return to the property? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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