MGM, Warner Bros. Launching 'Stargate' Trilogy With Roland Emmerich to Direct

A metal ring covered in ancient symbols, called a Stargate, offers a team of scientists led by Kurt Russell and James Spader through a wormhole into a distant galaxy with foreign species in the original 1994 sci-fi film. The adapted Showtime series Stargate SG-1 picks up a year later, when an Air Force special operations team must defend Earth from outside attacks.

UPDATED: Dean Devlin will produce the project.

MGM and Warner Bros. are launching a new feature film trilogy based on the 1994 film Stargate.

Roland Emmerich, who directed and co-wrote the original film with Dean Devlin, will direct and Devlin will produce.

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MGM will be running production on Stargate, with Jonathan Glickman, president of the motion picture group, overseeing the project on behalf of MGM and Greg Silverman, president of creative development and worldwide production, overseeing for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Worldwide distribution will be handled by Warner Bros. Pictures, with select international territories to be handled by MGM.

At the time of its release, the sci-fi film Stargate, starring Kurt Russell and James Spader, set the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend in October and went on to gross nearly $200 million worldwide at the box office.

Emmerich is currently shooting gay rights drama Stonewall, which is set amid the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York. He is also in pre-production on ID Forever Part I and Part II, back-to-back sequels to his film, Independence Day. He's repped by CAA.

Devlin is currently in pre-production on Warner Bros.' Geostorm, his feature directorial debut, which he co-wrote with Paul Guyot.

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Twitter: @Beccamford