Roland Emmerich has an unusual career that bounces back and forth between smaller-scale historical dramas and action films in which the entire Earth is in jeopardy. In the former category, he’s offered up The Patriot, Anonymous, and the upcoming Stonewall. In the latter, he’s gifted the world with Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012. And with that Independence Day sequel on the docket, Emmerich is keeping his artistic sensibilities balanced with another historical drama, this one about a Mayan warlord.
According to Deadline, Emmerich has acquired the film rights to John Coe Robbins’ historical novel Maya Lord. Loosely based on limited historical details, the novel tells the story of a Spaniard named Gonzalo Guerrero who was shipwrecked in the New World and enslaved by Mayans in 1511. Guerrero made the best of a bad situation, eventually rising to prominence, by marrying a Maya chieftain’s daughter, and helping to defend the Mayan people against Cortes and other conquistadors.
Of course, with Stonewall and more Independence Day on his plate, Emmerich won’t begin work on Maya Lord for some time. And by that point aliens, natural disasters, and/or Godzilla will probably have destroyed all but a handful of nerdy guys and the women who love them, making this whole discussion moot.