Dean [Devlin, Emmerich's partner on "Independence Day"] and I always said that we'd only do it when we had a really good story that excites us both, and we have the story written. And we've had it for a year and a half, two years. So we've been ready.

I'm finished with destroying for a while. It's not like I'm running around saying, 'What else can I destroy?'

["2012"] it was really more about the subject matter, and to do a modern retelling of Noah's Ark, a flood story.

If you want to assemble the same people, then you have a big problem.

That one [in "2012"] was different because it was all CG, getting washed away by water. In "Independence Day," everything was still done in models, built in a certain scale out of plaster, and packing tons and tons of little explosives and charges in there. We had a second one in case it didn't work the first time, but it worked the first time.

There's not really much destruction in New York besides the weather and it's a natural force so it's not like any destruction. But LA gets leveled (laughs). That's my comment to Hollywood.

I think every good, entertaining movie should have a message. I really believe that, because if you do it without it, the film feels a little bit soulless.