Roland Emmerich: If you want to assemble the same people, then you hav...

I always try to convince people that there has to be a lot of material about the subject matter, so they created a couple of pieces. One is about doomsday prophecies.

Roland Emmerich

couple trying people

The President of the United States has super star status. He's not a normal person, because he's protected like no other person in the world and if this man's life is in danger, the whole world is kind of in peril in a way, because the leader of the free world could fall into the hands of terrorists.

Roland Emmerich

stars men fall

We have certain things where we know they exist or "everybody knows they exist," but naturally nobody can photograph them, because they are so super secret. For example, the PEOC, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center exists, but nobody knows how it looks, but it's a so called bunker where he can survive a nuclear attack.

Roland Emmerich

presidential example secret

I was actually privately in the White House like invited by Clinton to screen 'Independence Day,' so I know how the private residence looks. I didn't snap a picture, but I have a photographic memory and then I could take a guided tour in the West Wing.

Roland Emmerich

white wings memories

It's very, very rare you find something really original and also because a lot of original stuff, most of the time has no chance, because it's so expensive to make something famous or put it in people's head that it's the one to see, it's like awareness has to be almost like at 80% or 90% if you make an expensive summer movie and that's very hard to do with anything an the White House naturally is in itself some sort of a trademark.

Roland Emmerich

white summer people

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.

Roland Emmerich

should-have believe thinking

I was, it was very high. Especially with international (box office), we did something that I didn't think this movie ["2012"] would do. I was very happy.

Roland Emmerich

boxes office thinking

A lot of stuff in Wikipedia is not true, and that goes for a lot of people. I sometimes think, "How can that happen?" But Wikipedia is maintained by people, and everybody can add stuff to it.

Roland Emmerich

wikipedia people thinking

There are many more good stories about Jaye Davidson.

Roland Emmerich

good-story stories

I knew that Jaye Davidson would not last because of that. I really liked him and thought he had incredible screen presence and talent, but I knew that he would not stay in that profession.

Roland Emmerich

incredibles talent lasts

When we shot "Stargate," he [ Jaye Davidson] came up to me at one point and said, "I don't like shooting movies," and I said, "Why?" "Too many people stare at me." I said, "Then you're totally in the wrong business."

Roland Emmerich

shots shooting people

I've said that "2012" was my favorite ensemble cast, because it was so evenly good.

Roland Emmerich

ensemble my-favorite said

When it comes to action, I'd say Mel Gibson and Will [Smith] were great.

Roland Emmerich

action

I would say, when it comes to comedy, I think Matthew Broderick was great.

Roland Emmerich

matthew comedy thinking

I've had the pleasure to work with a lot of very great actors. And they're too different to say who's the best.

Roland Emmerich

pleasure actors different

It's just one of those things. Everybody wants to do it, but it's really difficult. People had to wait for "Indy 4" for a decade, and the reason is because of the people involved.

Roland Emmerich

waiting want people

There are shots that I had to walk away from because we had to get the movie in the theaters. There are some in "Independence Day" and "Godzilla," but lately I got smart. I would plan it so I had enough time [to get it right]. That just comes with experience.

Roland Emmerich

enough-time independence smart

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.

Roland Emmerich

independence two years

It doesn't really matter if this movie's a success or not, because it's already out there.

Roland Emmerich

out because matter success

I thought it must be pure science fiction. But when I checked it out I found a lot of magazine articles that actually supported the theory behind the book which was incredible. That's when I decided to acquire the rights of the book and everything went from there.

Roland Emmerich

behind thought science book

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