Roland Emmerich on Why He Spared New York in ‘2012’

In 2012 Roland Emmerich lays the following things to waste: the Washington Monument, the White House, Yosemite National Park, the city of Los Angeles, Christ the Redeemer, the Vatican, the Himalayas, Las Vegas, Air Force One, and a Buddhist Monastery. Notably absent from the carnage (besides the Kaaba in Mecca) is the fair city of New York, which Emmerich vaporized in Independence Day, flattened in Godzilla, and froze in The Day After Tomorrow. So we have one question: why?

We sat down with the German director yesterday, and while he didn’t digitally demolish us, he did let us know why New York got no “love”:

I’ve done it to the max. I just didn’t want to do it anymore. It was a conscious choice to stay away from New York this time. I knew people were going to say, “Oh Roland, so you’re destroying the world again.” And on top of it, “New York, how many times are you going to destroy that?” It was tempting, but I think New York is the coolest city in the world, so leaving it alone was nice.

Exactly as we suspected, New York is just too cool. Thanks, Paul Sevigny!