If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.
The director of 'Independence Day,' 'Godzilla' and 'The Patriot' has certain attributes, all of which are given full vent in 'The Day After Tomorrow.' He's crude, stupid, slick, cornball, predictable, laughable, relentless, trivial and, the sum of all these, ridiculous. He's never made a movie you could believe and he still hasn't.
When I saw 'Independence Day,' I said, 'I want to be like Will Smith.' I want to do something like that. If he can do it, maybe one day I can come close to a set like that.
As for 'Independence Day,' we never intended to do any films in that series beyond the first one.
Many years ago, I was actually hired to write the sequel to 'Independence Day.' And I wrote a sequel. And they paid me a boatload of money to go write this thing. And after I wrote it, I read it and I gave them back the money and I said, 'Look, this is an okay movie I just wrote. But it's not worthy of the sequel to 'Independence Day.'
Every year thousands of Americans mistakenly refer to Cinco de Mayo as Mexico's Independence Day.
I am going to take something I learned over in Israel. Their Independence Day is preceded the 24 hours before with Memorial Day, so it gives them a chance to serve and reflect and then celebrate. I am going to try to start that tradition here in America.
Cinco de Mayo is an important day. The Mexicans had to defend themselves from the French. It is historically significant, but it is not Mexican Independence Day.