Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

2012

1/21/09 - Sony is pushing back the release of Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic sci-fi movie 2012 to Nov. 13 from July 10, Variety reported.

11/20/08 – SCI FI Wire reported Amanda Peet, who plays a character in Roland Emmerich's upcoming apocalyptic film 2012, revealed a bit of the top-secret film's plot structure.  "So there are two stories, so basically, I don't know what I'm supposed to give away, but obviously the world is sort of in peril," Peet said. "And some people know that we're in peril, and some people don't. Like some people in the government. So there are a few different stories. And I'm with a family that doesn't know. So we're in a survival story, basically. ... I'm a civilian."  The film is based on the myth that the apocalypse will take place on Dec. 21, 2012, as foretold by the ancient Mayan calendar. Emmerich's version will feature floods, volcanic eruptions and typhoons.  In addition to Peet, the cast includes John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover and Thomas McCarthy. Peet plays Cusack's ex-wife, recently married to a very wealthy man.  2012 is set to be released on July 10, 2009.

10/7/08 - SCIFI Wire reported that Danny Glover will play the Commander in Chief in director Roland Emmerich's upcoming apocalyptic epic 2012. "I think it's a symbolic role within the film," Glover said in a news conference in New York last week while promoting Blindness. "2012 is ... what do they call Roland Emmerich? The king of destruction? So, you know, the Mayan cosmology says the world ends in 2012. This president happens to be elected in 2008." Glover added: "There's a really wonderful cast [that includes Woody Harrelson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, John Cusack and Thandie Newton]. Woody Harrelson and Chiwetel Ejiofor are really wonderful. But it's really interesting. I've never been in a film like this before. Well, I think the last thing I'd been in with all this destruction, like, that was Predator 2 or something like that, years ago. It's almost another lifetime, a lifetime ago." The film finds all of the characters dealing--each in his or her own way--with the reality that the world is crumbling around them. "It's as the destruction is happening," Glover confirmed. 2012 will open on July 10, 2009.

8/14/08 - Sony Pictures Imageworks has been awarded a substantial amount of visual-effects work on Roland Emmerich's upcoming apocalyptic movie 2012, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  The SF thriller recently started production in Vancouver, Canada, and will include a large number of visual effects. A July 10, 2009, release is planned. The production has a contingency plan in case of an actor’s walkout or strike.

7/10/08 - Singaporean actor Chin Han will next star in Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic movie 2012.  Han joins an ensemble cast that includes John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Danny Glover.  The movie, co-written and to be produced and directed by Emmerich for Centropolis Entertainment and Columbia Studios, begins shooting in Vancouver in August.

06/02/08 - Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt are in discussions to join 2012, Columbia's epic disaster project, which Roland Emmerich is directing.  2012 centers on a global cataclysm and tells the heroic struggle of the survivors.  Glover is in talks to play the president, with Newton in discussions to play his daughter. Platt is in negotiations to play the president's chief of staff.  John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor already are on board.  The studio is planning a July 10, 2009 release.

05/20/08 - John Cusack is eyeing 2012, a big-budget SF disaster film, as his next project.  The disaster film centers on a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells the heroic struggle of the survivors.  Cusack may play divorced dad, writer and sometime limo driver Jackson Curtis, who goes on a heroic journey to save his family. Ejiofor plays Adrian Helmsley, an idealistic science adviser to the president, who also becomes a hero.  The studio is planning a July 10, 2009 release.

12/31/06 - Michael Bay will direct this film with writing/producing partners Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci adapting Whitley Strieber's upcoming book for Warner Brothers.  The story follows an academic researcher who opens a portal into a parallel universe and makes contact with his double in order to stop an apocalypse foreseen by the ancient Mayans.

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