2012 (2009)
2012 is an upcoming American post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Roland Emmerich. The film has an ensemble cast, including John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Woody Harrelson. The film will be distributed by Columbia Pictures. Filming began in August 2008 in Vancouver. 2012 is scheduled to be released on November 13, 2009.
Premise
The world is devastated by a cataclysm in the year 2012, leaving survivors to struggle for their lives.
Production
Director Roland Emmerich and composer-producer Harald Kloser co-wrote a spec script titled 2012, which was marketed to major studios in February 2008. Nearly all studios met with Emmerich and his representatives to hear the director’s budget projection and story plans, a process that the director had previously gone through with the films Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004). The film was shopped around with a production budget of $200 million. Later in the month of February, Sony Pictures Entertainment won over other studios the bid for the spec script and will distribute it under Columbia Pictures. The studio plans to make the film for less than the estimated budget.
Filming was originally scheduled to begin in Los Angeles, California, in July 2008, but instead commenced in Vancouver in August 2008. Due to the possible 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike, filmmakers set up a contingency plan for salvaging the film. Sony Pictures Imageworks was hired to create visual effects for 2012.
Marketing
The studio released a teaser trailer for 2012 that showed a tsunami coming over the Himalayas and interlaced a message about the world’s governments not preparing its population for the end of the world. The trailer ended with a message to viewers to “find out the truth” by searching on Google for “2012″. The Guardian criticized the marketing approach as “deeply flawed” since the film was not mentioned among the first few search engine results. The studio also launched a viral website published by the fictional organization Institute for Human Continuity where visitors could register for a lottery number to be part of a small population that would be rescued from global destruction.
Release
2012 was originally scheduled to be released on July 10, 2009. The release date was changed to November 13, 2009 to move out of the busy summer schedule into a time frame that the studio considered to have more potential for success. According to the studio, the film could have been completed for the summer release date, but the date change will give the film more time in the post-production process to complete visual effects.
Other Information
- Also Known As : Farewell Atlantis
- Genre : Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
- Filming Locations : Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
- Company : Centropolis Entertainment
- Release date : November 13, 2009
- Country : United States
- Language : English
Cast and Credits
- Directed by : Roland Emmerich
- Produced by : Roland Emmerich, Mark Gordon, Harald Kloser
- Written by : Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser
- Starring : John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Woody Harrelson
- Music by : Harald Kloser
- Distributed by : Columbia Pictures
Trivia
- The teaser trailer uses the exact same ambient music score from the trailer to The Shining (1980).
Links
Coldplay - British Band
Planet 51 (2009)
Autumn's Concerto