2012 is an upcoming doomsday movie directed by Roland Emmerich. It has an ensemble cast that includes John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Woody Harrelson. (watch)
The film will be released on November 13, 2009 worldwide by Columbia Pictures.
The film's storyline is based on a global cataclysm that occurs leading to the end of the world in December 2012, as predicted by the Mayan calendar. The film's story has the survivors struggling for their lives, while a US government agency called the "Institute for Human Continuity" attempts to use ships to ensure the survival of the human race.
The film explores the idea of the global doomsday event coinciding with the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar's current cycle on or around December 21, 2012, which falls as the northern hemisphere's winter solstice.
The film was shopped around with a production budget of $200 million. Later that month, Sony Pictures Entertainment won the rights for the spec script, planning to distribute it under Columbia Pictures. The studio planned 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 and concluded in December 2008. Sony Pictures Imagewords was hired to create visual effects for 2012. Thomas Wander co-wrote the score with Harald Kloser.
The lead star in this movie John Cusack plays the role of a science fiction book writer who occasionally works as a limousine driver. Amanda Peet play his wife's role, Danny Glover plays the role of US President Wilson, Thandie Newton is Laura Wilson, the President's daughter. Woody Harrelson plays the role of Charlie Frost, a man who prophesies the end of the world and is considered a loony.
On November 12, 2008, the studio released the first teaser trailer for 2012 that showed a tsunami surging over the Himalayas and interlaced a purportedly scientific message suggesting that the world would end in 2012, and that the world's governments were not preparing its population for the event. The trailer ended with a message to viewers to "find out the truth" by searching "2012" on search engines.
British daily The Guardian criticized the marketing effectiveness as "deeply flawed" and associated it with "websites that make even more spurious claims about 2012".
The studio also launched a viral marketing website operated by the fictional Institute for Human Continuity, where filmgoers could register for a lottery number to be part of a small population that would be rescued from the global destruction.
The 2012 doomsday phenomenon, says Wikipedia, is a present-day cultural meme proposing that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur in 2012.
The forecast is based primarily on the Mayan Calendar which is presented as lasting 5,125 years and as terminating on December 21 or 23, 2012.
Much speculation has attached itself to this date, including interpretations of assorted legends, scriptures, numerological constructions and prophecies, and alleged channeling from extraterrestrials.
Some believe the planet and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Conversely, some believe that the 2012 date marks the beginning of an apocalypse. The 2012 doomsday prediction idea has been disseminated in numerous books and TV documentaries, and has spread around the world as an internet meme through websites and discussion groups.
The idea of a global event occurring in 2012 based on any interpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is rejected as pseudoscience by the scientific community, and as misrepresentative of Maya history by Mayanist scholars.
