SilverKnight
01-01-2012, 05:00 PM
Roland Emmerich on his " 2012 " film and how the film [almost] didn't become a reality.
2012 Marks the End
Source: Yahoo 7 News, Australia (http://au.news.yahoo.com/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/6436455/2012-marks-the-end/)
Forget alien invaders, apocalyptic asteroids or super volcanoes. The world will come to a cataclysmic end on December 21, 2012. That's not just a mythical date. It's when the ancient Mayan calendar comes to an end, and it's a date of extreme concern for astrologists.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8240/1278394576.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/215/1278394576.jpg/)
For starters, it's when the Sun aligns with the Earth and the centre of the Milky Way, something that happens once every 25,800 years. And that can cause pole shifts, crust displacements, solar flares or a new ice age.
Now for the double whammy, because that same date is when the mysterious, newly discovered planet Nibiru comes so close to Earth's orbit it will knock it off its axis, causing cosmic carnage.
Yes, it's the end of the world as we know it - and Roland Emmerich feels fine.
Of course, the science behind it is hogwash. There is no planet Nibiru and the Earth, Sun and Milky Way align every year without incident. It's simply cleverly marketed conspiracy theories that Emmerich has tapped into for his doomsday blockbuster, 2012.
Just Google 2012, he says, and you will find a huge number of websites debating the doomsday date. Even NASA scientists have weighed into the kind of paranoia that has Emmerich happy as a clam.
The German-born director and renowned master of disaster behind Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow has done what many Hollywood studios said was "undoable". He's about to shake multiplexes to their foundations with 2012, the planet- killing disaster movie to dwarf all others.
"There's a fascination to all this destruction," Emmerich says in a strong German accent that sounds amusingly like Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Not just for me but for the audiences seeing it. There's a certain beauty in these chaotic scenes."
A tsunami rolls over the Himalayas. California falls into the sea. An aircraft carrier washes over the White House. It's global destruction in slow motion, though it's cheesy enough not to take itself seriously.
"I like big movies with big casts and lots of interesting characters involved," Emmerich continues. "I like that they're not superheroes but ordinary people from all walks of life. They are likable people who audiences want to follow what happens to them."
Struggling to survive is John Cusack's writer, whose knowledge of ancient prophecies - and skills as a limo driver - help save his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and family. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the government scientist who decodes the mystery, while Danny Glover has the role that seemingly goes hand-in-hand with disaster movies, the US president.
With its budget of well over $US200 million ($222 million), 151 minutes of nonstop global destruction and a record 1000 big special-effects shots, 2012 is sure to make jaws drop.
"There were over 200 shots that were purely done in the computer with no human element at all," Emmerich says. "Everything was shot on soundstages, even the exterior shots. We just tried to do the biggest destruction scenes ever. I kept saying, 'bigger, we can go bigger'."
"I think in that way it's a bit of a watershed moment in movie history." Yet 2012 almost didn't happen because he was tired of the tag "master of disaster".
"I am the most gentle guy!" he chuckles. "I'm a lover not a fighter, and I don't want to be reduced to that. So I had sworn off disaster movies after the last one. I felt I did what I wanted to do with the genre, and I remember saying I would only do another one if it was something very special."
That something started at the end of his last film, 10,000 BC, which included a modern re-telling of global floods. Emmerich had optioned a book called Fingerprints of the Gods, which talked about earth-crust displacement and its ability to create global floods.
"I told my co-writer Harald (Kloser), 'This is another disaster movie and I don't want to do that again.' But then we came up with the idea of the government secretly building these massive modern 'arks' for mankind to survive. So the more we discussed it the more I realised it would be a cool movie to do. And Harald kept saying, 'If you don't do it, someone else will'."
"When I finally decided to do it, I said, 'OK, let's make the mother of all disaster movies'."
While some studios said such a spectacle was "un-filmable", others were bidding to make it. Emmerich eventually chose Sony Pictures for its marketing campaign, which included a two-minute trailer simultaneously aired on 450 TV outlets in the US, meaning almost every American watching TV at the time saw it. Fake websites linked to 2012 paranoia and the Mayan prophecies also piqued interest.
It's anyone's guess if 2012 tops Emmerich's alien-invasion box office smash Independence Day, which was the fastest film to earn $US100 million at the time. But the "master of disaster" is accustomed to breaking records. Heck, he breaks everything in his sights.
And how will he top it?
"I won't! I would not know how to top it. So this is my last disaster movie, that's for sure!" he says.
Yeah, right.
2012 Marks the End
Source: Yahoo 7 News, Australia (http://au.news.yahoo.com/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/6436455/2012-marks-the-end/)
Forget alien invaders, apocalyptic asteroids or super volcanoes. The world will come to a cataclysmic end on December 21, 2012. That's not just a mythical date. It's when the ancient Mayan calendar comes to an end, and it's a date of extreme concern for astrologists.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8240/1278394576.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/215/1278394576.jpg/)
For starters, it's when the Sun aligns with the Earth and the centre of the Milky Way, something that happens once every 25,800 years. And that can cause pole shifts, crust displacements, solar flares or a new ice age.
Now for the double whammy, because that same date is when the mysterious, newly discovered planet Nibiru comes so close to Earth's orbit it will knock it off its axis, causing cosmic carnage.
Yes, it's the end of the world as we know it - and Roland Emmerich feels fine.
Of course, the science behind it is hogwash. There is no planet Nibiru and the Earth, Sun and Milky Way align every year without incident. It's simply cleverly marketed conspiracy theories that Emmerich has tapped into for his doomsday blockbuster, 2012.
Just Google 2012, he says, and you will find a huge number of websites debating the doomsday date. Even NASA scientists have weighed into the kind of paranoia that has Emmerich happy as a clam.
The German-born director and renowned master of disaster behind Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow has done what many Hollywood studios said was "undoable". He's about to shake multiplexes to their foundations with 2012, the planet- killing disaster movie to dwarf all others.
"There's a fascination to all this destruction," Emmerich says in a strong German accent that sounds amusingly like Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Not just for me but for the audiences seeing it. There's a certain beauty in these chaotic scenes."
A tsunami rolls over the Himalayas. California falls into the sea. An aircraft carrier washes over the White House. It's global destruction in slow motion, though it's cheesy enough not to take itself seriously.
"I like big movies with big casts and lots of interesting characters involved," Emmerich continues. "I like that they're not superheroes but ordinary people from all walks of life. They are likable people who audiences want to follow what happens to them."
Struggling to survive is John Cusack's writer, whose knowledge of ancient prophecies - and skills as a limo driver - help save his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and family. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the government scientist who decodes the mystery, while Danny Glover has the role that seemingly goes hand-in-hand with disaster movies, the US president.
With its budget of well over $US200 million ($222 million), 151 minutes of nonstop global destruction and a record 1000 big special-effects shots, 2012 is sure to make jaws drop.
"There were over 200 shots that were purely done in the computer with no human element at all," Emmerich says. "Everything was shot on soundstages, even the exterior shots. We just tried to do the biggest destruction scenes ever. I kept saying, 'bigger, we can go bigger'."
"I think in that way it's a bit of a watershed moment in movie history." Yet 2012 almost didn't happen because he was tired of the tag "master of disaster".
"I am the most gentle guy!" he chuckles. "I'm a lover not a fighter, and I don't want to be reduced to that. So I had sworn off disaster movies after the last one. I felt I did what I wanted to do with the genre, and I remember saying I would only do another one if it was something very special."
That something started at the end of his last film, 10,000 BC, which included a modern re-telling of global floods. Emmerich had optioned a book called Fingerprints of the Gods, which talked about earth-crust displacement and its ability to create global floods.
"I told my co-writer Harald (Kloser), 'This is another disaster movie and I don't want to do that again.' But then we came up with the idea of the government secretly building these massive modern 'arks' for mankind to survive. So the more we discussed it the more I realised it would be a cool movie to do. And Harald kept saying, 'If you don't do it, someone else will'."
"When I finally decided to do it, I said, 'OK, let's make the mother of all disaster movies'."
While some studios said such a spectacle was "un-filmable", others were bidding to make it. Emmerich eventually chose Sony Pictures for its marketing campaign, which included a two-minute trailer simultaneously aired on 450 TV outlets in the US, meaning almost every American watching TV at the time saw it. Fake websites linked to 2012 paranoia and the Mayan prophecies also piqued interest.
It's anyone's guess if 2012 tops Emmerich's alien-invasion box office smash Independence Day, which was the fastest film to earn $US100 million at the time. But the "master of disaster" is accustomed to breaking records. Heck, he breaks everything in his sights.
And how will he top it?
"I won't! I would not know how to top it. So this is my last disaster movie, that's for sure!" he says.
Yeah, right.