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2012 (film)

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Revision as of 18:45, 15 November 2009 by Davehoekst (talk | contribs) (Reverted Vandalism)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about the film. For metaphysical and cosmological predictions centered on December 21, 2012, see 2012 phenomenon.
This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (November 2009)
2009 United States film
2012
Theatrical poster
Directed byRoland Emmerich
Written byHarald Kloser
Roland Emmerich
Produced byRoland Emmerich
Mark Gordon
Harald Kloser
Larry J. Franco
Ute Emmerich
StarringJohn Cusack
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Amanda Peet
Thandie Newton
Oliver Platt
with Danny Glover
and Woody Harrelson
CinematographyDean Semler
Edited byDavid Brenner
Peter S. Elliott
Music byHarald Kloser
Thomas Wander
James Seymour Brett (additional score)
Production
companies		Centropolis Entertainment
The Mark Gordon Company
Distributed bySony Pictures Entertainment Columbia Pictures
Release datesNovember 11, 2009 (World premiere)
November 13, 2009 (Canada & US & UK)
November 21, 2009 (Japan)
Running time158 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS$ 260 million
Box office$65,000,000

2012 is a 2009 action disaster film based loosely on the 2012 phenomenon and 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 was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Filming began in August 2008 in Vancouver. The film is set in a modern setting and only brushes on Mayanism and the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. The budget of the film is $200 million, making it the 2nd most expensive film in history.

Plot

In 2009, the sun emits a massive solar flare. American scientist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) travels to a copper mine in India to meet his friend, Satnam (Jimi Mistry), who has discovered that Earth's core temperature is increasing rapidly. Adrian returns to Washington D.C. and submits a report to Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), who immediately takes him to see US President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover). In 2010, Wilson tells other heads of state and heads of government the situation at the 36th G8 summit and the creation of a number of arks begin in preparation for the world ending. To fund the venture, billionaires are allowed a ticket for one billion euros.

In 2012, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a divorced father who works as a limousine driver and writer. His ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) and their children Noah (Liam James) and Lily (Morgan Lily) live with her new boyfriend, plastic surgeon Gordon (Thomas McCarthy). Jackson takes Noah and Lily on a camping trip to Yellowstone, where they meet Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), a radio show host and conspiracy theorist who believes in the Mayans' prediction of the world ending in 2012. The family return home as cracks begin to develop along the San Andreas Fault in California and earthquakes occur in the San Francisco Bay area. Despite government assurances that all is fine, Jackson grows suspicious and hires a private plane to rescue his family and Gordon. As the Earth's crust displacement begins, Jackson collects his family and escape Los Angeles as it collapses into the Pacific Ocean.

As millions begin dying in apocalyptic earthquakes the world over, the group fly back to Yellowstone to collect a map from Charlie so they can try and reach the arks. They narrowly escape as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts, killing Charlie who remains behind to watch. Realising the arks are in China, the group lands in Las Vegas and meets up with Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buric), who Jackson works as a limo driver for. Karpov, his twin sons, girlfriend Tamara (Beatrice Rosen) and pilot, Sasha (Johann Urb) join the group as they head across the Pacific.

President Wilson meanwhile elects to stay behind in Washington D.C., and dies when a tsunami hits the city, while Anheuser escapes with Helmsley and First Daughter Laura Wilson (Thandie Newton) on Air Force One, also bound for the arks. In the wake of the President's death, Anheuser appoints himself Commander-in-Chief.

Crash landing in the Himalayas, Jackson and his family are deserted by Karpov, who has a ticket for himself and his son's onto the arcs. Jackson however is able to get aboard with the help of a Buddhist monk, Nima (Osric Chau) and his brother Tenzin (Chin Han) who worked on the ark project.

Tsunamis begin to engulf the Indian peninsula as heads of state, hand-picked individuals chosen to repopulate the Earth and the rich elite who bought the tickets begin boarding. Adrian realises they have much less time than anticipated and Anheuser orders the arks be sealed early, although in conference with other G8 leaders Adrian, quoting Jackson's book, manages to convince them to open the gates and let the remaining people on board.

Below decks Jackson's group is sneaking aboard, but as the gates open again, Gordon falls between two gears and is crushed. As the gates start to close once more, Yuri sacrifices his life to get his two sons on in time, while Jackson realises their entry into the ark has jammed the door mechanism, setting the entire ark on a crash course with Mount Everest. Together with his son, Jackson fixes the problem in time for the ark to suffer only minimal damage from hitting the mountainside.

When the flood eventually recedes, satellite data shows that Africa rose in sea level and may not have flooded at all. As the arcs set sail for the Cape of Good Hope, Jackson reconciles with his family and Helmsley starts a relationship with Laura. The movie ends with a view of the world showing the dramatically changed African continent.

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 $260 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 2008 and concluded in January 2009. Due to the possible 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike, filmmakers set up a contingency plan for salvaging the film. Uncharted Territory, Digital Domain, Double Negative, Scanline, Sony Pictures Imageworks and others were hired to create visual effects for 2012. Thomas Wander co-wrote the score with Harald Kloser.

Although the film depicts the destruction of several major cultural and historical icons around the world, Emmerich stated that the Kaaba was also considered for selection. Kloser had reservations over including Mecca, saying he did not want a fatwā issued against him.

Cast

Soundtrack

The original score for the film was composed by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander. Singer Adam Lambert from American Idol contributed a song for the film called "Time for Miracles" and expressed his gratitude for the opportunity in an interview with MTV. The film's soundtracks consist of 24 tracks, which also includes the song "Fades Like a Photograph" by Filter and another song called "It's Not The End of The World", written by Kloser and Wander.

Marketing

On November 12, 2008, the new 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. 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. David Morrison of NASA has received over 1000 inquiries from people who thought the website was genuine and has condemned it, saying "I've even had cases of teenagers writing to me saying they are contemplating suicide because they don't want to see the world end. I think when you lie on the internet and scare children in order to make a buck, that is ethically wrong." Another viral marketing website promotes Farewell Atlantis, a fictional suspense novel by the film's lead protagonist, about the events of 2012.

Comcast had also organized a "roadblock campaign" to promote the film, where a two-minute scene from the film was broadcast across 450 American commercial television networks, local English and Spanish language stations, and 89 cable outlets within a 10-minute window between 10:50 PM EDT/PDT and 11:00 PM EDT/PDT on October 1, 2009. The scene featured the destruction of Los Angeles and ended with a cliffhanger, with the entire 5-minute-38-second clip made available on Comcast's Fancast web site. The trade newspaper Variety estimated that, "The stunt will put the footage in front of 90% of all households watching ad-supported TV, or nearly 110 million viewers. When combined with online and mobile streams, that could increase to more than 140 million". Sony also plans on replicating this promotion in other regions.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2009)

Release

2012 was originally scheduled to be released on July 10, 2009. The release date was changed to November, 2009 to move out of the busy summer schedule into a time frame that the studio considered to have more potential for financial success. According to the studio, the film could have been completed for the summer release date, but the date change will give more time to the production. The film was released on November 11, 2009. It was released on Friday November 13, 2009 in Sweden, Canada and the United States, and will be released on November 21, 2009 in Japan. It was given a wide release in India on November 13, 2009. In Malaysia, the film will be released on Thursday November 12, 2009. In the United Kingdom, some theatres, such as the Vue Cinemas Islington & Inverness and Hull Princes Quay, have a screening time of 8:12pm (20:12 on a 24 hour clock) to coincide with the film's title.

Reception

Reviews

Upon release the film has received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 39% of critics gave the film a positive review, based upon a sample of 174 reviews, with an average score of 5 out of 10. Critics cited numerous scientific inaccuracies, lazy script and heavy reliance on the CG visuals, while some praised the CG effects. On its "top critics" section, it fared even worse with only 23% of critics giving it a positive review, based on 30 reviews, with an average score of 4.6/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 51 out of 100.

Roger Ebert was enthusiastic about the film, giving it 3.5 stars out of 4, saying it "delivers what it promises, and since no sentient being will buy a ticket expecting anything else, it will be, for its audiences, one of the most satisfactory films of the year."

Box office

It opened at number one with an estimated $65 million on its first weekend domestically and $225 million worldwide.

Television spin-off

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Emmerich confirmed that a television series based upon the film is in the works. The series will serve as a sequel to the film and is planned to focus on a group of survivors in 2013.

References

  1. ^ "2012 Worldwide Release Dates". sonypictures.com. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
  2. ^ "2012 (2009) - Release dates". IMDB.com. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
  3. "2012 Box Office Data". The Numbers Box Office Data. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  4. Fleming, Michael (February 19, 2008). "Studios vie for Emmerich's 2012". Variety. Retrieved July 14, 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  5. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/business
  6. Fleming, Michael (February 21, 2008). "Sony buys Emmerich's 2012". Variety. Retrieved July 14, 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  7. ^ Simmons, Leslie (June 2, 2008). "Danny Glover circles 2012". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 14, 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. Siegel, Tatiana (May 19, 2008). "John Cusack set for 2012". Variety. Retrieved July 14, 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  9. ^ Frater, Patrick (July 9, 2008). "Chin Han makes date with 2012". Variety. Retrieved July 14, 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  10. "Big Hollywood films shooting despite strike threat". Reuters. August 1, 2008. Retrieved August 5, 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  11. Giardina, Carolyn (August 13, 2008). "SPI's future includes 2012". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 13, 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  12. "The One Place on Earth Not Destroyed in '2012'".
  13. Foywonder, The (October 2, 2009). "Five Hilariously Disaster-ffic Minutes of 2012". Dred Central. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
  14. Simmons, Leslie (June 13, 2008). "Amanda Peet is 2012 lead". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 14, 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. "Morgan Lily". Variety. August 3, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2008.
  16. Kit, Borys (July 1, 2008). "Thomas McCarthy joins 2012". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
  17. Simmons, Leslie (May 19, 2008). "John Cusack ponders disaster flick". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
  18. Rich, Katey (15 July 2008). "Woody Harrelson Trying To Survive Armageddon". Cinema Blend. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
  19. Adler, Shawn (July 14, 2008). "EXCLUSIVE: Woody Harrelson Joins Roland Emmerich's World-Ending 2012". MTV Movies Blog. MTV. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
  20. http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1625467/story.jhtml
  21. http://www.amazon.com/2012-Soundtrack-Various/dp/B002R55IDU
  22. Pickard, Anna (November 25, 2008). "2012: a cautionary tale about marketing". The Guardian. Retrieved December 10, 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  23. Billington, Alex (November 15, 2008). "Roland Emmerich's 2012 Viral - Institute for Human Continuity". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved December 10, 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  24. Connor, Steve (17 October 2009). "Relax, the end isn't nigh". The Independent. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  25. http://farewellatlantis.com/
  26. ^ Graser, Mark (September 23, 2009). "Sony readies 'roadblock' for 2012". Variety. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
  27. DiOrio, Carl (January 20, 2009). "2012 release date pushed back". Retrieved January 20, 2009. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Text "journalThe Hollywood Reporter" ignored (help)
  28. "What Would You Take With You in 2012". 2012preservationlist.net. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
  29. http://www.myvue.com/cinemas/film_info_detail.asp?SessionID=&cn=1&ci=31&ln=1&fi=9537
  30. "2012". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
  31. "2012". Robert Ebert. Retrieved November 14, 2009.
  32. [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i4cdea7d2a4bcd39804b4848683fa708f.
  33. http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/11/04/2012-tv-planned/

External links

Films directed by Roland Emmerich
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