The idea for 2012 first occurred to writer/producer/composer Harald Kloser, Roland Emmerich’s writing partner. “Every civilization on Earth has a flood myth,” says Kloser. “Things are going wrong, society isn’t working anymore, and the planet starts over. Some people get a second chance to start a new culture, a new society, a new civilization.”
The idea crystallized as Kloser and Emmerich discovered a compelling hook on which to hang their contemporary flood story. The Mayan calendar is set to reach the end of its 13th cycle on December 21, 2012 – and nothing follows that date. That, of course, leads to the question – if the calendar doesn’t continue, what will follow? “You will find millions of people, from all walks of life, who believe that in 2012 there will be some kind of shift in society, or a shift in spirit,” says Kloser. The scope and variety of theories provided inspiration for Emmerich and Kloser as they penned their screenplay.
The key for the director, who is well known for box office hits such as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, would be to find a way to set 2012 apart from those disaster epics. “The more I talked with Harald about the story, the more I realized this is really something people today can relate to. There are a lot of philosophical and political elements, which I think add to the disaster element.”Central to that was creating characters that would experience those philosophical and political upheavals, in effect creating the disaster on a human scale. John Cusack stars as Jackson Curtis, a writer whose devotion to his failed-but-possibly-brilliant novel broke up his marriage and left his family in flux. But Jackson remains a loyal dad and he will prove he will do anything to save his family. Amanda Peet plays Jackson’s ex-wife, Kate, who maintains friendly contact with Jackson but has long tired of competing with his work for his attention. As the earth’s plates start to shift – destroying L.A. in the process – Jackson and his family will begin a desperate journey by land and air to survive to see the new world.