Roland Emmerich To Direct 2012 Apocalypse Movie, Now Being Shopped To Studios

"Michael Bay, go direct your 2012 movie over there."

Update: Emmerich and Kloser's script was purchased by Sony Pictures, it was announced Thursday. The budget for 2012 is said to be near $200 million.Roland Emmerich, director of spectacle event films like Independence Day, Godzilla and the upcoming 10,000 B.C., is currently in search of a studio to park his latest film, 2012. Apparently this similarly big budget flick has nothing to do with Michael Bay's project, 2012: The War For Souls, beyond using the Mayan calendar, which indicates bad things coming our way in four years, as inspiration. The script currently being pitched to studios was written by Emmerich and composer-writer Harald Kloser, and, save for a SGA strike, Variety says to expect the movie to hit theaters in 2009. Bay's film, based on Whitley Strieber's novel, is currently scheduled on IMDB for 2010.

If this is another Deep Impact vs. Armageddon showdown, it's less intense, but if anyone's contracted to blow up the world, it should be Bay in my estimation. Didn't Emmerich already have his shot with 2004's terrible The Day After Tomorrow, or was that his ice-apocalypse, while this one will be fire-related? Wikipedia says that dire Mayan-related predictions for 2012 range from super-volcanoes, earthquakes and cosmic rays to a dramatic shift in human consciousness. I predict a Black Eyed Peas reunion and Uwe Boll's 2013. Random factoid: Some of you will recall that I Am Legend takes place in 2012.

Discuss: Bay vs. Emmerich. What's the difference?