“I had a hard time actually kind of convincing myself to do it,” he tells SciFi Wire. “And I only, like, actually did it because it was such an incredible idea to do something like that. … Then I … said to myself, ‘If I do it one more time, I do it in, like, the biggest way it could possibly be done.’ So maybe … I have it out of my system.”
He says that he never set out to become a disaster movie director, but it just happened in the course of his association with writer Dean Devlin.
“Dean and I … rewatched these [disaster] movies, and I remember seeing them as a kid, and I fell really in love with it,” he says. “Because, first of all, you have multiple characters, which is great, because you can have people from all walks of life. And most of the time they don’t have to be heroes. They become heroes. And it’s always like the decision who will become a hero and who will not.”
And what can audiences expect from his final disaster movie?
Emmerich says the movie is a “kick-ass” one about the end of the world.
“I think also it taps into the paranoia around the world,” Emmerich said about his latest movie. “About how the actual world feels. … That’s all in the zeitgeist. And everybody … knows what all the problems are for global warming and all those things. … This, smartly, I think, doesn’t get into the politics of it, it just gets into … what’s important to you? What are your values? It’s sort of like that feeling you have when something bad happens, and it cuts through all the B.S. You have that feeling of clarity. I think movies like this give you that sense without the real tragedies having to happen, and I think maybe that’s their function.”
“2012” opens in theaters tomorrow.
Something’s always bugged me about the world ending in 2012. The whole idea is based on the fact that the Mayan calendar ends in December of 2012.
Has it occurred to anyone that’s just when the calendar ends? The calendar on my wall ends on December 31, 2009. Does that mean the world is coming to an end? If so then why didn’t it end last year or the year before or the year before that.
It’s just more superstitious hooey.
As for Emmerich making his last disaster movie… That’s too bad. They are fun. Pointless fun but still fun and they look and sound good on my big home theater screen.
Well, of course it will be his last . . . we’re all going to be done, with everything, three years from next month.
Seriously, whenever I meet a believer, or one who worries about 2012 being the end, I ask them if they are willing to sign everything they own over to me effective Jan. 1, 2013.
. . . no takers so far . . .
ejd
So this movie will be a disaster; I already guessed that it would be a CGI driven waste of time. I must say Roland is being frank about how bad 2012 will be. However, I am surprised RE is claiming his subsequent films will be better, thats hard to believe based on his past work.
Every movie has been a “disaster” of a movie. Pun intended. I hope he keeps his promise.