2012 will center on a researcher (played by John Cusack) who finds a portal to a parallel universe and he goes into that world to contact his double to warn him and try to prevent the upcoming apocalypse that the ancient Mayans predicted.

Over the decades, many have prophesized that the world will end when the ancient calendar ceases on December 21, 2012.

An End Of The World thriller by the director of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow? Makes sense as seeing as he had so much practice when it comes to demolishing major landmarks in his previous movies (and don't forget the Godzilla remake).

It'll make a killing at the box office . . .

Emmerich was set to make a Fantastic Voyage remake (in which a submarine is shrunk to subatomic size and injected into a human body) before settling on this.

Word thus far has it that the screenplay is an uninspiring mixture of disaster movie clichés. So what else were we expecting from the guy who dreamed up 10 000 B.C.?