'2012' TV Shows Gets Destroyed

Just before Roland Emmerich's end-of-the-world epic "2012" was released, he revealed that a TV spin-off was in the pipeline.

But the filmmaker has now told Movieweb he has dropped the idea because it would be too expensive.

The series was to have been called "2013" and would have been similar to "Lost" in showing a group of stranded survivors (probably without a smoke monster though).

ABC was interested in airing the show, which would have filled the gap left in schedules when "Lost" finishes in May.

The idea was for the story to pick up where the film ended, showing the remnants of humanity rebuilding civilization after arriving in parts of Africa which had not been submerged by tsunamis. In the film, South Africa's Drakensberg mountains had been left as the highest remaining land on the planet.

"The TV people soon realized what we really wanted to do with the concept," Emmerich said. "They said, 'You cannot do this on television.' So I said, 'Let's not do it.' It was just too big for TV.

"It would have been a great show because it would have dealt with the facts of arriving in Africa. We would have seen what happened had Cape Town survived. Those people already living there would be majorly p***ed because the ships didn't take them.

"There was this whole political edge to it. It would have been a very political TV show. It had such big themes, it was about reaching for the stars. There was an economic reality that kept it from becoming a reality. We didn't want to compromise. We said, 'Let's not do it.'"

He admitted that "2012" executive producer Mark Gordon was investigating whether it could be done at a lower cost but said he didn't hold out any hope the idea would resurface.

"I don't think it will happen. I had a certain vision. We realized what kind of compromises we were going to have to make. Because of that, I said, 'No thank you.'"

Emmerich also stated he did not plan on making the idea into a sequel to be shown in theaters.

So that pretty much means the story line for the film "2012" is dead right now. I'll look out for more news on this even though it is delving into television and not cinema.

"2012" hits shelves on DVD and Blu-ray March 2, 2010.

Source: The Geek Files