Exclusive: TV version of Roland Emmerich's '2012' in the works

Roland Emmerich, the director/producer of the apocalyptic film 2012 (opening Nov. 13), confirmed to EW exclusively that a small-screen version of the end-of-the-world movie is already in the works. Emmerich said there was “plenty to do in a TV show” and that 2012 executive producer Mark Gordon – who’s also an exec producer on TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice – would be attached.

“The plan is that it is 2013 and it’s about what happens after the disaster,” Emmerich told EW while walking the red carpet for the 2012 premiere Tuesday. “It is about the resettling of Earth. That is very, very fascinating. (2012 writer/producer) Harald Kloser and I came up with the idea and we have the luxury of having a producer on the film who is a big TV producer, Mark Gordon. We said to Mark, ‘Why don’t you do a TV show that picks up where the movie leaves off and call it 2013?’ I think it will focus on a group of people who survived but not on the boats … maybe they were on a piece of land that was spared or one that became an island in the process of the crust moving. There are so many possibilities of what they could do and I’d be excited to watch it.”

Word in Hollywood is that Gordon has already entered talks with ABC to develop the disaster drama. Though Gordon wouldn’t confirm this, he did tell EW that ABC “will have an opening in their disaster-related programming after Lost ends” (An ABC spokeswoman declined to comment). “I think people would be interested in this topic on a weekly basis,” Gordon said, who also attended Tuesday’s premiere. “There’s hope for the world despite the magnitude of the 2012 disaster as seen in the film. After the movie, there are some people who survive and the question is how will these survivors build a new world and what will it look like. That might make an interesting TV series.”

Added Emmerich, “The movie talks about the varied reactions people have in the face of disaster and who should survive and how we carry on and what parts of our culture do we save. The TV show could carry on all that.” – With reporting from Carrie Bell

Photo Credit: Sara De Boer/Retna Ltd.