2012 release date now much closer to titular year. [THR]

Details about how, exactly, Earth-vaporizing tidal-wave illusionist Roland Emmerich plans on ushering in his latest CGI end of days in 2012—and what hand John Cusack plays in the proceedings—have remained under tight wraps since the project was first announced. His co-star Amanda Peet was cornered recently by MTV for more details, and she warned Angelenos to batten down the hatches:

In the excitement following last year's Hollywood writer's strike, a lot of projects got restarted or greenlit. The fruits of those labors are now unfolding in movie theaters across the country, and some of them are too weird to live, and too rare to die. Whether it was studio enthusiasm to get any project going, any at all, or a desire to repeat the same old formulas and see if they could still make money (or do so for the first time), these upcoming films seem particularly unlikely to succeed:
Are the executives who put together these projects high, or just crazy enough to be billionaires?

Sony yesterday released the new teaser for the apocalyptic epic 2012, sort of a Groundhog Day meets The Day After Tomorrow in which Earth's inhabitants wake up one morning to find director Roland Emmerich once again destroying everything in sight. There's little on hand to illuminate the plot that star John Cusack so vigorously protected earlier this year in a chat with Defamer, but here's what we can suss from a couple viewings so far:1. Emmerich's campy, well-fortified London townhouse? Saved. 2. Tibet? Gone. 3. Killer-tidal wave CGI technology has not advanced especially far in the five years since Day After Tomorrow. 4. Emmerich is returning to the political satire at which he acquitted himself so expertly before stumbling over historical comedy with 10,000 B.C. 5. If you look really, really close, we think you can spot Cusack boogieboarding into the doomed monastery. BONUS: If you're especially determined to get something out of this, amuse yourself and your coworkers by reading the intertitles in your best Don LaFontaine voice. It's fun!

This is wonderful. Commentary, which is basically the most Ridiculous Serious Journal Ever, has decided to tentatively endorse a Palin/Bachmann 2012 ticket! That would be Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Congresswoman recently in the news for asking that Barack Obama and her fellow Congresspeople all be investigated to determine which ones are anti-American. She floated this idea on television, of course. She was previously famous for kissing President Bush creepily, baby-farming, and hiding in a bush while she spied on a gay marriage protest. Now Bachmann is apologizing and the GOP has basically cut her off and left her on her own. Related: Michael Weiss explains that you are not allowed to compliment W. H. Auden or use the phrase "fossil record" in the pages of Commentary. [Commentary via Andrew Sullivan]

We have to admit that while viewing a slideshow of features from Roland Emmerich's quirky London townhouse, we felt a momentary pang of affection for a man whose work had given us such personal and professional displeasure over the years. Seriously — how can anyone stay mad at a guy who has a waxwork of Pope John Paul II under his stairs (reading his own obituary, no less) or who pits a taxidermied zebra against massive Mao murals in his living area or, deliciously, keeps Prince Charles and Princess Diana dolls displayed in his fireplace? More to the point, how was this man responsible for 10,000 B.C.? We have other questions as well — including an open Defamer inquiry into the identity of an unusually sexy bedside photo subject. Help us figure it out after the jump.

After the implosive one-two punch comprising his recent tandem War. Inc. and Grace is Gone (not to mention, of course, his spellbinding online short film featuring Diablo Cody as "Girl Who Thought He'd Be Cooler"), fortune may yet favor the slumping John Cusack. Or at least that's the only option our optimistic hearts will allow upon reading about the actor's reported next project, a massive-budget, honest-to-goodness end-of-the-world film by apocalypse maven Roland Emmerich:

· The strike's over, but we were waiting for a deal like this one to really start celebrating: Sony bought 2012, an obnoxiously over-the-top end-of-the-world disaster flick that's going to cost at least $200 million for Roland Emmerich to make! Yay! The studios are back to hemorrhaging money again! [Variety]
· The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Saturn Awards nominations gave 300 the most nominations with ten, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a close second at nine. Flabbergasted producers of The Golden Compass responded by saying, "We had fucking talking-polar-bear fights! What else could you possibly be looking for?!" [Variety]