Yesterday, we learned of Roland Emmerich’s next end-of-the-world opus, 2012.  Currently just a spec screenplay (penned by Emmerich and Harald Kloser), the project touched off a bidding war in Hollywood yesterday that ended with Sony snatching up the rights to make a $200 million mediocrity (provided Emmerich is on his game).  Congratulations to everyone down in Culver City for throwing a lot of money at a movie no one will remember in five years.

Now that 2012 has a studio home, production is scheduled to begin in late summer/early fall in order to hit a summer 2009 release.  The plot hasn’t really come into focus, but those of you who guessed that it had to do with the Mayans’ called shot for the apocalypse were correct.  According to Variety, it will also be another ensemble epic in the Irwin Allen tradition.  I can’t wait to find out whose career is chilly enough to get cast in a latter day version of When Time Ran Out.  Paul Walker?  Sarah Michelle Gellar?  Donald Sutherland as “The Clumsy Waiter”?

That $200 million price tag isn’t definite, but if some studios were scared off because the production had a chance of costing that much… it’s going to cost that much and then some.