Sony Buys "2012"

Variety reports that Sony Pictures Entertainment emerged the winner on Wednesday evening after a heated bidding war to buy "2012," a spec script for a film to be directed by Roland Emmerich and released in 2009.

With its victory, Sony has basically committed to going ahead with the project, and production on the film will start in late summer or early fall. The deal, which was reached the same day after Emmerich pitched his idea and budget projections for the movie, shows that studios are willing to finance flashy movies after the resolution of the writers' strike.

Emmerich co-wrote "2012" with Harald Kloser, who he also worked with on the upcoming release "10,000 B.C." Movie studios read the script on Tuesday and were then invited to pitch to Emmerich and his agency representatives how they would market the film. The title "2012" refers to the apocryphal date the world is supposed to end. The film will be similar to the ensemble disaster epic "The Day After Tomorrow," another Emmerich film that he sold in a similar spec sale and became a global success for 20th Century Fox.