'2012' Loses Worldwide Destruction to Avoid Religious Wars
Roland Emmerich has demolished nearly every beloved monument in the world in his disaster movie career - from Big Ben in '
Independence Day' to the Statue of Liberty in '
The Day After Tomorrow' - but you won't see the German filmmaker take down Islam's holiest site in his new end-of-days flick '
2012.' Emmerich had planned to show the destruction of the Kaaba, the structure in Mecca toward which Muslims turn for daily prayer, but changed his mind when his co-writer suggested the scene might spark more trouble than they'd bargained for.
"My co-writer Harald [Kloser] said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right," Emmerich told
SciFiWire. "It's just something which I kind of didn't [think] was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out."
The director added, "We have to all ... in the Western world ... think about this. You can actually ... let ... Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have ... a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is."
Fans of disaster movies shouldn't fear that Emmerich is losing his edge. The director, who did include a destruction shot of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, pushed plenty of other buttons. "Because I'm against organized religion," Emmerich explained.
"The whole Vatican kind of tips and kind of rolls over the people. It said something, because in the story, some people ... believe in praying and prayer, and they pray in front of the church, and it's probably the wrong thing, what they would do in that situation."
"I always try to come up with what makes sense for the story, you know?" Emmerich said. "And it's not only about the destruction. It has to kind of stand for something.
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'2012' Set and Stars
John Cusack, left, and Woody Harrelson star in Columbia Pictures' "2012." The action film will be released November 13, 2009. (Joe Lederer/Columbia TriStar Marketing Group/MCT)
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My sentiments exactly....
He made the right choice. the problem here is that those muslims believe way more in thier religion then we do in our own. when things like this are taken that seriously then sometimes lines just cant be crossed.
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Two words come to mind - "coward" and "hypocrite". If this is his idea of integrity, I don't plan to see his movie.
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it is all make believe,do not worry.nothin but aham sandwich.
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Funny how the whole world will bash Christains, but never muslims, no wonder they are killing us.
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Walk softly so you don't piss off a muslim. Screw that, kill em all for Jesus.
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He should get the cowardly governments to go on a war of assassins and treat terrorist with terror. Fatwa me I fatwa you!!
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exactly, against organized religion, unless they are muslim
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Kinda too bad that Roland Emmerich doesn't believe in organized religion (nor do I, for that matter), yet he's 'hesitant' to include destruction of Arab religious symbols for fear of a 'fatwa'? Since when did they become more powerful or threatening than any other religion in the world? Interesting dichotomy there, Roland ...
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So he sould not have even used it in the Movie. Terrorist win when you do somthing like this. I really don't understand why Christians are just sitting back and taking this kind of insult. Hollywierd just dosent get it, pander to the terrorist and you become one.
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I bet a bunch of NYC high rises fall to the ground. Talk about insulting.
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What a scared little boy.... afraid the bully will take your lunch money? That bully will cut off heads, but is afraid of a pig. Gimme a break. Those guys need to grom some balls and walk like a man
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I wouldn't be too insulted if I were a Christian. He basically said that Muslims are crazy murderers who go into meltdown mode over any perceived slight (remember the Danish cartoons?). Meanwhile, the modern Christians will turn the other cheek on something like this (maybe with some complaints, but still ...). Yeah, he took the coward's way out. He's a film-maker aiming to make money -- do you really think that he'd risk death for his "art"?
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I don't think it's so much that he's being politically correct; more like he's afraid those muslim whack-job sycophants will use a scene in a fictional American movie to excuse their next insane, over-the-top violent attack against the American people. And he's probably correct. Christians might not like a movie destroying some Christian symbol in the name of "hollywood" but they'll laugh it off or peacefully demonstrate the movie. The bat-s*&t muslims will retaliate by destroying something real.
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It's time Christian Soldiers begin to take a stand.
C.S.I.: Christian Soldiers International
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So the Kaaba is the only one not destroyed? What kind of message is that going to portray?
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Ummmm last time i checked the muslims are not killing us,,, we are over there killing them and for what? has anyone been able to answer that question since bush took office? talk about being hypocrits !
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Ummm....let me take a stab at that one....perhaps you don't want to remember but most of us true AMERICANS do...September 11, 2001....almost 3000 souls murdered by cowardly Muslims WITH NO PROVOCATION!!!!
Kindly step aside and drink Obama's Kool-Aid, Dave.
Typical chicken. You know the Pope won't kill you, but you're afraid some Muslim will. If they take over, I"m sure they'll remember you were kind to them.
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In that great American tradition of hypocrisy, Mr. Emmerich tries to have it both ways and still wants to come out sounding principled. He claims to be 'against organized religion' but then beats a tactical retreat before the perceived threat of Muslim violence. He tries to make his decision sound practical and even realistic, but the situation indicates that even he himself perceived the possibility that depicting the Kaaba's destruction would provoke real violence. So Mr. Emmerich's principled stand against 'organized religion' requires his willingness to sally forth bravely against Christian structures and symbols, but before Islam it is nothing more than cowardice and the fear that real Muslim violence has taught him. Mr. Emmerich is a Christophobic hypocrite, the kind legion in Hollywood, and if he were truly a man of such convictions, why would he pass up the opportunity to thumb his nose at Islam with such a scene in his movie? Could it simply be that he is afraid and afraid of what might kill him if he defames it? That tells us something about Islam AND about the hollow hypocrisy of one more liberal Hollywood director....
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