Trivia / 2012

• Banned in China: Banned in North Korea, because 2012 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of First Great Leader Kim Il-Sung.
• Creator Backlash: Jimi Mistry fully acknowledged that his dialogue was hackneyed and nonsensical, joining Dara Ó Briain on-stage to mock how ridiculous "The neutrinos are mutating!" sounds.
• Deleted Scene: Scenes were filmed showing Harry, Adrian's father surviving the tsunami - the cruise ship having merely run aground. Also Adrian would have gotten fed up with Anheuser and punched him. Both are included as extras on the DVD.
• Executive Veto: Roland Emmerich wanted to show the destruction of the Kaaba in Mecca. Producers opposed this, not wanting to offend radical Muslims. There is briefly a shot of the Kaaba during the montage of historical monuments around the world, however.
• Fake American:
  • Thandiwe Newton (British) as Laura Wilson, the US President's daughter.
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor (also British) as Dr. Adrian Helmsley.
  • Liam James (Canadian) as Noah Curtis.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Jimy Mistry had to fake an Indian accent as Satnam, since he is actually British. Likewise, the actress who played Satnam's wife, Agam Darshi, was born in the UK and raised in Canada.
  • The Tibetan monk Nima was played by the Canadian Osric Chau. His brother, Tenzin, was played by the Singaporean Chin Han.
• Fake Russian: Zlatko Buric (Croatian/Danish) as Yuri Karpov, Johann Urb (Estonian-American) as Sasha and Beatrice Rosen (French-American) as Tamara. Also, Zinaid Memisevic (Bosnian) as Sergey Karpenko (Russian president). His interpreter, played by Igor Morozov, is the only "true" Russian in the movie.
• Money, Dear Boy: When asked on Twitter why he did this movie, this was basically John Cusack's reply.
• Referenced by...: The January 2011 issue of the Malaysian comic Gemeilia - Kokko & May (Chinese: 哥妹俩) has a dialogue-free chapter, "2011", which is a shout-out (or a reference) to the film.
• Stillborn Franchise: A follow-up TV series was supposed to be made but never materialized.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Gerard Butler was in the running for the role of Jackson but had to turn it down.
  • Seth Rogen turned down the role of Adrian.
  • Mecca and it's monument the Kaaba were intended to be included at some point in the film to be one of the victims of Monumental Damage, but was ultimately scrapped because Emmerich feared that a Fatwa would be placed on his head by the entire Muslim population.

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