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Poseidon in 2012



Well, not really. It's a cruise ship that rolls over much like the ill-fated ship from The Poseidon Adventure and its recent remake.

"The most striking image for me of any disaster movie was when the ship in Poseidon Adventure rolls over," Emmerich says. "I pay homage to that. ... For me it's always the most striking image of all the disaster movies. Because it's a really big object that rolls over."

The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in 2012



That includes the famous frescoed ceiling by Michelangelo depicting Adam touching fingers with God.

"I always try to come up with what makes sense for the story, you know?" Emmerich says. "And it's not only about the destruction. It has to kind of stand for something. One of my favorite pieces of art is Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel: ... God ... reaches out to Adam, and the crack goes through it. It's just an interesting kind of notion."

St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican in 2012



"Why ... don't [we] have the church fall on people's head?" Emmerich said. He added: "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."

Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro in 2012



"Because I'm against organized religion," Emmerich says.

The one that got away: Kaaba, the cube-shaped building at the heart of Mecca



mmerich said that he got approached by people who wanted their landmarks destroyed, such as the 101 Tower in Taipei, the world's tallest building (pictured below).

But Emmerich was thinking of something even more explosive: the Kaaba, the cube-shaped building at the heart of Mecca, the focus of prayers and the Islamic pilgrimage called the Hajj; it is one of Islam's holiest sites.

Really?

"Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit," Emmerich says. "But my co-writer Harald said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right. ... 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. So 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."

101 Tower in Taipei, the world's tallest building

. . . . . . . . . . . . . and here is why Roland won't destroy one.


. . . . . . . . . Roland Emmerich is no fool. :-)

As a matter of fact, I may get him myself. He nuked Houston in "Independence Day".

Hey, now fun is fun but he is right about the whack jobs who do follow Islam and the fatwa place on him and his writers. Those folks are just no fun what so ever, you know.

I enjoy disaster films mostly because they are fun! I don't take them seriously and the special effects are awesome! I look forward to this film plus the release of Star Trek XI on DVD (Nov. 17th) and Terminator 4 on Nov. 23rd! :)

I'll stop enjoying Sci Fi when it starts becoming smooshy, PC and political. I've had enough.