John Cusack to play hero in disaster flick

By Leslie Simmons

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - John Cusack is eyeing a big-budget disaster film as his next project.

The actor is in negotiations to play a heroic survivor in Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic "2012," which Columbia Pictures plans to release in next July. British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor ("American Gangster") is in talks to co-star.

Cusack would play a divorced dad, writer and sometime limo driver who tries to save his family in the wake of a global cataclysm. Ejiofor, also in hero mode, would play an idealistic science adviser to the president.

Emmerich, known for such big-budget disaster movies as "Independence Day" and "Godzilla," is directing the project from a script he worked on with his "10,000 BC" co-writer Harald Kloser.

"2012" was the first big spec script to hit the market after the 100-day Hollywood writers strike ended in February. The project was shopped around with a $200 million budget, but Columbia said it will be made for less than that. The studio plans to begin filming in July -- unless there is an actors strike then.

Cusack returns to theaters on Friday in the indie comedy "War, Inc.," which he wrote and produced. He was most recently seen in the box office disappointment "Grace is Gone." Ejiofor is in theaters with David Mamet's "Redbelt."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter