Amanda Peet has signed up to join Roland Emmerich's 2012, as a highjumper who dreams of competing in London...darn! No, as the lead female role in a film about the end of the world, opposite John Cusack.
Apparently Peet will be playing Cusack's ex-wife, who's gone on to marry a rich man while Cusack drives a limo and tries to become a writer. We're guessing she got custody of the kid(s?).
Oliver Platt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton and Danny Glover are all also signed up. We're going to go ahead and predict that Platt plays the rich new husband, but if Emmerich really wants to turn the screws on Cusack's character he'll give that role to the improbably handsome and pulled-together Ejiofor, who's far more likely to give Cusack enough of an inferiority complex to turn him from zero to hero and ensure that he reverses the entire Apocalypse and everyone lives happily ever after.
Filming's due to start in July, barring an actors' strike, with the release date set for July 10 next year. Incidentally, those of you already laying in tinned food and extra shotgun shells for 2012 might want to remember that the idea that the world will end that year in December is based on a flawed understanding of the Mayan Long Count calendar. At least, so Wiki assures us.