2012, the big disaster movie starring John Cusack (that looks to be a disaster... seriously, the movie just looks bad) is about the end of the world and, as I'm sure you've all seen in the previews, uses a wide variety of special effects to destroy most of the world.
Director Roland Emmerich said he had great fun taking a CGI powered swipe at some of the world's landmarks, especially Christian houses of worship and symbols. But a major Muslim holy site managed to escape destruction.
On St. Peter's Basilica:
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"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."The movie goes on to destroy the Sistine Chapel and Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, the director says, "because I'm against organized religion."
The one that got away? Mecca. Even the Hollywood anti-religion director didn't want to draw the Jihadist ire of Muslims:
"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."He said he "wanted to" show the destruction of Mecca, but was worried about violent repercussions against him.
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