Doomsday 2012: Upcoming Apocalyptic Movies to Watch For [TRAILERS]

Film makers have a history of producing plots that abuse the Earth, having the planet visited by angry aliens (Independence Day, 1996), frozen from climate change (The Day After Tomorrow, 2004), melted then water logged because of solar radiation (2012, released in 2009) and even smashed to smithereens by a rogue planet (Melancholia, 2011).

2012 will likely prove to become another banner year of Hollywood destructo-flicks as doomsday predictors countdown to Dec. 21 - when conspiracy theorists claim the end of the Mayan calendar will coincide with end of days.

Movie goers - in the comfort of theater seating - will be able to see the world threatened, and at times destroyed, by Greek gods, an asteroid, aliens, zombies and robots.

Below is a schedule of upcoming disaster movies for 2012 and, if the world is still around, 2013.

Wrath of the Titans (March 30)

This 3D Greek period piece is a re-imagining of the story of hero Perseus (played by Sam Worthington) after his epic defeat of the sea monster Kraken.

Perseus chooses to live as a quiet fisherman; a plan thwarted by the capture of his father Zeus (played by Liam Neeson) by the Titans who unleash hell on Earth. Perseus then embarks on a quest with a queen, demigod and fallen god into the underworld to rescue his father and save mankind from the Titans.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (April 20)

The end of the world doesn't have to be all doom and gloom, but a backdrop for a romantic comedy. Rom coms have taken audiences from working girls climbing the corporate ladder to faked orgasms in Katz's Delicatessen to lifting a boombox in front of a professed love's home, but doomsday?

Sure thing!

In Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, as an asteroid hurls towards Earth, Dodge (played by Steve Carell) searches out his long-lost high school sweet heart after he wife jets in a panic. Dodge's neighbor Penny (played by Keira Knightley) joins him, putting a wrench in his plans. Directed by Lorene Scafaria.

Men in Black III (May 25)

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones launch this 3D third installment from the Men in Black franchise, but this time, it's a future mankind they're out to save.

This flick time travels back to the summer of love, 1969, after Agent J (Smith) catches word that an evil alien named Boris is threatening to destroy the world. Agent J meets the younger Agent K (Jones) in the battle against the baddies.

Prometheus (June 8)

Director Ridley Scott's upcoming sci-fi action flick will pit a team of explorers against an alien life force driven to destroy the human race.

In the movie, a group of researchers venture to the darkest coerners of the universe to find the beginning of life only to find an unknonwn enemy that the film makers say will lead them to fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race. Fingers crossed on who wins.

World War Z (Dec. 21)

Just in time for the alleged doomsday date of Dec. 21, this novel-inspired film takes a look at a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by flesh-eating zombies. The movie stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, a U.N. employee who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself, according to reports. In the original novel, Lane interviews zombie survivors in an effort to piece together a world war that destroyed every nation on Earth. Directed by Marc Forster.

Pompeii (shooting starts in 2012)

If Earth makes it past the Dec. 21 deadline conspiracy theorists insist is the end of the world, Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson is set to release Pompeii, a disaster flick set during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The movie won't just feature volcanic CGI destruction, but will also include a love story, according to reports that will star Christoph Waltz, Logan Lerman, Ray Stevenson and Milla Jovovich.

Mad Max: Fury Road (slated to start filming April)

Set in a destroyed future, this reworking of the 80s Mad Max franchise has already undergone its own apocalypse. Production started in August 2010 with sets built in Australia, but flash flooding shut the operation down. This will be the fourth in the Mad Max series that started in 1980 with Mel Gibson playing Max Rockatansky, a patrol officer trying to keep the peace in a post-apocalyptic world.

The latest reboot will star Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy and will be at the helm of Mad Max's original director George Miller. No word yet on release dates.

2013

Ender's Game (March 15, 2013)

Based on Orson Scott Card's sci-fi books Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, this picture will pit mankind against an alien race, the Formics. Ender, played by Asa Butterfield, spends his childhood training as a top soldier in an Earth-saving simulation that turns out is real.

Robopocalypse (July 3, 2013)

Details are few on this movie set to be directed by monster movie legend Steven Spielberg, but based on an adaptation of the same-named novel by Daniel Wilson, the story will put man against an out-of-control army of robots.