Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt are in talks to join Columbia Picture's epic disaster project 2012, which Roland Emmerich is set to direct.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 2012 centers on a global cataclysm and tells the heroic struggle of the survivors.

Glover is in talks to play the president, with Newton in discussions to play his daughter. Platt is in negotiations to play the president's chief of staff.

John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor already are on board.

Emmerich is directing a script he penned with his 10,000 B.C. co-writer Harald Kloser.

The studio is planning a July 10, 2009, release, with filming set to begin in July -- unless there is an actors strike.