Tomorrow, a worldwide cataclysm will hit, and one of the people responsible will be Michael Wimer. The Pacific Palisades resident, a partner of director Roland Emmerich at Centropolis Entertainment, is one of the producers of Sony Pictures’ ‘2012,’ which opens in movie theaters worldwide. The mega-budget, special effects-heavy disaster flick (costing an estimated $200 million to make and market) is tracking to be this weekend’s top multiplex draw. That will not surprise fans of Emmerich, who also directed such apocalyptic blockbusters as the 1996 alien-invaders epic ‘Independence Day’ (which grossed $817,500,000 worldwide), Sony’s re-imagining of ‘Godzilla’ in 1998 and the global-warming nightmare, ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ in 2004 ($542,772 internationally). In other words, Emmerich has a reputation for super-sized, city-leveling entertainment. In ‘2012,’ John Cusack struggles to stay afloat amidst a global apocalypse predicted by a Mayan prophecy, as the U.S. government agency Institute for Human Continuity dispatches ships to ensure the human race’s survival. The film also features Thandie Newton, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover and George Segal. So why does Emmerich relish destroying Los Angeles and other metropolises in his films? Wimer downplays the destructive side of the German director’s brand of science fiction. ’The special effects are great [in Emmerich’s films],’ Wimer tells the Palisadian-Post, ‘but at the center are human stories. Cusack is trying to keep his family together. It so happens the cataclysm is so gigantic.’ Wimer’s Hollywood journey has been an interesting ride defined by two phases: first as a powerful literary agent and now as a producer. ’I have commercial tastes,’ says Wimer, who grew up in the Midwest and attended Harvard University. ‘I came into the business 20 years ago because I love short stories. I represented writers and directors.’ After a brief, unsatisfying stint on Wall Street, Wimer took his English degree and his Stanford Business School diploma and moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s to start at the bottom: at the mailroom of Creative Artists Agency. From 1986 to 2005, he was a literary agent at CAA, where he represented some of Hollywood’s top directors and screenwriters, including directorial kings of comedy Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman, Mel Brooks and Frank Oz, as well as action filmmakers Tony Scott and Joel Schumacher, and late writer-directors Michael Crichton (whom Wimer represented on the author’s ‘ER’ deal with NBC) and John Hughes. ’It was shocking,’ Wimer says, ‘in that [Crichton and Hughes’ deaths] represented the passage of time. These guys played such big roles in my life.’ Wimer explains that Hughes, who fled Hollywood to write screenplays in his native Chicago, ‘found directing very anti-climactic. He didn’t like the way Hollywood worked, [the studio politics].’ At CAA, Wimer’s friends included super-agent Jay Moloney, who hanged himself two days after his 35th birthday in 1999. Moloney was ‘a wonderful guy,’ Wimer says, but ‘the most alluring drug [in this industry] is power, and Hollywood is not a good place for addicts. ‘Hollywood is not a lot different from the way Washington works. The insecurities and the pettiness with the gigantic amount of money and tempered with the real rarity of great creative skill have made it a place where the weak get crushed.’ Wimer notes that not everyone in Hollywood succumbs to ego, power and greed. ‘Mel Brooks,’ he says, ‘is a great example of how kindness gives back a thousand-fold.’ For the past decade, Wimer and his family have resided in Pacific Palisades, which reminds him in temperament of his native Neenah, Wisconsin, a paper mill town in which he grew up the son of a Kimberly-Clark executive in a family of seven. ’It’s the comfort of Mayberry,’ he says of the Palisades where he has raised daughter Sarah, 12, and son Luke, 7, with wife Sharon, a TV producer who made the Lifetime movie ‘Acceptable’ with Cusack’s sister, Joan. ‘The Palisades is a great place to go trick-or-treating. We have the best Fourth of July parade. I have to be honest, I love the newspaper. It’s really like a community here. It’s authentic. We know our firefighters at Station 69, the local merchants are great. It’s a great place for our kids.’ For years, Wimer’s work as an agent proved successful and gratifying, even as he encountered difficulty in the days following Sarah’s birth, when Sharon was diagnosed with cancer. She triumphed over the disease, but the four-year battle proved grueling and grounding for the Wimers. ‘My most rewarding job is being a father,’ he says. Five years ago, Wimer finally tired of the ‘anxieties’ that come with an agent’s territory, such as appeasing the whims of important players. He decided to refocus his passion in 2005. ’Roland was the first person that I told about my decision [to leave agenting],’ he says. ‘Roland said, ‘Well, let’s join up and let’s do this.” The pair worked together on Emmerich’s remake of the prehistoric ‘10,000 B.C.,’ the first film of 2008 to surpass the $200-million mark. They are now collaborating on adapting Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ trilogy, a highly anticipated project that has been gestating with various talents for years in Hollywood. Emmerich also wants to helm a human-scale film, the period piece ‘Anonymous,’ which explores whether or not Shakespeare authored all of his great works. Recently, Wimer launched a TV production company with ‘Rescue Me’ co-creator Peter Tolan. ‘Peter’s one of the best writers,’ Wimer says. ‘That’s where all of the best writing is right now: on TV.’ A funny contradiction is that Wimer and Emmerich (who has made a cottage industry of creating movies depicting the end of the world) are, in real life, obsessed with saving it. ‘Roland has solar panels in his home and a Prius,’ says Wimer, who also does his part. He arrived for his interview with the Post in his Toyota SUV electric vehicle, which costs him just $6 a month to power. ’I’ve been making sure that all of our productions are green,’ Wimer says, ticking off the measures he took to keep the set of ‘2012’ environmentally correct: renewable wood, recycling sets, biofueled power generators, ‘whatever we can do to reduce our carbon footprint.’ ’As a long time environmentalist and entertainment-industry leader, Michael has brought his creativity and passion to the Environmental Media Association’s executive board of directors for the past seven years,’ says EMA president Debbie Levin. ‘In January, he was instrumental in putting together ‘The Green Inaugural Ball,’ the largest gathering of environmental groups at the inauguration of Barack Obama. Michael brought EMA and 60 other environmental groups to honor Al Gore and to celebrate our new president’s commitment to a green economy.’ The Wimer-organized gala, held at the Smithsonian, included performances by Palisades High graduate will.i.am and matchbox20. On October 25, the EMA honored Wimer and Emmerich at its own gala, on Paramount’s studio lot, which attracted Harrison Ford, Alanis Morissette, Richard Branson and other celebrities. ’This was quite an honor,’ Wimer says. ‘I really have to thank my kids because, until Sarah and Luke came along, I never really thought about the power and importance of setting a good example. Now, whether its driving our electric car or recycling our kitchen waste or running a production utilizing green guidelines, it’s all about showing the kids that taking care of the world is the right thing to do.’ Except for this weekend, of course, when the world will be destroyed with catastrophic glee.
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