George Lucas 'says world will end in 2012'

Star Wars producer George Lucas is said to believe the world will end in 2012.

Lucas apparently made his claims during a meeting with Steven Spielberg and comedian and actor Seth Rogen to discuss a film project.

Rogen told the Toronto Sun that Lucas's seemingly earnest belief in an impending apocalypse left him speechless.

He said: "George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is going to end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it.

"He's going on about the tectonic plates and all the time Spielberg is, like, rolling his eyes, like: "My nerdy friend won't shut up, I'm sorry..."

"I first thought he was joking... and then I totally realised he was serious and then I started thinking: "If you're George Lucas and you actually think the world is going to end in a year, there's no way you haven't built a spaceship for yourself... So I asked him: "Can I have a seat on it?"

"He claimed he didn't have a spaceship, but there's no doubt there's a Millennium Falcon in a garage somewhere with a pilot just waiting to go... It's going to be him and Steven Spielberg and I'll be blown up like the rest of us."

The belief that the world will end in 2012 stems from the belief that the Mayan 'Long Count' calendar, which began in 3114BC, is believed to end on the winter solstice of December 21, 2012.