By LAUREN YALDOO

Contributing Reporter

In the past, several disaster movies have emerged and reached the surface of the film world. The latest edition of this movie genre, “Knowing,” just may foretell the true end of the world as we know it.

According to boxofficemojo.com, “Knowing” was the No. 1 movie over its opening weekend, March 20-22.

The movie begins in 1958 when a group of students from an elementary school draw pictures and place them in a time capsule. One student compiles a list of what seems to be random numbers.

The time capsule is opened 50 years later and grade-school student Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) interprets the student’s message as a mathematical puzzle.

Caleb’s father, elementary teacher John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), makes the breakthrough that the numbers are predictions of the future and ultimately a warning to everyone.

The pattern, as John reveals, is the accurate number of dates, deaths and coordinates of every major disaster in the last five decades. In a race against time, John attempts to prevent these prophecies from becoming a reality.

The Oakland Post was included in a conference call with director Alex Proyas.

Proyas, accredited as the director of many movies including “The Crow,” “Dark City” and “I, Robot,” said that while the movie briefly touched on 9/11, it wasn’t based on those events.

“The original script screenplay was written before those tragic events occurred,” Proyas said.

“But obviously in the wake of 9/11 it’s an impossible event to ignore when you are telling the story about all the major disasters that have occurred in the last 50 [years], it’s an impossible tragedy to ignore.”

Proyas said while the film is suspenseful, it’s also emotional and intimate.

“It is about these large-scale events that occur in the story and there’s an aspect of action and certainly it’s a suspense thriller. Suspense drives the movie forward,” Proyas said.

“It really is a very intimate story about a father and son and that’s kind of what appealed to me.”

The director took a different approach from his usual choice of fantasy in previous films.

“Science fiction is often a little bit more grounded in the rules of the real world,” Proyas said.

Proyas has also written many of the films he has directed.

“I get as involved as I possibly can. Some projects I initiate, others I come in at a later stage, like in the case of ‘Knowing,’ and rewrite substantially. I do like to have as much involvement with the script as possible,” Proyas said.

The director talked about how the casting process for the film included two leads: Cage and Rose Byrne (Diana Wayland), two actors he said he has wanted to work with. Proyas said Cage illustrated the main character, and he is a versatile actor.

“He really embraces his characters and runs with them,” Proyas said.

Other than the disaster aspect of this film there is the spiritual quest of Cage’s character.

“[He] starts off believing that the universe is a meaningless place that functions on the basis of randomness and chaos and comes to realize that perhaps there is meaning to his life on Earth,” Proyas said.

 “Knowing” was filmed in a different way than most movies, and with a different camera.

“In this instance I used a camera called a red camera which I was really impressed with.

That was a big learning curve for me and for my entire crew but a really wonderfully exciting one, and we’re very pleased with the results,” Proyas said. “That definitely felt like I was back in film school for awhile.”

Proyas said he had a premise for the set of events that occurred in the movie.

“I really wanted to make them as visceral and as real and as unsettling as possible,” Proyas said.

“There is a course that it takes that I really believe will take people by surprise and take them to a hopefully very satisfying conclusion both dramatically and philosophically,” Proyas said.

Proyas said he felt the film symbolically predicted a viable end of the world.

“I think it’s this whole notion of the world ending suddenly. Sadly, I do believe that if the world ends, civilization ends, it will probably be at the hands of mankind,” Proyas said.

“Knowing” opened in theaters Friday, March 20.