McCarthy cast in Emmerich's '2012'

Thomas McCarthy has joined the cast of Roland Emmerich's disaster movie 2012.

McCarthy, a supporting actor who has recently found success writing and directing indie features The Station Agent and The Visitor, will play the boyfriend of Amanda Peet's character.

"As an actor, I've never worked on anything with this scale before, and I always go see these movies," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "And then there's the director part of me. I get really excited about working with directors like this, who do things that are so wildly different from me."

He added that accepting the 2012 role was not just about taking a paycheque between directing jobs.

"This does have a big budget and I do make more money, which is nice, but I know if you take a job like this just for the money, you'll be miserable," he explained.

John Cusack, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton and Danny Glover are already among the 2012 cast.