APOCALYPTO, Mel Gibson's next movie, is to be filmed in an "obscure Mayan dialect" according to Variety. Now can someone tell me what filmworthy event happened among the Mayans 3,000 years ago?

UPDATE: I'm not subscribed to Variety, but this Google excerpt from the article reads "Set 500 years ago, pic will be filmed in an obscure Mayan dialect, presumably with the same kind of subtitles Gibson reluctantly added to "The Passion of the [Christ]". Five hundred years ago would make more sense.

UPDATE: Bryan Cox e-mails:

It's just a guess on my part, but Gibson's Mayan movie may have something to do with the fact that the Mayan calendar ends on December 21st, 2012. This seems to have inspired many "end-of-the-world" stories. If you google "Maya 2012" (or some derivation of that), you'll find lots of information.

The first place I ever bumped into this fact about the Mayan calendar was in "Breaking the Mayan Code" by Michael D. Coe, a very interesting account of the decipherment of Mayan script.

UPDATE (26 July): Yep, it's 500 years. Here's a Reuters article.