Jason Statham Makes a Date with Meg for 2018; New Casting Info!
It feels like the Internet has been reporting on the possibility of a big screen version of Steve Alten’s Meg for as long as there has been an Internet. Almost hard to believe it’s finally going to happen in the spring of 2018. The book that pretty much introduced the monstrous prehistoric Megalodon shark into the b-movie lexicon almost feels old hat nowadays.
You can pretty much trace the lineage of the modern shark b-movie to two things: Disney optioning the film rights to Meg back in 1997 for a film that never got out of the development stage and the wonderfully preposterous Shark Attack 3: Megalodon, which I do believe was the first Meg-inspired b-movie. Fifteen years later, we’ve seen almost every sharksploitation possibility. Four Sharknados, but still no Meg. This thing has been gestating for so long I’ve lost count of the number of Meg sequels Alten has penned or how many b-movies have featured the dreaded Megalodon shark.
At long last, Meg is actually being made with Jason Statham as a disgraced deep sea diver doing battle with a 60-foot dinoshark. Alongside Statham, Chinese star Fan Bingbing has signed on for active sharking. National Treasure helmer Jon Turtletaub replaces Eli Roth in the director’s chair.
According to Deadline, the biggest shark of all time will finally chomp big screens everywhere on March 2, 2018. If you’re wondering why a big budget, big screen movie about a prehistoric shark is finally getting made, then let me hit you with four words: Jurassic World made bank!
Actually, there are another four words that might best explain Meg finally surfacing: China is co-producing. That would also explain why the book’s setting has been changed to China (where most of the film will shoot later this year) and Bingbing, one of the country’s top actresses, has signed on to co-star.
I wonder how many more Megalodon b-movies a successful Meg movie might inspire… Who knows? Between Meg and The Shallows, we might be entering a new era of more respectable, less Syfy-ish shark flicks. But don’t get too excited. If those two films deliver, you just know some exec will utter the words: “Maybe it’s time to remake Jaws?”
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, indeed. Here’s the plot crunch below via THR.
Synopsis:
An international underwater observation program, led by Chinese scientists, is under attack by an unknown danger, and its deep-sea submersible lies disabled and trapped at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. With time running out, former Naval Captain and expert deep sea diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) is recruited by Dr. Zhang Suyin, lead oceanographer of the program, for what is likely a suicide mission.
Years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying threat, which forced him to abort his mission and abandon half his crew, resulting in disgrace and a dishonorable discharge. Now, Taylor must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below … bringing him face to face once more with the apex predator of all time.
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