Emerging from the depths of a long, delayed production, the giant shark thriller is finally swimming upstream towards production with the announcement of its 2 main leads and an official release date.
Having been in the backseat since 2007 when New Line pulled the plug on the project, things began to look promising for “Meg” when director Jon Turteltaub (best known for his “National Treasure” movies) became attached to the film. We’ve also learned that Jason Statham has taken on the lead role with Chinese actress Fan Bingbing (范冰冰) as his co-star.
Adapted from Steve Alten’s “Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror”, the synopsis for the upcoming sci-fi movie is as follows:
“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 (Fan Bingbing), 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 dishonourably 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.”
Most of you may remember Bingbing from “X-Men: Days of Future Past”, where the 34-year-old actress took on the role of the mutant, Blink. We can’t wait to see how Bingbing will help Statham take on the massive Megalodon. Having these 2 onboard certainly makes the project more appealing.
Warner Bros. has set a 2nd March 2018 release date for “Meg”.
Sources: /Film, The Hollywood Reporter.
