After swimming its way to over $530 million worldwide in 2018, Warner Bros. announced early development on a follow-up to its monster shark movie The Meg and now the studio is getting the wheels turning as they’ve landed Ben Wheatley (Rebecca) to helm the sequel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Most of the talent from the box office smash original are expected to return for the sequel, including star Jason Statham (Hobbs & Shaw), who sources report is involved in the creative development of the film, as well as scribes Jon and Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris, the duo having written the most recent draft while all three received credit on the first film.
The sequel, reportedly being based off the second novel in Steven Alten’s best-selling series of the same name The Meg: The Trench, will once again be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Belle Avery, with Catherine Ying, Li Ruigang, E. Bennett Walsh, Gerald Molen and Randy Greenberg attached to executive produce.
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In the first film, a deep-sea submersible—part of an international undersea observation program—has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and now lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific…with its crew trapped inside. With time running out, expert deep-sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao), against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), to save the crew—and the ocean itself—from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon.
What no one could have imagined is that years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now, teamed with Suyin, he must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below…bringing him face to face once more with the greatest and largest predator of all time.
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John Turteltaub (National Treasure) directed the film from a screenplay by Dean Georgaris and Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber, based on the New York Times best-selling book by Steve Alten.
(Photo Credit: Barry King/Getty Images)
