Meg is one of those movies that has been floating in development hell for so long, it’s almost shocking when it actually seem to be surfacing at last. But it’s true: Warner Bros. has Eli Roth in talks to direct the giant prehistoric shark movie.
What is Meg, you ask? Well, if the words “giant prehistoric shark” weren’t an adequate tip-off, it’s the story of two men – deep sea diver Jonas Taylor and pal Masao Tanaka – who have to stop a group of giant megalodons that have survived to the present day from escaping the Mariana Trench and heading to California’s coastline. They aren’t, as you might expect, all that successful in containing all the creatures, and that’s when it becomes really, really unsafe to go back into the water. For the new version of the film, the location has been switched to China rather than California, a little wrinkle that has helped score the country’s Gravity Pictures to share the production cost.
Steve Alten’s source novel, called MEG, hit shelves in 1997 and saw its rights snapped up by Disney that same year, which put it into turnaround when Deep Blue Sea came and went without striking enough of a chord to generate sharkmania. In that time, it has gone through various drafts and looked like it might be made more than once, including an announcement by New Line that it had snagged the rights and would be releasing the thriller in 2008, a pledge it withdrew before any real production on the film could start.
Alten took the rights back and has since struck a deal with Apelles Entertainment and Maeday Productions to work on a film with Warners. Dean Georgaris has written the most recent draft of the script, which is apparently part of the reason why the studio is pushing for it to arrive at last. And the big opening weekend for Jurassic World won’t hurt at all, plus the fact that Alten has several sequel novels that could fuel a potential series of films.
Roth, assuming he takes the gig (and he has been very interested in the toothy beasts recently, hosting the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week this year), could be the right man to balance the campier elements with the appropriate horror tone, which will be a feat to manage in this era of Sharknado and its cheesy ilk. The director’s next film to hit our shores, Keanu Reeves thriller Knock Knock, lands next week.