Quint said it best in Jaws: "You know the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye.” Anyone answering that description should form an orderly queue outside Louis Leterrier’s door. The Now You See Me and The Incredible Hulk director is in talks with Sony to take charge of shark survival thriller In The Deep.
Based on a coveted Black List script by fast-emerging screenwriter Anthony Jaswinski, whose sci-fi spec script Variant recently went the way of Warner Bros., In The Deep follows a single surfer attacked by a Great White Shark and marooned on a reef, bleeding and in dire need of medical attention. The wrinkle? That big toothy fish is merrily swimming about between her and help.
Producers Lynn Harris and Matti Leshem of newly-formed Weimaraner Republic Pictures are steering a project that’s billed inevitably as “127 Hours meets Jaws”. Perhaps surprisingly, considering some of the nutsoid real-life shark tales already on the record, this one isn’t based on a true story, but emotional heft will be added the woman's grief for her recently passed mum.
As an organisation that lives by Tracy Jordan’s 30 Rock mantra - “Live every week like it’s Shark Week” - we can’t help but be excited by this one. “Louis’ take knocked us out and our intention is to elevate this above the genre, making terrifying but psychologically deep,” said Lesham. “It has the makings of incredible survival story, but it also goes to the very core of fear on every level. It is a really frightening movie.”
Leterrier is currently at work on spy comedy Grimsby with Sacha Baron Cohen, having passed the reins on the Now You See Me sequel to Jon M. Chu (G.I. Joe: Retaliation). The Frenchman was, of course, also behind the first two Transporter films and Clash Of The Titans.