As the finger-snappin’, toe-tappin’ sound of Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” sets the tone, the first trailer for the long-awaited big-screen adaptation of Steve Alten’s MEG has finally arrived. This August, Warner Bros. Pictures will release THE MEG, a film that’s finally a reality after nearly two decades of studio-spanning “development Hell.” Shark movies are a genre all their own, and while it’s my wife that’s the big JAWS fan and Shark Week enthusiast in this house, I am 100% in for anything starring Jason Statham, so this just hit my “must-see” list. Check out your first bite of THE MEG below!
From the Official Announcement: Jason Statham (“Spy,” “Furious 7,” “The Expendables” films) and award-winning Chinese actress Li Bingbing (“Transformers: Age of Extinction,” “Forbidden Kingdom,” “The Message”) star in the science fiction action thriller “The Meg,” directed by Jon Turteltaub (the “National Treasure” movies, “Last Vegas”).
In the 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.
Rounding out the international main cast of “The Meg” are Rainn Wilson (TV’s “The Office,” “Super”), Ruby Rose (“xXx: Return of Xander Cage,” TV’s “Orange is the New Black”), Winston Chao (“Skiptrace,” “Kabali”), Page Kennedy (TV’s “Rush Hour”), Jessica McNamee (“The Vow,” TV’s “Sirens”), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (“The BFG,” TV’s “The Missing”), Robert Taylor (“Focus,” TV’s “Longmire”), New Zealander Cliff Curtis (“The Dark Horse,” “Risen,” TV’s “Fear the Walking Dead”), Sophia Shuya Cai (“Somewhere Only We Know”), and Masi Oka (TV’s “Hawaii Five-0,” “Heroes”).
Turteltaub directed the film from a screenplay by Dean Georgaris and Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber, based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Steve Alten. Lorenzo di Bonaventura (the “Transformers” films), Belle Avery (“Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”) and Colin Wilson (“Suicide Squad,” “Avatar”) produced the film, with Gerald R. Molen, Randy Greenberg, Wayne Wei Jiang, and Barrie Osborne serving as executive producers.
Turteltaub’s behind-the-scenes team included Oscar-nominated director of photography Tom Stern (“Changeling,” “Sully,” “American Sniper,” “The Hunger Games”), Oscar-winning production designer Grant Major (“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” “X-Men- Apocalypse”), editor Steven Kemper (“Salt,” “Mission: Impossible II,” “Face/Off”) and costume designer Amanda Neale (“Truth,” “Pete’s Dragon,” “What We Do in the Shadows”). Filming on “The Meg” was accomplished on location in China and New Zealand.
Check out THE MEG in theaters on August 10, 2018.
