Jason Statham to take on Meg

[Teelie]

Is Statham going to be believable as a marine scientist?

About as believable as Chris Hemsworth was as a hacker in Blackhat.

At least Statham is a former professional swimmer. He's familar with water.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm a Statham fan so maybe he can surprise us here. At least him playing like an underwater diver and paleontologist is something different for him.

Like we've seen him play the gangster, hard nosed cop, the con artist, transporter dude, etc.

This is arguably against his type. If it's well executed, that could be a positive for the film.

Or it could be one of those things that gets riffed and made fun of to no end, IE Tara Reid or Denise Richards playing scientists, nuclear physicists etc.

 

[dude stannis]

If it's a Chris Pratt in Jurassic World type role, I don't see why not.

 

[titansupes]

^ Or even more relevant, Tom Jane in Deep Blue Sea.

 

[TheVileOne]

Except in Deep Blue Sea, Thomas Jane's character was more of a jack of all trades, ex-con type. He was like one of the few non-scientists in that group.

Statham's character is supposed to be an actual scientist, naval expert and paleontologist.

Now granted, maybe this could be interesting because it's a type of role Statham has ever played before. Like will he believable with all the science jargon?

 

[dude stannis]

Perhaps his butchery of science jargon will make it even better.

 

[TheVileOne]

I mean that could play well in the movie's favor or make it a big disaster.

 

[titansupes]

Except in Deep Blue Sea, Thomas Jane's character was more of a jack of all trades, ex-con type. He was like one of the few non-scientists in that group.

Statham's character is supposed to be an actual scientist, naval expert and paleontologist.

Now granted, maybe this could be interesting because it's a type of role Statham has ever played before. Like will he believable with all the science jargon?

Oh.

 

[dude stannis]

I mean that could play well in the movie's favor or make it a big disaster.

Very good point. But I didn't think he was capable of playing a Leslie Nielsen type role until Spy either.

 

[:eek:]

Rainn Wilson will unleash a monster shark in Meg

Deadline reports that Rainn Wilson (The Office) has landed a lead role in the upcoming film Meg, playing “a tech billionaire who funds an underwater observation program” that ends up unleashing the titular giant shark on the world. He joins a cast that includes Jason Statham, Fan Bingbing, Ruby Rose and Jessica McNamee.

Based on Steve Alten‘s New York Times best-selling novel, the prehistoric shark movie will be directed by National Treasure‘s Jon Turteltaub from a script by James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man, Independence Day: Resurgence). Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Colin Wilson will produce the film for Warner Bros.



On his official site, Alten describes his 1997 novel as follows:
On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean’s deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he’s sure he saw but still can’t prove exists – Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark. The average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons and could tear apart a Tyrannosaurus rex in seconds.
Written off as a crackpot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Taylor refuses to forget the depths that nearly cost him his life. With a Ph.D. in paleontology under his belt, Taylor spends years theorizing, lecturing, and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the deepest levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him back into a high-tech miniature sub.
Diving deeper than he ever has before, Taylor will face terror like he’s never imagined, and what he finds could turn the tides bloody red until the end of time. MEG is about to surface. When she does, nothing and no one is going to be safe, and Jonas must face his greatest fear once again.
Meg is slated to open in theaters on March 2, 2018.

 

[Jay Beezy]

I'm still trying to picture this. Jason Statham and Rainn Wilson together.

 

[terry78]

Good, good. I am waiting to see a scene with him and Statham together. I just find that so hilarious.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Is this going to be on the SciFi channel next week

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm just wondering what kind of tone they are going for. This could go one of a few ways.

With Rainn Wilson in there, is it possible they want this to maybe be a big-budget b-movie type of thing? With a lot of tongue-in-cheek type humor and have fun with this. Maybe similar to say Deep Rising?

Rainn Wilson plays it straight for the most part. Just plays a straight greedy human evil CEO type you usually see in these type of movies. Sort of like the type of character the mayor was in Jaws?

Rainn Wilson is sort of the comedic straight man bad guy, maybe like Walter Peck in Ghostbusters. Causes all the garbage to happen but gets his comeuppance in the end. Like people will cheer when he gets eaten, like that British dude in Snakes on a Plane.

Or will they maybe take it even further like the top one? Basically making a $100 million SHARKNADO type of movie using Steve Alten's novel as the basis?

 

[terry78]

I'd go as far as to say Wilson is more of a dramatic actor than Statham, and he does ****ing comedy.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'd go as far as to say Wilson is more of a dramatic actor than Statham, and he does ****ing comedy.

What were his really dramatic roles?

 

[Octoberist]

For the longest time, I thought MEG would've been a B movie, but a B movie with some..weight.

But now it seems that it's perfectly happy being just..a B movie.

 

[TheVileOne]

I mean that could work. It could be like a more entertaining bigger budget Deep Blue Sea.

Turtletaub directed National Treasure 1 and 2. Two movies I love. I think they are very well made popcorn adventure movies that aren't your typical dumb blockbusters and they actually mix in history into the story in a fun way. They aren't dumb like your typical action movies are dumb.

Then for whatever reason, he did Sorcerer's Apprentice, which was bad. We never got National Treasure 3 for whatever reason. I don't know why.

I think Turtletaub is a reasonably competent director, and fine for this type of material.

The thing is, the gold standard for the giant shark horror movie is Jaws. Jaws arguably is a b-movie type of plot, but Spielberg didn't shoot it that way. The film was groundbreaking for many filming techniques as well. Spielberg basically shot it as a mix of drama and horror. There's some dry gallows humor in it, but it's not shot like an exploitive B-movie.

But...that's been done. Trying to make the new Jaws, you just can't do it. Jaws is Jaws.

I'm sorry I'm rambling. I guess my point is, I'm not 100 percent sure what the right tone is to take with this material.

You can't do a Jason Statham vs. a giant killer shark movie that also has Rain Wilson and shoot it like Jaws. You just can't. It really feels like this is going to be something more akin to Deep Blue Sea, and honestly that's not SO terrible. Deep Blue Sea was a good matinee type of film. It was entertaining. The Sharks looked cool. It had a satisfying and surprising ending. It has one famous holy crap type of moment. Many would call it a guilty pleasure. IMHO, sometimes we need those type of films. Guilty pleasures that we want to watch on a rainy day or a slow night on Netflix.

 

[:eek:]

Transformers and Resident Evil Star Li Bingbing joins giant shark movie Meg

Variety reports that scheduling conflicts have caused X-Men: Days of Future Past co-star Fan Bingbing to exit Warner Bros.’ giant shark movie Meg, with Transformers: Age of Extinction and Resident Evil: Retribution star Li Bingbing (no relation) taking her place. She joins a cast that includes Jason Statham, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose and Jessica McNamee.

Based on Steve Alten‘s New York Times best-selling novel, the prehistoric shark movie will be directed by National Treasure‘s Jon Turteltaub from a script by James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man, Independence Day: Resurgence). Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Colin Wilson will produce the film for Warner Bros.



On his official site, Alten describes his 1997 novel as follows:
On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean’s deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he’s sure he saw but still can’t prove exists – Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark. The average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons and could tear apart a Tyrannosaurus rex in seconds.
Written off as a crackpot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Taylor refuses to forget the depths that nearly cost him his life. With a Ph.D. in paleontology under his belt, Taylor spends years theorizing, lecturing, and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the deepest levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him back into a high-tech miniature sub.
Diving deeper than he ever has before, Taylor will face terror like he’s never imagined, and what he finds could turn the tides bloody red until the end of time. MEG is about to surface. When she does, nothing and no one is going to be safe, and Jonas must face his greatest fear once again.
Meg is slated to open in theaters on March 2, 2018.

 

[Pickleweasel]

Probably praying for a Chinese market

 

[terry78]

Oh, anytime they throw a Chinese actress in a big budget movie that's not from here, that is exactly what it is.

 

[TheVileOne]

Isn't Jonas love interest and later wife in the books Japanese? I hope they are not casting a Chinese actress to play a Japanese character since that's kind of racist, but whatever.

 

[E.NormusJohnson]

As terrible of a movie as it ended up being I thought Jaws 3? (the water park one) had an interesting introduction of the mother great white... and sorta of implying how large she was. Dunno why but that popped in my head..but after reading over this thread it did. I think if done right they could make something generally terrifying out of this material. IMO a key part of making this will be how they handle the underwater shots and how scary diving that deep into the unkown (and what lurks there) can be.

 

[Teelie]

Isn't Jonas love interest and later wife in the books Japanese? I hope they are not casting a Chinese actress to play a Japanese character since that's kind of racist, but whatever.

Terry Tanaka, the daughter of a Japanese company's CEO and a friend of Jonas' so either they are changing the ethnicity of the character or trying to play off a Chinese woman as Japanese again (like they did with virtually the entire cast of Memoirs of a Geisha several years back).

 

[:eek:]

EXCLUSIVE: Cliff Curtis has been set to star alongside Jason Statham in Warner Bros’ sci-fi action title Meg, directed by Jon Turtletaub.


Dean Georgaris adapts the script (with a rewrite from James Vanderbilt) from the 1997 novel by Steve Alten, Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror. The story follows a Navy deep-sea diver whose military career ended in disgrace after his team encountered a living Megalodon, a prehistoric ancestor of the shark believed to reach up to 60 feet in length. With his team destroyed by the beast, he soon is offered a chance at redemption when an international underwater observation program led by Chinese scientists encounters the same beast after a volcanic eruption released it from an underwater trench into open water.
Curtis takes the role of the Operations Chief aboard the Mana One, joining Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson and Chinese actress Li Bingbing in the cast.
Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Belle Avery and Colin Wilson produce Meg, with Wei Wayne Jiang, Barrie M. Osborne, Randy Greenberg and Gerald R. Molen exec producing. Flagship Entertainment, China Media Capital division Gravity Pictures and Warner Bros Pictures are co-financing. Gravity Pictures will distribute the film in China, while Warner Bros will handling the title throughout the rest of the world.
New Zealand native Curtis currently stars in AMC’s Fear of the Walking Dead and recently produced and starred in New Zealand indie feature The Dark Horse, based on the true story of Kiwi chess player Genesis Potini who suffered from severe bipolar disorder. Curtis has had roles in films such as Live Free or Die Hard, Training Day, Three Kings and The Fountain.