Last year we reported that Eli Roth was in talks to bring Steve Alten’s book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror to the big screen, but it has now been announced that Jon Turteltaub is now more likely to take the reins on the ancient shark horror story. Turteltaub is the director of Cool Runnings, The Kid, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the National Treasure franchise, so this will be his first horror effort.
It seems as though Warner Bros had cold feet about letting the director of torture flick Hostel and cannibal film The Green Inferno tackle their monster movie. Perhaps the film is looking to take less scary route and opt for an action-adventure tone, which would explain the new director choice. It would also be unsurprising to see Nicolas Cage land a role in the film, considering his many collaborations with Turteltaub.
The book’s synopsis is as follows:
The book revolves around two men who band together to fight an ancient shark threatening the California coast. The Megaladon, considered one of the largest and most powerful predators in history, can reach a length of 60 feet.
The film has set its sights on a Chinese location, rather than California, so that’ll make a nice difference from the usual monster movies that terrorise the USA. Meg has been in development hell since 1997 and it’s still making very slow progress. Deep Blue Sea originally hindered its release all those years ago, so let’s hope another shark doesn’t get in the way of Meg’s reign of terror.
