‘Meg 2’ Director Describes The Sequel As Being On An “Insanely Large Scale”

Back in 2018, The Meg (review) was unleashed. Now, the sequel is swimming towards us. Director Ben Whaetley (Kill List, High Rise, Rebecca) recently gave an update on the film that is said to be working with a $130-$180 budget.
 
During a discussion with comicbook.com, the director had this to say: “A lot of it is respecting The Meg, and trying to make sure it’s a great Meg film. And as you can see from the movies I’ve made, they’re not necessarily … when you go and do Doctor Who, I don’t completely change it because I wanted to do it. I didn’t want to necessarily make it something completely different that nobody recognized, you know? So there’s that element of back and forth.” He continued, “But it’s an opportunity to do action on such an insanely large scale, that it’s just unbelievable. From doing Free Fire, which was all my Christmases came at once in terms of action, this is just unbelievable. And just doing the storyboards for it, just thinking, ‘Oh,’ it’s just … I feel a heavy responsibility for it, to make sure that it kind of delivers on all the, to all the big shark fans out there.”
 
The script was written by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber, and is re-write of a script by Dean Georgaris. The franchise is based on the best selling novels by Steve Alten (interview).
 
But the big question is will Jason Statham be returning to repirse his role as badass Jonas Taylor? It’s not officially been announced, but it does look like he will return in some compacity. As for the plot? That’s still being kept quiet.
 
Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Belle Avery will be producing along with Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber penning the recent rewrite of Dean Georgaris’ script. Catherine Ying, Li Ruigang, E. Bennett Walsh, Gerald Molen, and Randy Greenberg are exec producing.
 
In the first movie, that earned $530 million at the box office, a prehistoric megalodon is discovered living in the deepest parts of the ocean, but when a team of scientist accidentally sets it free, it does what sharks do best, feast. The film went on to earn $530.2 million worldwide. Statham starred alongside Ruby Rose (Orange is the New Black), Bingbing Li (Resident Evil: Retribution), Cliff Curtis (Fear the Walking Dead), Page Kennedy, and Rainn Wilson (The Office). Winston Chao (Skiptrace), Jessica McNamee (The Vow), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (The BFG), and Robert Taylor (Longmire).
 
We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime here’s the trailer for the first movie.