Filming for the sequel to the worldwide Box Office hit The Meg, based upon Steve Alten classic aquatic horror novel, is set to start next week with British director Ben Wheatley at the helm.
The big question for fans of the book series, is will it follow a similar narrative to the second book entitled The Trench?
In this book, Jonas Taylor works at the Tanaka Institute and studies a surviving Megalodon from the first book, entitled Angel due to its completely white skin. In true sequel nature, Alten goes bigger with the Megalodon not the only threat this time around; as a pack of prehistoric Kronosaurs are introduced to wreak havoc.
The issue facing Wheatley is the fact both Megalodon’s were killed in the last film, although this plot strand could be easily addressed by an opening scene showing potentially multiple Megalodons escaping the Mariana trench.
Given how scientific the last film was, you get the feeling Wheatley’s remit is to have more action sequences in the sequel, which was often the criticism of the first film given its nearly 2 hour runtime.
Having said this The Meg’s $500 million worldwide box office does put pressure on the team to deliver something that will generate substantial income, even in a pandemic world.
Speaking about The Meg 2 in April 2021 to Film Stories, Wheatley said,
“It’s an opportunity to do action on such an insanely large scale, that it’s just unbelievable. From doing Free Fire, which was, I thought, was all my Christmases came at once in terms of action, this is just unbelievable. And just doing the storyboards for it, just thinking and going, ‘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 Meg 2 begins filming at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden in the UK next week.
Bloody Flicks 