While no project is ever guaranteed to be a success, Jason Statham vs. a gigantic prehistoric shark seems like a pretty hard concept to screw up. Of course, we’re talking about The Meg, Jon Turteltaub’s deep-sea thriller that resurrects a long-dormant monster in the megalodon.
Standing in its way, of course, is Statham’s gruff diver Jonas Taylor, who will go through hell and high water as he embarks on a collision course with a 95-foot-long prehistoric shark, which hasn’t roamed this planet for millennia. And yet, one particularly stubborn beast has somehow managed to avoid the jaws of extinction, and begins feeding on anyone (and indeed anything) between it and the mainland.
Close the beaches, folks, it’s no longer safe to go in the water. Or at least, that’s what we’ve gathered from these 20 new photos, with Warner Bros. dropping a huge gallery on us today that contains several shots of the titular beast itself along with the folks tasked with stopping it.
As far as the plot goes, The Meg looks to be a rather loose adaptation of Steve Alten’s bestseller, and follows Statham on his mission to stop the unstoppable. Along with a Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao) and his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), Jonas Taylor dives deep beneath the waves in order to face the prehistoric monster.
And should the stars align, there’s even been talk of a possible film franchise being launched soon after The Meg makes its debut. I mean, if Sharknado is able to embrace its silliness and keep churning out a new movie every other year, we have no reason to think Statham and co. won’t be able to do the same, right?
First thing’s first, though: The Meg docks in select theaters on August 10th.
