The Meg may have received a mixed response from the critics, but it seems that the simplicity of its central premise (that is, big shark tries to eat people) struck a cord with a lot of filmgoers, as the feature fared pretty respectively at the box office. In fact, with a worldwide gross of $527.8 million, the monster movie is the most successful US-Chinese co-production to date, making it only natural that The Meg 2 is in the works.
Executive producer Catherine Xujun Ying confirmed as such at the U.S.-China Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles, telling Variety that the follow-up is “still in the very early stages, but we’re working on it. We’re trying to keep it secret at this time.”
While the project has yet to get the green light from Warner Bros., this is still encouraging news for anyone who could get on board with the silly thrills of Jon Turteltaub’s picture. At this point, however, we wouldn’t count on the same director making a return to the property, with the National Treasure helmsman saying earlier this year that he was “so disappointed the film wasn’t more bloody or disgusting.”
Indeed, this first installment was cut down to a PG-13 for the sake of getting kids in cinema seats, with the R-rated version failing to even make it onto the movie’s subsequent home video release. While star Jason Statham has previously acknowledged the franchise potential of the series, he too criticized the flick for its lack of gore, explaining a couple of months ago how the film left him asking, “Where’s the fucking blood?”
But while The Meg may have not brought as much bite as some viewers would’ve wanted, it looks like this shark isn’t done terrorizing the ocean quite yet.
