News of a movie starring Jason Statham and a huge, pissed-off shark was all I needed to hear frankly, but as luck would have it, the cast of Meg continues to swell with a mixture of up-and-coming thesps alongside more established talent. The latest addition to this batshit-sounding B-movie is Rainn Wilson, who will play the person responsible for creating this mammoth beastie in the first place.
Wilson, who’s perhaps best known for his role on the US version of The Office, plays “Jack Morris, a tech billionaire who funds an underwater observation program that unwittingly unleashes the Carcharodon megalodon – a 70-foot, 40-ton prehistoric cousin of the great white.”
It’s easy to see how this might all play out. I can already picture the scene now: Wilson’s character flinging his hands up in despair, trying to reason with Statham’s no-nonsense action man. ‘I only want to help the fishies!’ he might cry, while a monstrous carnivore that makes Jaws look like a pet goldfish munches away on swimmers. Whether that happens or not, Wilson’s a bona fide comic genius, so it’ll be fun to see if opts for the hammy route or plays his billionaire straight.
Director Jon Turteltaub sits at the helm of Meg, working from a script by Dean Georgaris with rewrites by The Amazing Spider-Man‘s James Vanderbilt. It’s adapted from Steve Alten’s best-selling book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, which finds the titular beast terrorizing folks off the coast of China.
Statham and Wilson won’t face the aquatic monster alone, either, with Jessica McNamee and Ruby Rose also jumping in on the action. It looks that the core cast is now set with the addition of Wilson, but if anyone else hops on board, we’ll be sure to let you know.
