The Meg may have not been received too well by critics, but the simplicity of its central premise (a big shark tries to eat people) resonated with a lot of moviegoers, as the pic performed 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, which makes it not too surprising to hear that The Meg 2 is now in development.
Executive producer Catherine Xujun Ying confirmed as much late last year, saying that the project is “still in the very early stages, but we’re working on it. We’re trying to keep it secret at this time.” Plot details and a potential release date still elude us, but it does seem like things are moving along swimmingly, as producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura recently told CinemaBlend that a script is currently being worked on, which means we may soon hear about what kind of story they’ve got cooked up for the sequel.
Sure, Bonaventura’s update is a small one, but it’s still encouraging news for anyone who found themselves sucked in by the silly thrills of Jon Turteltaub’s picture. At this point, though, we don’t imagine he’ll be returning for more, with the National Treasure helmsman saying a few months back that he was “so disappointed the film wasn’t more bloody or disgusting.”
Frankly, the director has a point. It’s a well known fact that The Meg was cut down to a PG-13 for the sake of getting the young ones into cinema seats, with the R-rated version failing to even make it onto the home video release. Obviously, that’s hugely disappointing, and even Jason Statham has criticized the flick for its lack of gore, saying back when it released that the film left him asking, “Where’s the fucking blood?”
But while The Meg may have not brought as much bite as a lot of people would’ve hoped, it seems as if the titular shark isn’t done terrorizing the ocean quite yet, and we’ll bring you more on the upcoming sequel as it continues to come together.