One thing you should have learned on your travels, is that one shark film is not enough. It’s hard to think of a shark film that doesn’t have a sequel - Jaws does, Sharknado does, Deep Blue Sea does, Open Water does (sort of) and 47 Metres Down has one on the way. So you’re left with The Meg, aren’t you? That hasn’t got a sequel. Statham murdered the shark (not a spoiler), and everything is wrapped up - no more big sharks.
WRONG, IDIOT!
There’s going to be another Meg film because a) Jason Statham loves a sequel, so he does; b) it banged hard at the box office; and c) it’s a shark film and you can never, NEVER, have too many shark films (see above).
Executive producer Catherine Xujun Ying confirmed a follow-up at the US-China Entertainment Summit, saying:
“It’s still very early stages right now, but we’re working or starting to work on it. We’d like to keep it a secret at this time.”
We’re no experts on secrets, but telling everyone about a secret probably isn’t a great way of keeping a secret Catherine.
As this is Hollywood, and the rights have been bought for all five books (The Meg was based on the first) by Steve Alten, there are plans for a franchise. This even includes theme park attractions - Ying says:
“Hopefully China will have the first Jurassic aquarium.”
It’s a no-brainer though, really - The Meg holds the record for the biggest US-China co-production, with a global box-office of $527.8 million, and is currently Warner Bros’ biggest debut in 2018 so far.
The lure of Jason Statham vs a whopping shark is clearly too strong - we must have more of it. But at least maybe this time round he can get it in a headlock.
(Image: Warner Bros.)
