Director Ben Wheatley Discusses THE MEG 2 - "It's an Opportunity to do Action on Such an Insanely Large Scale"
I was pretty surprised when director Ben Wheatley was hired to direct Jason Statham’s The Meg 2. It’s a very different kind of project for the filmmaker, who previously helmed films such as Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England, Free Fire, and Rebecca. It’ll be a lot of fun to see how he handles an action film that involves a giant-ass prehistoric shark!
During a recent interview with CB, Wheatley talked about his film and teased what we can expect. In fact, he sees the project as an opportunity to make an action film on such an insanely large scale. He explains:
"A lot of it is respecting The Meg, and trying to make sure it's a great Meg film. And as you can see from the movies I've made, they're not necessarily, it's not ... when you go and do Doctor Who, I don't completely change it because I wanted to do it. I didn't want to necessarily make it something completely different that nobody recognized, you know? So there's that element of back and forth."
"But it's an opportunity to do action on such an insanely large scale, that it's just unbelievable. From doing Free Fire, which was, I thought, was all my Christmases came at once in terms of action, this is just unbelievable. And just doing the storyboards for it, just thinking and going, 'Oh,' it's just ... I feel a heavy responsibility for it, to make sure that it kind of delivers on all the, to all the big shark fans out there."
The key talent from the first movie is expected to return, including Statham, who is also creatively involved with the development of the sequel. Other cast members include Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, and Ruby Rose.
Jon and Erich Hoeber wrote the most recent draft of the script off of a previous draft written by Dean Georgaris. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Belle Avery are back as producers.
The original film was based on the novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, and focused on a prehistoric megalodon being discovered in the deepest parts of the ocean, who then came to the surface to wreak havoc. There are no details on what the story for the sequel will involve, but as someone who enjoyed the first film, I can’t wait to see how this next film turns out.