British filmmakerBen Wheatley, director of theHitchcockremakeRebeccacurrently dominating Netflix’s Top 10, has joinedJason Statham’s giant shark sequelThe Meg 2. As reported byTHR, Wheatley will helm the picture, with Statham and most of the original’s principal cast expected to return.
Wheatley has made a name for himself with dark, off-kilter movies includingRebecca, the 2015 thrillerHigh Rise, and the 2016 black comedyFree Fire. He’s an odd choice to direct a big budget megashark action sequel, but hopefully his background in grim, semi-satirical films can inject some much-needed life into the burgeoning franchise. The truly exciting news here is that Statham is reportedly creatively involved with developing the sequel, and I literally cannot wait to see his ideas onscreen. I can only assume he will pummel the shark with several dazzling kicks before suplexing it through a superyacht.
Bringing some new creative voices onboard forThe Meg 2is a welcome idea, because the 2018 original, helmed byNational TreasuredirectorJon Turtletaub, was surprisingly dull and joyless for a movie about Jason Statham fighting a prehistoric shark. To wit - there are several helicopters in the film, and the mythical fish titan doesn’t leap out of the ocean and eat a single one. The only real high point was watching Statham, who used to be a professional swimmer, glide through the water like a glistening bald dolphin. It’s essentially two hours of squandered potential, although the visual effects were admittedly pretty decent. And the shark does hilariously pop one of those giant water walking balls as the guy inside frantically tries to outrun it, so that’s something.
Wheatley was previously attached to direct a sequel to the 2018Tomb Raiderreboot starringAlicia Vikander, but as of this writing it’s unclear whether he’s still involved with that project. It would seem difficult to juggle two blockbuster adventure sequels at once, but with the industry currently in chaos due to the pandemic, who can say. For more on Wheatley’s latest filmRebecca, check outCollider’s review.
