Eli Roth has exited the adaptation of Steve Alten’s giant shark thriller MEG after the budget evidently spiraled out of control. The announcement comes in conjunction with the revelation Warner Bros. and Chinese company Gravity are already looking to find a replacement in the form of veteran director Jon Turteltaub, best known as the helmer of the NATIONAL TREASURE movies, as well as THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE and COOL RUNNINGS.
According to THR, Warners has become wary of the escalating budget thanks to the disappointing year it had at the box office last year. The concerns over the budget – which is in the $100 million range – led to Roth’s jumping ship. (He was announced as director in June 2015.) Warners is seeking a rewrite of the script while potentially signing Turtletaub to captain the ship. (He’s described as being “in talks” to direct.) Dean Georgaris (PAYCHECK, LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE) wrote the most recent draft.
The plot of Alten’s book:
Carcharodon megalodon apex predator of all time, the most fearsome creature that ever lived a 70-foot, 60,000 pound Great White Shark. Hundreds of 7-inch serrated teeth filled jaws that could swallow an elephant whole. It could sense its prey miles away, inhaling its scent as it registered the beat of its fluttering heart, and if you ever came close enough to see the monster…it was already too late. For Navy deep-sea submersible pilot Jonas Taylor, it nearly was too late. Years ago, on a top-secret dive seven miles down into the Mariana Trench, Jonas came face to face with an ancient monster everyone believed extinct. Having barely escaped with his life, Jonas must prove to the world that Meg still exists. When an opportunity to return to the trench presents itself, he takes it, intent on returning topside with a 7-inch tooth! But man s presence in this unexplored domain releases one of the sharks from its purgatory, and now Jonas is the only one who can stop it.
We’ll have to see what happens in the coming months, as MEG seems like a perfect movie to shoot in the summer. But after so many delays and issues, how many more false-starts can MEG take?