A new still from The Meg shows off the size of the titular monster shark. The Meg is based on a long-running series of novels by author Steve Alten, and a movie version has been trapped in development hell for years. Both Jan de Bont and Eli Roth have been attached to helm the project, but now Jon Turteltaub is the man directing Jason Statham in his hunt to bring down a 75-foot shark.

The Meg's story involves a group of scientists uncovering a host of new species at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This involves a giant shark dubbed a Megalodon, a creature long thought to be extinct. Statham's navy captain Jonas Taylor is called into the research station to help, but soon the monster has escaped and starts eating everything - and everyone - in its path, leading to a race against time to stop it.

The Meg is doing a great job selling itself as a cheesy B-movie, and it's nice to see Statham step outside his comfort zone a little and make a pure creature feature. Now, a new image from the film has arrived courtesy of Empire, which shows a diver looking out at the beast. The still does a good job displaying the immense size of the shark, in addition to being a nod to Hopper's terrifying cage dive in Jaws.


Giant monster movies have made something of a comeback in recent years, thanks to the success of films like Pacific Rim and Kong: Skull Island. Warner Bros clearly has a lot of faith in the franchise potential of The Meg, since they granted it a healthy $150 million budget. There's plenty of sequel material to be found in the novels, so if audiences take a shine to the movie, there could be semi-regular adventures with Statham's gruff shark hunter.

After years spent making modestly budgeted action flicks like Crank, Statham has seemed more willing to spread out in recent years. He signed up to be part of the Fast & Furious ensemble as reformed villain Deckard Shaw, and he's teaming up with Dwayne Johnson for spinoff Hobbs & Shaw. The actor also got to show off his comic chops in Spy. Statham hasn't made anything approaching a horror or monster movie since 2001's Ghosts Of Mars, so hopefully, The Meg is as much fun as the trailers make it look.