The surprise blockbuster of the summer, The Meg, could become the next major monster movie franchise, producers confirmed.
The franchise’s page on IMDB lists 2020 for the release of the sequel, The Meg 2, with Jason Statham and Bingbing Li reprising their roles from the first film. The shark-themed thriller could become an extended franchise after producers bought the movie rights to all five books in the series by science fiction writer Steve Alten.
“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,” Meg executive producer Catherine Xujun Ying said during a panel at the US-China Entertainment Summit.
Ying also hinted that a theme park based on the series could be in the works.
“Hopefully, China will have the first Jurassic aquarium,” Ying said.
The Meg, which is now available on BluRay and Digital Download, was a bit of an unexpected hit after earning over $500 million at the box office worldwide –and over $140 million domestically.
“We were being laughed at by a lot of people for making this movie. Before it came out, the tracking was horrible. They were saying this is a huge mistake, Warner Brothers has blown it, China is done,” director Jon Turteltaub joked during the event.
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Also, don’t forget the Sharkophile’s rankings of the worst shark movies of all time.
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