Jessica McNamee joins the cast of "Meg," a shark thriller that stars Jason Statham and Chinese star Bingbing Fan of "X-Men: Days of Future Past." McNamee recently appeared in USA Network's hit "Sirens," and will be seen in HBO's "Battle of the Sexes" as well as in "CHIPs."
Statham already signed on the Warner Bros' thriller four months earlier and the rest of the cast started to come together. However, there are few details what characters the signed up stars will portray.
The story is based on Steve Alten's 1997-published novel "MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror." The movie's title comes from the ancient Megalodon species which survived despite being trapped in the Mariana Trench, the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon because of a cold water barrier, according to Variety.
The novel-based movie was adapted by screenwriter James Vanderbilt, which tells the story of a top-secret dive into the Mariana Trench, where Jonas Taylor found the biggest and most ferocious predator of all animals. Taylor was the mission's only survivor and was haunted by what he witnessed yet cannot prove exists. The prehistoric Meg is 20 tons heavy and is capable of tearing a dinosaur apart in seconds.
Later, a program of international underwater observation lead by Chinese scientists was attacked by an unknown danger. Their deep-sea submersible craft is trapped in the Pacific Ocean's deepest part and the team badly needs rescue.
Jason Statham's character, an expert diver and ex captain of the navy will come to help. He has actually faced the massive shark years before.
Jon Turteltaub will direct the film to replace Eli Roth who dropped the project in March. "Meg" is set to release on March 2, 2018, Movieweb reported. The date is a week following "Pacific Rim 2" of Legendary on Feb. 23, 2018 and a week before "Wrek-It Ralph 2" by Disney.
Along with Warner Bros., Flagship Entertainment and Chinese firm Gravity Pictures will finance "Meg." Gravity will handle China distribution while Warner will take care of the distribution for other countries. The producers are Belle Avery, Colin Wilson and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura while Wei Wayne Jiang, Gerald R. Molen, Randy Greenberg and Barrie M. Osborne co-produce.
McNamee is interviewed in the clip below by Craig Ferguson.