Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (L) and Jason Statham arrives at the Premiere of Summit Entertainment's 'Mechanic: Resurrection' at ArcLight Hollywood on August 22, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo : Getty Images / Frazer Harrison)
Chinese viewers will get to see the upcoming shark thriller "Meg" before the rest of the world. The film is slated to hit Chinese theaters during the Chinese New Year in 2018, two weeks before its worldwide release.
The film, which stars action star Jason Statham and Chinese actress Li Bingbing, has already started filming in Auckland, New Zealand. China's Gravity Pictures will be handling the domestic distribution to ensure that the film is out in Chinese theaters on Feb. 16, 2018, while Warner Bros. Pictures will be in charge of its global release, which is scheduled for March 2, 2018, according to China Film Insider.
The creature feature is inspired by Steve Alten's 1997 novel of the same name. However, the only exception is that instead of California, the film will be set in China, a change that has helped bring Gravity Pictures on board as a co-producer and co-financier.
Fan Bingbing was initially tapped to play the leading lady in the project but was later replaced by Li after she dropped out of the film citing scheduling conflicts. Li had originally passed on the film due to overlapping dates but later accepted the offer when it was proposed to her the second time.
Li has already starred in several Hollywood films including "Transformers: Age of Extinction," "Forbidden Kingdom" and "Resident Evil: Retribution." In "Meg," she plays the role of lead oceanographer Dr. Zhang Suyin, who teams up with an ex-Navy captain (Statham) to rescue a deep-sea submersible trapped at the bottom of the ocean from the jaws of a giant prehistoric Megalodon shark, according to Collider.
Jon Turteltaub is directing the film based on a script penned by Dean Georgaris and Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber. In addition to Statham and Li, the film also stars Cliff Curtis, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Rainn Wilson, Page Kennedy, Jessica McNamee, ólafur Darris ólafsson, Sophia Shuya Cai and Masi Oka.
For more details on "Meg," watch the video below:
