Ntertainment has confirm that the sequel to Jason Statham’s shark horror “The Meg” has begun filming in the United Kingdom.
The filming of “Meg 2: The Trench” began with a bang at Warner Bros.’ Leavesden Studios outside of London, which has produced the Harry Potter and Batman series.
Ben Wheatley, the director of “Rebecca,” takes over the reins from Jon Turteltaub for this drama about a vicious 80-foot prehistoric shark. Turteltaub directed the franchise’s first installment, which grossed $530 million worldwide.
Statham and Li Bingbing are likely to return in the sequel, with Statham reprising his part as US Navy rescue diver Jonas and Li reprising her role as oceanographer Suyin. (Before becoming an actor, Statham was a world-class diver who competed for the British National Diving Squad and even represented the country at the Commonwealth Games in 1990.)
Dean Georgaris, Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber, as well as producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Belle Avery, and executive producer Catherine Xujun Ying, have all returned for the mega-second shark’s debut on the big screen.
Statham will next be seen in Guy Ritchie’s “Orson Fortune” and “The Expendables 4,” in which he portrays a private contractor hired to prevent a billionaire arms dealer from selling a terrible new weapon that might destroy the world. He’ll also appear in “The Bee Keeper,” a film written by Kurt Wimmer, who wrote “Salt.”
“The Meg” is based on Steve Alten’s 1997 novel “Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror,” in which Statham faced a giant prehistoric shark that rose from the world’s deepest ocean trench.
