Helmed by Ben Wheatley, the sequel to 2018’s The Meg is switching to a UK shoot, and will begin filming shortly.
We’ve known for a while that The Meg 2 is coming, along with the knowledge that British director Ben Wheatley will be taking the reins from the first film’s helmer, Jon Turtelaub. With quirky, darker films like A Field In England and Kill List to his name, Wheatley has long established himself as one of the most distinct directors to originate from these shores. Even the director’s projects that have a more ‘Hollywood’ flavour to them, such as Free Fire still possess his particular style, and we’re sincerely hoping that his sequel to 2018’s The Meg can blend his trademark quirkiness with a blockbuster template.
Some changes are already afoot, with the filming location switching from the first film’s base, in New Zealand, to the Warner Bros studio in Leavesden, here in the UK. Shooting is set to begin next week, and although we don’t have a firm release date yet, we’d expect to see this one emerge some time in the summer of next year.
Action icon Jason Statham will be returning for the sequel, and Wheatley has talked in the past about his plans for the film’s big action sequences, saying “it’s an opportunity to do action on such an insanely large scale, that it’s just unbelievable. From doing Free Fire, which was, I thought, was all my Christmases came at once in terms of action, this is just unbelievable. And just doing the storyboards for it, just thinking and going, oh, it’s just … I feel a heavy responsibility for it, to make sure that it kind of delivers on all the, to all the big shark fans out there”.
The first film was definitely fun, but felt like a few of the rough edges had been glossed away. Whether Wheatley can contend with that, presumably within the constraints of a 12A rating, remains to be seen, but we’re certainly looking forward to finding out. We’ll let you know more, as we hear it.
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