Friday 15 May 2009

MEG & My Killer Shark Obsessions

Isn't it funny, how more and more books are being advertised like films. I mean I can't count the amount of times, I've been watching TV when a trailer for, what I assume to be a film to suddenly pop up, totally grabbing my attention, to the point that I'm probably willing to sacrifice my first born in order to see it, only for it suddenly turn out to be an advert for a book, which isn't a bad thing, it's just you can't help but feel slightly cheated by this. James Patterson in particular has become notorious for this especially, but recently I found a trailer for the latest book in Steve Alten's cult giant shark series "MEG", which for this release of the forth book in the series "MEG: Hell's Aquarium", has also been given the fake movie trailer treatment.



The film adaptation of the first book "MEG" is currently still buried deep in pre production, with the last reports still having Jan de Bont (Speed 2) attached to direct and Nick Nunziata (he of CHUD.com) attached as a producer. However a recent article in the "LA Times" also named veteran Hollywood producers Lawrence Gordon ("Die Hard") and Lloyd Levin ("Boogie Nights"), as being attached to the project, which can be seen as highly positive for the long delayed adaptation, seeing how they are responsible for "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" and "The Watchmen" finally making it to the screen, after both suffering numourus delays and setbacks, so fingers crossed they can do the same for "MEG" which so far has only produced so fantastic Promo art and little else outside, of some extremely random draft scripts, one of which having the giant shark having wings!! Not sure how that would have worked out, especially seeing how the idea of flying killer fish, barely worked with "Piranha 2: The Spawning" (1981), so how it would have worked to have a flying 70-foot Megalodon shark, I'm not overly sure.

Still in the meantime Asylum films are set to release "Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus" next week, which for those of you already associated with Asylum films and their DTV style of film making, you should know what to expect already........ but here's the trailer anyway.



And finally to wrap up this killer shark obsessed piece of blogging, I found this trailer for one of the numerous "Jaws" (1975) cash in's which appeared after the release of the first movie, which in it's wake spawned a whole heap of killer shark knock off's, which continue to this day, but this trailer actually has made me want to hunt this one down.



Still I guess this goes to prove once again, that even though I know the majority of shark movies outside of "Jaws" will suck, I will for some strange reason still find myself obsessing over them while hoping that one day we might see a "MEG" movie. Still in the meantime Steve Alten is running a competition, where the winner can get thier name, in the fifth book "MEG: Night Stalkers", which could lead to a random claim to fame, of having your character killed off by a giant shark...who knows?

11 comments:

  1. Why haven't I heard of Steve Alten? I'm killer shark obsessed as well, as you might have known already :) I'm all cued up and ready for Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Did you see Hammerhead? It's got Jeffrey Combs AND William Forsythe and I believe is by the same folks at Asylum. Ooh, I should blog that one over at the Cavalcade!

    I'm particularly intrigued by the 'trailer' for a book. I don't watch a lot of television (mainly just Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies, and of course, Shark Week on Discovery, but I'm certain I've never seen a 'trailer' for a printed work before. Perhaps this is something just in the UK? Very interesting...

    Excellent post, my friend, killer shark movies are very close to my heart, I think even more so that Bigfoot movies!

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  2. I watched "Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus" this afternoon and it was ok, but not the great shark movie I wanted. No doubt I will post a review on here at some point, but then I've still got a few other films to post reviews for first, which tie in with this months "Ozploitation" theme.

    I will have to check out Hammerhead at some point, but the next creature feature I want to see "Rogue" mainly because, of it being directed by Greg Mclean (Wolf Creek) which for some reason never got a UK Release.

    I can recommend "The Bermuda Depths" which has a giant turtle in it, which almost as cool as a shark and one of the first films I looked at with this blog. It's a swine to find on VHS, but last time I checked it is still on Youtube.

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  3. Steve Alten here. Appreciate the info and trailer being posted. We certainly didn't invent the book trailer, but we spent a lot on making it look cool. As for MEG movie, things are indeed happening. Wish I could break the story, but my producers would beat me severely...which is why I am the last to know details. The new script rocks...I know because I co-wrote it with one of the producers. No wings, no growls, just action backed by real science. As for MEG: Hell's Aquarium, I GUARANTEE SHARK & SEA MONSTER fans will love it!
    --Steve Alten
    www.SteveAlten.com

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  4. this Mega Shark movie is worth watching for the sole reason that Debbie Gibson stars in it

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  5. I'd be suspect of anything Alten has to say, especially concerning a film adaptation. To "keep the faith" as Alten has said so often is to believe only his perspective, and it is doubtful that this will be made into a film. But if it does get to film, I would be hesitant to watch a movie co-written by Alten since his books are terrible. Really, this could be a great movie, but I doubt Alten and his cohorts will take advantage of the potential of this genre in a way that a giant shark film can be truly frightening. And Alten's reference to "real science" is very odd, given that his books make use of more fantasy (for those who wish to see the end of the world in the form of a "giant maw" eating people) than science.

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  6. Some of the book trailer looks like it came from Shark Attack in the Mediterranean http://bwanavoodoo.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/shark-week-hai-alarm-auf-mallorca/

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  7. "As for MEG movie, things are indeed happening. Wish I could break the story, but my producers would beat me severely...which is why I am the last to know details." And the details keep coming with no update or word from anyone..."things are indeed happening." Yeeeeeeaaah.

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  8. I dont see how you can say Alten's books are terrible, they are all bestsellers. And they are certainly more realistic than all the giant shark movies out there :P

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  9. MEG is awesome

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  10. Alten is a legend and nothing short of one. His books don't get cheesy, it doesn't appear he loses heart at any point during writing as the story is still excellent throughout! Kudos to him, he made me a reader because he writes Meg is a five star book! If he co-wrote this film: i am excited, only Alten's Megalodon is appealing as anything on the screen so far (involving megalodon's) sucks terribly. Thank you steve for such great books.

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  11. Steve alten if you are reading this i just wanna say im your biggest fan your books are amazing, i cant wait for the meg movieto hit the big screen and i am equaly pumped up for the new addition to the meg series meg: nightstalkers
    your biggest fan -steveb89-

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