MEG, Floundering But Still Afloat

Meg, the film version of the Steve Alten novel about a giant prehistoric shark, is stalled at New Line after nine years in development, Variety reported. New Line has had the rights to the book since last year, and was planning to release the film in 2006 with a budget of $75 million. But when the budget estimate came in at $150 million, the studio put the project on hold in order to come up with ways to scale it back.

Just the CGI work for Meg would reportedly cost $40 million to $70 million. Aside from aquatic challenges (CGI waves, thousands of species of fish), the giant shark attacks ships and a helicopter. Hot. Now, the film is looking to shoot this spring for a summer 2008 release, at the earliest. Alten says he won’t finish the fourth book in his Meg series, Meg 4: Hell’s Aquarium, until the film is greenlit.

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