From director Alexandre Aja comes the new action thriller Piranha 3D. Every year the population of sleepy Lake Victoria explodes from 5,000 to 50,000 for Spring Break; a riot of sun and drunken fun. But this year, there’s something more to worry about than hangovers and complaints from local old timers; A new type of terror is about to be cut loose on Lake Victoria. After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area’s new razor-toothed residents.
Oscar nominated actress Elisabeth Shue has apparently signed on to star in Alexandre Aja’s remake of Piranha 3-D. I’m guessing she’s not going for a second Best Actress nod with this one, but I’ll definitely be in line when it opens next March.
According to Chicagoist.com, D.J. Johnston caught what may be a red-bellied piranha while fishing in the Des Plaines River last week. An expert at the Shedd Aquarium, who studied a photograph of the fish, agreed the fish was likely a piranha. Shedd spokeswoman Melissa Kruth says the fish was probably a pet that was freed by an it’s owner.
Police have closed down a circus in southern Italy after a terrified 19-year-old woman was forced to swim in a tank full of piranhas, while her younger sister endured the company of snakes and tarantulas.
The three men accused of running the “circus of horrors” have been arrested and charged with holding the Bulgarian women as slaves.
The circus owner’s daughter told police that a Bulgarian couple and their two daughters, aged 19 and 16, had been held as slaves “in a state of fear” since January and were forced to work 15 to 20 hours a day for $150 a week.
An appalled spectator tipped off the police after seeing the show, in which Giusi, the 19-year-old, tried to escape from the piranha tank “trembling with terror”.
Jerry Melton was fishing in the Catawba River in Gaston County, NC when he reeled in a fish with a rather odd bite. Turned out that fish was a 1 pound, 4 ounce piranha.
Melton said he didn’t know what he had caught until a fellow fisherman told him.
“Actually, there was a guy down there and he said ‘that might be a piranha’, and, you know, I said… ‘that ain’t no piranha… they ain’t got piranha around here’,” said Melton.
Piranhas are illegal to possess in North Carolina. A wildlife officer said whoever owned the piranha probably dumped it in the river when they got tired of it.
