‘Meg’: China Will Get First Taste of Jason Statham’s Crazy Shark Thriller

“Meg,” a new thriller starring Jason Li, Fan Bingbing and a giant shark, will breach theaters on March 2, 2018. Unless you live in China, that is — Jon Turteltaub’s film will open there a full two weeks early, during the country’s New Year celebrations.

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China is expected by many to surpass the United States as the world’s most lucrative film market within the next several years, one effect of which is that co-productions and events of this kind are likely to become increasingly common. (Bingbing, a massive star in her home country, was recently listed by Forbes as the fifth-highest-paid actress in the world.) According to Variety, this adaptation of Steve Alten’s best-selling novel follows the attack of a deep-sea submarine by a massive creature that we humans, in our arrogance, thought had gone the way of the dodo. Their craft now sitting idle at the bottom of the deep blue sea, the submarine’s crew must find a way to survive.

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Winston Chao, Masi Oka, Cliff Curtis, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose and Page Kennedy are among the other actors who will be forced to reckon with said megalodon. Turtletaub, whose last name makes me wish “Meg” were actually about a giant turtle, previously directed the “National Treasure” movies as well as “Cool Runnings.”

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