EXCLUSIVE: Robert Taylor is the latest addition to Jon Turteltaub’s giant-shark thriller Meg, Warner Bros’ upcoming adventure produced in conjunction with China-based banner Gravity. Taylor, the Aussie actor who stars in Netflix’s Western drama Longmire, will star alongside Jason Statham and Fan Bingbing in the film. Longmire‘s fifth season starts streaming Friday.
Turteltaub directs Meg, an adaptation of Steve Alten’s 1997 novel, with Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Belle Avery and Colin Wilson producing. The story, written by Dean Georgaris (with a rewrite from James Vanderbilt), follows a Navy deep-sea diver (Statham) whose military career ended in disgrace after his team encountered a living Megalodon, a prehistoric ancestor of the shark believed to reach up to 60 feet in length. With his team destroyed by the beast, he soon is offered a chance at redemption when the monster wreaks havoc off the coast of present-day China.
Wei Wayne Jiang, Barrie M. Osborne, Randy Greenberg and Gerald R. Molen exec produce with Flagship Entertainment, China Media Capital division Gravity Pictures and Warner Bros Pictures co-financing. Gravity Pictures will distribute the film in China, while Warner Bros handles the title throughout the rest of the world.
Taylor, whose credits include The Matrix, Focus and Australian titles Coffin Rock and Rogue, is repped by WME and Marquee Management.
