MEG - Ready to bite the box office at last?

For a long, long, and I REALLY mean a long time, fans of Steve Alten´s cult novel MEG have been waiting to see a movie adaptation. Alten´s website is virtually flooded with script treatments and fan manips of what could be the best shark movie since Jaws.

Yes: a shark movie. MEG is not Meg Ryan, but a 80-foot-long prehistoric shark that really existed during the T-Rex era (no, not the Jurassic Era - go and do your research, don´t believe everything Spielberg says!). This leviathan is scientifically known as Carcharodon megalodon, and believed by some to be the ancestor of the great white shark.

Supposedly extinct, in the book it reappears from the depths to terrorize Mariana Trench, near the California coast. Two men from opposite points of view are forced to come together and neutralize the threat. Sure, we´ve seen it before, but what else is new? Oh well, in the book, the giant shark manages to sink a friggin' NUCLEAR SUBMARINE!

The good news is that the wait is over. New Line Cinema is going to finally turn the book into a movie, with a release date set around 2007. Well, at least that´s what IMDb and Alten´s official site say. A lot of great names are attached to the production, including the ones of Guillermo Del Toro, Lawrence Gordon and Colin Wilson. Shane Salerno (Armageddon) wrote the screenplay, and the movie may be directed by Jan DeBont (yeah, uh-oh, Cradle of Life anyone?).

And just to tease the fans even more, Nick Nunziata, of CHUD.com and one of the producers as well, posted an exclusive pre-vis art from the film (forget the first three, they´re fan-made). Look at that. Pretty impressive indeed, huh?