According to Ben Wheatley, director of โMeg 2: The Trench,โ Statham was always keen to do as many of his own stunts as possible. Anytime the actor is seen powering a jet ski through the water, that is indeed Statham.
Wheatley offers, โBecause the physics of a face are hard to fake โ you have to be upside down to really look like you are upside down โ we had Jason on this kind of giant hand drill setup, and weโd pull the trigger and spin him around, firing water at his face. He wanted as few gimbal shots as possible, almost all of it is him โ obviously not jumping a giant wave, but him riding a jet ski very, very quickly. And scarily, we were all at the monitors, saying, โPlease come back all right!โโ
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
During an interview with Collider before filming for the sequel began, Statham talked about why he was excited to work with Wheatley, who took over directing duties from Jon Turteltaub, who helmed the surprise 2018 blockbuster, โThe Meg.โ Wheatleyโs great, said Statham, โwe have a great shorthand already. Weโve got similar taste. I like his movies, I think heโs a brilliant director. I think weโve got a good shot at making something good.”
Just how terrifying is the action in the sequel? This time around, filmmakers were determined to out-Meg โThe Megโ by creating their Apex Meg โ a grizzled veteran covered in scars; the unrelenting machine of death is larger than anything conceived for the original film. Director Wheatley says, โHeโs a guy whoโs had loads of bar fights.โ
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
Devising every terror-inducing act of the Megs began in the same place, according to Wheatley: โAll the action with the sharks started with a pencil, me just sitting down and drawing, and thinking about what would be really fun to see. Then, I would go to our storyboard artist, Jake Lunt Davies, and together we would work out what the sequence was going to be.
From there to the computer animators, whoโd rough a version, then weโd cut that into the film, and then weโd go and shoot it.โ Many steps would follow and the whole journey for each shark encounter โ from pencil to feature โ took roughly six months. For the director, once the Meg turned up in post-production, โWe were like, โOh. My. God!โโ The entire collection of storyboards for the film wound up with nearly 5,000 drawings.
WATCH THE TRAILER BELOW:
Watch “Meg 2: The Trench,” opening in Philippine cinemas on August 2, 2023.
