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Producer Shares Badass ‘Meg’ Concept Art and Maquette from New Line’s Unmade Adaptation

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One of my big issues with Jon Turteltaub’s The Meg is that the shark is completely indistinguishable from any other movie shark (the movie doesn’t even do a great job conveying its massive size), a bummer given it’s supposed to be a shark the likes of which we’ve never seen on the big screen. In Steve Alten’s novel, the titular beast is eerily albino, but the shark in the film looks like just about every other shark you’ve ever seen in a horror movie. As far as I’ve heard, an all-white shark just didn’t look so good in early CGI tests, so it was scrapped. Sigh.

As Alten recently recounted in a chat with us, the road to getting his Meg on the big screen was an incredibly long and arduous one, with New Line Cinema at one point in charge of adapting his 1997 novel. It was producer Nick Nunziata who spear-headed the project, and Jan De Bont (Twister) was attached to direct for New Line in the early-mid 2000s.

That iteration, of course, was never made, and the rights to the novel eventually reverted back to Alten. After an endless in-development period, Warner Bros. finally made it happen.

Brought to our attention by our friends at Fin Flicks, Nunziata recently shared some concept art and even a maquette of the shark from the early stages of Jan De Bont’s unmade adaptation for New Line, which give us an idea what De Bont had in mind for the film. His version of the shark was to be albino, like the one in Alten’s book, and damn did it look nasty.

Thirteen years ago I started this machine, going through many evolutions and meetings and people of varying degrees of talent,” Nunziata wrote over on Instagram. “Alas, my gang of folks were shaken off the project and my biggest break as a producer never came to be. I mourn not being able to work with my guys, not my absence from this incarnation of the movie. It certainly is a different film than we were trying to make.

He added, “I hope ol’ Steve benefits profoundly from it.”

Check out that early art below, along with another piece of concept art we found on Twitter.

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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SCREAMBOX Investigates UFOs and Extraterrestrials: Several Documentaries Streaming Right Now!

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As someone who is obsessed with UFOS (or more recently known as UAPs) and the concept of extraterrestrials, I love a good documentary. Sightings have been on the rise since the 1940s, with the atomic bomb seemingly acting as a catalyst for new visitors. But what are these UFOs/UAPs? Is there an explanation or are they simply beyond our explanation? Why are they here? Who are they? How much do our governments know? The questions are endless and so are the documentaries that attempt to uncover the secrets behind decades of sightings and alleged confrontations.

Whether you’re a seasoned viewer or new to the rabbit hole, there’s always a handful of interesting documentaries to get your neurons firing and leave you with sleepless nights. SCREAMBOX is investigating with the addition of several docs, all streaming now on the Bloody Disgusting-powered service. Here’s the breakdown:

Aliens (2021): Beam into this unidentified streaming documentary for a glimpse into Extraterrestrial life. Aliens are hypothetical life forms that may occur outside Earth or that did not originate on Earth.

Aliens Uncovered: Origins (2021): Before Area 51, hidden deep in the desert, the military discovered a hidden gem that helped them create Project Bluebook.

Aliens Uncovered: ET or Man-Made (2022): The crash of Roswell wasn’t meant for New Mexico. In 1947, a neighboring state had 3 major sightings that were swept under the rug.

Aliens Uncovered: The Golden Record (2023): In the late 70s, the US government launched a message to our distant neighbors.

Roswell (2021): This high-flying documentary examines the July 1947 crash of a United States Army Air Forces balloon at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Theories claim the crash was actually that of a flying saucer, but what is the truth?

Also check out:

The British UFO Files (2004): Since the 1940’s the British Government has been investigating the Flying Saucer phenomenon. High-ranking military and government personnel, speak out for the first time, offering unique eyewitness accounts and inside information.

Alien Abductions and Paranormal Sightings (2016): Amazing Footage and stories from real people as they reveal their personal encounters of being abducted by Aliens.

And do not miss Hellier (2019): A crew of paranormal researchers find themselves in a dying coal town, where a series of strange coincidences lead them to a decades-old mystery.

These documentaries join SCREAMBOX’s growing library of unique horror content, including Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls, Here for Blood, Terrifier 2, RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop, Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story, The Outwaters, Living with Chucky, Project Wolf Hunting, and Pennywise: The Story of IT.

Start screaming now with SCREAMBOX on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Prime Video, Roku, YouTube TV, Samsung, Comcast, Cox, and Screambox.com.

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