Shark movies continually fail all while Shark Week is the biggest thing on TV. With that, studios will continue to attempt their own Jaws in hopes of breaking through to audiences. First way to achieve this is to focus on a good story and characters – and much like Halloween is the end all of Halloween-themed movies, I’m not quite sure there’s a better shark story than Jaws.
Still, a bidding war just ended on a new Shark-based thriller when Sony Pictures paid high-six figures for In The Deep, a spec script by Tony Jaswinski (Kristy, Vanishing on 7th Street) that had created feeding frenzy all day.
Deadline reports that, tonally, the spec is described as a cross between 127 Hours meets Jaws, with a touch of Gravity thrown in for good measure. “A young woman who is dealing with the recent death of her mother is surfing on an isolated beach and gets stranded 20 yards off shore on a buoy. What lies between her and the shore is a huge great white shark.”
It’s said to be an emotional piece for a young twentysomething star. Whomever lands the role will probably end up talking to a volleyball with a face drawn on it.
The film will be produced by former Warner Bros executive Lynn Harris; it is the first project she has put together with Matti Leshem in the new producing shingle Weimaraner Republic Pictures.
