The Meg Writers' Next Project Is Sadly Not The Meg 2

Jason Statham in The Meg with shark
(Image credit: (Warner Bros))

The Meg made a mighty splash at the summer box office back in 2018 when the mega-shark flick surpassed $530 million worldwide. But where’s Meg 2? Last we heard, a script was in the works for a sequel, but that’s not on the top of the priority list for a pair of its writers, Jon and Erich Hoeber. The brothers have signed on to pen an action thriller called Fast & Loose with the team behind high-octane hits Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw.

Fast & Loose will follow a mysterious man who wakes up in Tijuana with no memories after being left for dead. He tries to retrace his steps to uncover his identity, but ends up finding two; one as a crime kingpin living in excess and the other as an undercover CIA agent with no family ties or achievement in his life. He will have to figure out which identity is his own. This sounds like a cross between Memento and True Lies.

The thriller is a collaboration between STXFilms and 87North, the latter of which is owned by Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch and executive producer Kelly McCormick, per Deadline. The pair launched 87North last year after working together on films including Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2. Fast & Loose will also be produced by Annie Marter, who was behind Transcendence and The Devil All the Time.

David Leitch has established himself as a high-profile filmmaker since his impressive turn from stunt work to helming John Wick, Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2. Last summer, the director also was at the center of Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw. Since Leitch has a slew of exciting projects already on the way, it’s doubtful he will be directing Fast & Loose himself. No director has signed onto the action thriller yet.

At the top of the year, it was announced that David Leitch is in talks to direct a film adaptation of the TV show Kung Fu, along with already being in the mix for a remake of Enter the Dragon and potentially working on an Atomic Blonde sequel for Netflix. Oh, and there's also an adaptation of the video game The Division for Netflix.

Along with The Meg, the Hoeber Brothers have previously penned the RED movies, Battleship and Amazon Prime’s upcoming streaming release My Spy. They are also signed on to write a Naruto movie and RED television series. Where does this leave The Meg? Back in 2019, one of the film’s producers, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, told CinemaBlend that a script was being drafted.

The Meg was based on a book series by Steve Alten, with loads of storylines that could be explored on the big screen including sea monsters and dinosaurs popping up. Check back with us here on CinemaBlend for more news about your favorite action franchises.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.