Avatar took us to a world beyond the stars. Lord of The Rings took us deep into the realm of Middle Earth, and now the ambitious fantasy adventure Empires of the Deep offers a journey leagues below the ocean's surface to a world where war rages, pulling man, mermaids, and all manner of fishy beast into the fray. Featuring explosions, giant shellfish and whales being used as battleships, the film's latest trailer viewable below has got it all. It only begs the question: who asked for this?
Twitch unveiled this promo along with some shocking facts about Empires of the Deep's path through production. This underwater epic was the brainchild of Jon Jiang, a Chinese real estate tycoon who fancies himself a screenwriter. His script plus a bunch of his own bank roll got this project rolling back in 2009, when Italian stunner Monica Bellucci was set to star and Pitof of Catwoman infamy was set to direct. However, both ended up splitting from the project, and ultimately were replaced by former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko and Michael French, who wrote and directed the little known drama Heart of a Dragon.
So with no big stars or a notable director, Empires of the Deep is left to sell itself on its story and spectacle, which is bad news from the looks of above. The feature's central plotline revolves around a pair of unlikely lovers (boy meets mermaid), and somehow an all out underwater war comes into play. As for the spectacle aspect, things look bleak on that front too with live-action scenes that seeming as low-budget as TV's Xena: Warrior Princess, and computer graphics that look like a video game from the early 2000s. And though you wouldn't guess it from the look of its trailer, Empires of the Deep came to cost more than $130 million. To put that figure into perspective, consider that each of The Lord of The Rings movies cost between $93-94 million.
There's no word yet on when Empires of the Deep may hit theaters.
