The upcoming mega-shark thriller The Meg seems like the kind of film that will revel in its underwater chaos, dipping victim after victim into the bloody waters as Jason Statham, Ruby Rose and some action-movie heavy hitters try to stop a beast from feasting on innocent victims. The PG-13 rating on The Meg means that more ticket-buyers will be able to come and see all of the fun that director Jon Turteltaub packed into his feature, but news of an unrated cut has been swirling lately. So when we asked The Meg director if we might ever see that version, he confirmed:
Yes. Mine would have a lot gorier, but funnier, deaths for people. It's just awesome. Killing people in movies is a lot of fun.
Jon Turteltaub first brought up the idea of an R-rated cut of The Meg in an earlier interview, and elaborated that while it's easy to shoot gory deaths in the moment, finishing them up with proper effects and CGI for a movie that requires a gigantic shark to devour helpless beachgoers takes money and time. What we didn't know, however, until Turteltaub opened up to CinemaBlend was that he'd aim to make these gorier deaths a bit more comical. Which feeds into the notion that The Meg leans a little closer to Snakes on a Plane or Sharknado than it does to slow-burning terrors like Jaws.
Then again, when you cast Jason Statham in your lead, and you promise that he's likely going to punch a shark in the face, you are going for laughs. That much is confirmed by the snarky trailer, set beautifully to Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea." That set the tone for this delicious comedy... one that could be expanded in a longer, gorier, and funnier cut.
So, will we ever see this longer, gorier and funnier cut of the movie that's heading to theaters? A few days ago, I might have said no. Warner Bros. wants more audience members -- teenage audience members -- to check out the version hitting theaters on Friday! But now, with the support of the director, I'm beginning to think that a "Bloodier Cut" will be made available at some point later, on DVD or Blu-ray. Or maybe even in theaters, on a re-release, depending on how The Meg does. Here's Jon Turteltaub:
The Meg opens in theaters on Friday, Aug. 10. We're hearing that it's a ton of fun, a late-summer guilty pleasure that scratches all of the necessary itches for a killer shark comedy. Will it have more of a bite on home video? We'll know soon enough.
