The Los Angeles Times article quoted Alten as to why the initial Disney project from the 1990s fell apart, and, boy howdy were some of the script ideas dumb. It seems in one early draft, the shark was given the ability to fly. According to Alten:
“They stuck wings on the shark. […] I’m not kidding! They wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say. My role has got to be to keep the science and not the ridiculousness for Hollywood’s sake. One screenwriter had the shark growling.”Â
The 2005 version, meanwhile, had nothing but good vibes. Jan de Bont was totally on board, saying, “From the beginning, I loved the project.” The script, it seems, was handed to de Bont by producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin (the team who worked on “Hellboy,” who, in turn, was given it by Guillermo del Toro. With the screenplay, director, and producer in place, some work actually got done. De Bont drew up some storyboards, and a 5-foot model of the shark was built as a means to entice other producers and investors. The project was coming along.Â
But then, after everything had been set up and budgeted, New Line balked. It seems that the film would cost $157 million, which was unbearable in 2005. A lengthy negotiation process commenced, with New Line insisting on a smaller and small budget with each call. Eventually, they tried to get a $100 million version. By then, though, it was 2006 and everyone lost interest. Del Toro left for better things, and de Bont sadly let the project go. De Bont still has a shark’s tooth in his office to commemorate his work on the project.Â
“The Meg” passed hands one more time, passing briefly through Eli Roth’s hands in 2015, before finally finding Jon Turteltaub as director. Shooting began in 2016, and the film, starring Jason Statham, finally came out in 2018. It cost about $178 million. It made $530 million back.Â