Li Bingbing negotiating for role in shark movie ‘Meg’
LOS ANGELES: After the sudden withdrawal of Fan Bingbing, her namesake Li Bingbing is now in final negotiations for a starring role in the prehistoric shark movie Meg.
Li, who had starred in Transformers: Age of Extinction , could clinch a role opposite Jason S t a t h am and Jessica McNamee.
National Treasure helmer Jon Turteltaub has the t a sk of directing the horror movie with a prehistoric twist. Earlier, Fan had been cast for the role but had to withdraw due to scheduling conflicts. The film will be co-financed by Flagship
Li, who had starred in ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’, could clinch a role opposite Jason Statham and Jessica McNamee.
Entertainment; Gravity Pictures, a division of China Media Capital (CMC); and Warner Bros. Gravity Pictures will distribute the film in China, with Warners handling the distribution elsewhere.
Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Belle Avery and Colin Wilson are producing. The executive producers are Wei Wayne Jiang, Barrie M. Osborne, Randy Greenberg and Gerald R. Molen.
The story is based on Steve Alten’s novel MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror, published in 1997, in which the ancient Megalodon species is discovered to have survived in the Mariana Trench due to a barrier of cold water.
The movie centres on an international underwater observation programme, led by Chinese scientists, which comes under attack with its deep- sea submersible disabled and trapped at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Statham will portray a former naval captain, who’s recruited even though he faced the predator years before and was forced him to abort his mission and abandon half his crew.
Battle of the Sexes star McNamee had come on board as the female lead.
Li’s movie credits date back to 1999 with Zhang Yuan’s Seventeen Years and include A World Without Thieves, The Forbidden Kingdom, The Message and Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.
Her first leading role in an English-language film was Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, followed by Transformers: Age of Extinction and Resident Evil: Retribution.