Jason Statham is once again facing off with relentless prehistoric sharks in "MEG 2: The Trench," the new blockbuster movie based on the iconic book series by author Steve Alten.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, Alten, who is in the process of writing the "MEG: Purgatory," the seventh and final book in the saga, discussed the new film, people's infatuation with shark attacks and the release of a new collector's book set to celebrate the series.
"The question that I get all the time is could these things still be out there? And my response is always, we've explored five percent of the planet's oceans and what, less than one percent of the deep water? So, until we go down there and see what's down there, yeah, it could be anything," Alten said.
As a young boy, Alten read "Jaws" and watched the subsequent movie, which helped foster his interest in Great White Sharks and their prehistoric cousin, the megalodon. The author's fascination with the deep sea grew after reading a 1995 Time Magazine article on the Mariana Trench and the hydrothermal vents found at the bottom of the ocean.
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"When I saw that article, I sort of had the idea, well, that would be pretty cool for megalodon to still exist down in the bottom of the ocean. So, I did some research to make sure it was feasible, and then I decided to write the book," he said.
Humanity's engrossment with giant underwater creatures has spawned an entire subgenre of books and movies. Every year, major shark attacks dominate headlines in major media outlets.
"If there's blood on the page, that's what usually gets the attention. And let's face it, when there is a shark attack, it is pretty bloody and, unfortunately, sometimes fatal," Alten said.
Despite his reverence for shark-related media, including the notorious natural horror film "Jaws," Alten said there is "no doubt" the movie, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary in 2025, had a negative effect on the shark population.
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The film's director Steven Spielberg expressed regret about the movie's impact while speaking with the BBC in 2022.
"That's one of the things I still fear—not to get eaten by a shark, but that sharks are somehow mad at me for the feeding frenzy of crazy sport fishermen that happened after 1975… I truly, and to this day, regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film," Spielberg said.
Alten said that while the film may have produced a visceral reaction in people that pushed them to go out and kill sharks, at the time, society did not have nearly as much knowledge about sea life as we do today. For example, we now know that sharks keep the ocean healthy by eating up sick fish.
"We're only hurting ourselves when we kill off shark populations. There's no reason to," Alten said. "Great whites are majestic creatures. They're not out to eat us. We're not on their diet. They just confuse us sometimes for other things out there, like seals."
Alten also noted that awareness is paramount when venturing out into the ocean, especially if the water is murky or the area is known to have a large shark population. Regardless, he predicted people will always be fascinated by large creatures that eat us.
"With megalodon, of course, the bigger, the better, or the bigger, the scarier. This was the apex predator of this entire planet's history. So, you know, that in and of itself deserves some attention," he said. "But mostly, I think it's the thrills that you get reading something like this and it's just trying to make it fun."
While Alten remains tight-lipped on the plot details of "MEG: Purgatory," he did reveal the series comes to a "surprise ending" that readers are "not going to see coming."
Coinciding with the buzz surrounding "MEG 2: The Trench," Alten has announced a seven-volume collector's edition set of the original books, titled "MEG: Legacy."
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"Now that I've come to the last one, I wanted to do something really special. So, 'MEG: Legacy' is something that Meg readers have been asking for a long time," he said.
Each (faux) leather-bound book contains one of the six (soon-to-be seven) MEG novels, plus one of the six comics that make up MEG: The Graphic Novel. The prequel, MEG: Origins, has been woven into the first book to create a new 25th-anniversary edition. Other features and bonuses include two never-before-released MEG: Angel of Death novellas, new MEG artwork, photos and commentary from the author.
Only 5,000 sets are being printed and are sold exclusively on SteveAlten.com.
Meanwhile, "MEG 2: The Trench" will release on August 4 and continues the story of Jonas Taylor, a Navy deep-sea diver who leads a research team on an exploratory dive into the ocean's deepest depths.
Alten has not yet seen the film in its entirety, but predicted the film, like its novel counterpart, would get "more intense" and "much darker" than its predecessor.
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