Jason Statham facing 3 mega sharks: it’s in the action film In very troubled waters to see at the cinema

Five years after Jon Turtletaub’s Troubled Waters, Jason Statham is back with Troubled Waters.

If the first opus was, with a budget of 150 million dollars, the most expensive shark film in history, it is also the most profitable since it brought in $530 million at the international box office. So it seemed logical that Warner Bros would produce a sequel.

Directed this time by Ben Wheatley (High-Rise, Free Fire), the feature film written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber is inspired by Steve Alten’s novel, “Meg – The Pit“, like the previous part.

In this sequel, Jason Statham reprises his role as lifeguard Jonas and co-stars with Chinese star Wu Jing (Jiuming Zhang), Cliff Curtis (James), young Sophia Cai (Meiying), Melissanthi Mahut and Page Kennedy (DJ) . The team must here face not one but 3 megalodons, a giant octopus and other creatures escaped from the Jurassic!

The film follows the journey of a team of researchers, led by Jonas (nicknamed the green James Bond by his partners) and Jiuming, who set off to explore the depths of the ocean. The mission turns catastrophic when an illegal mining operation puts their lives in jeopardy.

Faced with huge megalodons and ruthless bandits, they will have to escape the terrible predators by always staying one step ahead of them.

Faithful to the first part – available on streaming platforms if you want to catch up – the feature film is packed with action and scenes crazier than each other.

After defeating a large number of human villains, action-man Jason Statham fights here against aquatic monsters, which leads to some pretty comical and funny scenes.

Jason Statham: swimmer, stuntman and brawler

A former Olympic swimmer, the British actor finds a role here that allows him to put into practice the skills acquired in his youth. During a scene, Jason Statham must indeed remain in apnea in order to join an SAS.

A scene that the 56-year-old actor did not have too much difficulty in filming since before becoming an actor, he was part of the British Olympic swimming team for 12 years. He has also obtained notable rankings in several major international competitions.

Swimmer, lifeguard, stuntman and stuntman… So many skills put to the test in Very Troubled Waters. Because, like Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan, Jason Statham does most of his stunts himself.

Warner Bros.

In this film, he pilots the jet-ski himself during the confrontation scene with the megalodons. Director Ben Wheatley explains in the press kit:

“How hard it is to find a stunt double whose face looks like the actor’s – and you really have to be upside down to look like you’re upside down! – we installed Jason on a kind of giant jigger whose device was triggered to make him turn on itself and we threw water in his face.

He wanted us to use the gimbal as little as possible and most of the shots were shot with him – obviously not the ones where he’s surfing a gigantic wave, but it’s him when he drives the jet ski at very high speed ! We all had our eyes glued to the combo, shaking, and hoping he would come back in great shape.”.

Despite the accident that almost cost him his life on the set of Expendables 3, Jason Statham did not hesitate to repeat the experience. The latter was supervised by head stuntman Marc Mailley, already at work on the Andor series, Justice League by Zack Snyder and Dying can wait.

Producer Belle Avery says: “Marc did an outstanding job. He has developed stunning stunts for Jason Statham and Wu Jing. Spectators will witness figures they have never seen before. When you see Jason on a jet ski or Wu Jing piloting a helicopter, it’s both awe-inspiring and exhilarating.“.

Warner Bros.

Spectacular battles against seasoned mercenaries and predators who lived 65 million years ago.

Create the Predators

For the megalodons, the team resumed the titanic work already done on the first film. The visual effects designers took more than a year to shape the mega predator.

When promoting In troubled watersAdrian de Wet, the visual effects supervisor, explained as follows:

“There’s a whole formula for getting the size of the creature from the teeth, but there are a lot of different theories about what these sharks actually look like. We started by looking at the different hypotheses of scientists, archaeologists and paleontologists, and we used that as a starting point.

We had a lot of fun designing the look of the Meg, but we did lots and lots of experimentation before we got close to the final result. We wanted the shark to be huge, imposing, terrifying, but also majestic and graceful in the water. And above all, we had to keep in mind that the megalodon is not a giant version of the white shark.vs.”

For the second installment, the team created a new megalodon with gray skin, covered in scars. An animal even more imposing than that of the first film. “This monster has many fights under his belt and it shows” says director Ben Wheatley.

Warner Bros.

In addition to the megalodons and the mega-octopus, the team must face creatures that populated the Earth tens of millions of years ago and arise from under the thermocline.

Inspired by a dinosaur named Koreanosaurus, a herbivore that moved on all fours and had a beak, the team created Snappers, short-legged carnivores with sharp fangs and insatiable appetites.

“It’s an ideal creature” precise Ben Wheatley. “They are neither too big nor too small, otherwise the viewer might find them cute and pity them.” Predators that you can also see in the trailer above, which is the opening scene of the feature film.

With this sequel, the director wanted to do more spectacular than the previous part of Jon Turtletaub. He asserts thus:

“I wanted to do a follow-up to In troubled waters by aiming higher with more terrifying creatures, more spectacular action scenes, more gigantic monsters, more impressive scenery and more imposing machines. Basically, it was necessary to put the turbo at all levels !”

And the latter even managed to pay homage to legendary visual effects designer Ray Harryhausen with the use of the mega-octopus. He emphasizes: “II must say, as a fan of Ray Harryhausen, I love giant tentacles“.

In very troubled waters can be seen in theaters today.