Eli Roth to Helm Feature Film Adaptation of Megalodon Shark Novel MEG?

With Eli Roth hosting this year's Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, it's fitting that he's now in talks to helm the long in-the-works big screen adaptation of Steve Alten's 1997 giant shark tale, MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror.

Variety reports the news of Roth potentially directing the Meg adaptation for Warner Bros. The project has been in development for the better part of two decades and is moving forward with some momentum now that Gravity Pictures has joined a producing team that also consists of Atelles Entertainment and Maedey Productions.

Alten's novel Meg—the first in a five-book series—follows two men who set out to stop a Megalodon shark weaving a blood trail down the California coast. The twist? The Megalodon has been extinct for centuries, so it poses a seriously potent prehistoric threat.

The feature film adaptation has a twist of its own, as well. Instead of taking place off the West Coast, it will transport the shark-induced carnage to the shores of China. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more updates on this sharp-toothed project.

Here's the official synopsis for the novel (via Amazon.com):

"Carcharodon megalodon apex predator of all time, the most fearsome creature that ever lived a 70-foot, 60,000 pound Great White Shark. Hundreds of 7-inch serrated teeth filled jaws that could swallow an elephant whole. It could sense its prey miles away, inhaling its scent as it registered the beat of its fluttering heart, and if you ever came close enough to see the monster...it was already too late. For Navy deep-sea submersible pilot Jonas Taylor, it nearly was too late. Years ago, on a top-secret dive seven miles down into the Mariana Trench, Jonas came face to face with an ancient monster everyone believed extinct. Having barely escaped with his life, Jonas must prove to the world that Meg still exists. When an opportunity to return to the trench presents itself, he takes it, intent on returning topside with a 7-inch tooth! But man s presence in this unexplored domain releases one of the sharks from its purgatory, and now Jonas is the only one who can stop it."