Tales From The Story Merchant an interview with Hollywood Producer, Ken Atchity

via Awakened Nation

Ken Atchity, producer of the movie The Meg, staring Jason Statham, joins us for a fascinating discussion on becoming a Hollywood producer of such movies as "Life, or Something Like It," "The Expatriate" "Joe Somebody," and the HBO movie series "Shades of Love." ...but our time together was much more than talking about his international blockbusters.

Ken is a Story Merchant...and he opens up about his roots , studying in French, Latin, Greek and conversational Japanese, along with enlightening stories of self sabotage, the dangers and blessings of A.I., and making peace with his brother Freddy. This episode is about family, and the melting pot that truly makes America great.

About Kenneth Atchity: Ken Atchity is an American movie producer, author and columnist, book reviewer, brand consultant, and professor of comparative literature. Ken calls himself a professional Story Merchant. His decades well spent in the world of stories prompted the telling of his own. When it came time to do so, he thought “who is better to do it than me?”


MY OBIT: Daddy Holding Me , Volume I, is published by Story Merchant Books, in paperback and launched late last year. Volume II, My Southern Belle, was published February 28, this year and also published by Story Merchant Books, in paperback. Atchity has also produced 30 films, including "Hysteria" with Maggie Gyllenhaal, "The Expatriate" with Aaron Eckhart, "The Lost Valentine" with Betty White, "Gospel Hill" with Danny Glover, "Joe Somebody" with Tim Allen, "Life or Something Like It" starring Angelina Jolie, "The Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes," "Shadow of Obsession," "The Madam's Family" with Ellen Burstyn, and "The Meg" with Jason Stathum. In addition to his literary management and coaching business, Ken recently added “Write Your Own Obituary” to his consulting options. Who better? After all, he wrote his own obit. Atchity is married to documentary filmmaker and former NHK producer Kayoko Mitsumatsu.

All You Need to Know About Meg 2: The Trench

 Again, something is hiding in the deep parts of the ocean. Warner Bros. Pictures will release The Meg 2: The Trench in 2020. It is the follow-up to the movie The Meg, which came out in 2018.

In the first movie, a group of scientists finds out that the name-giving prehistoric megalodon really existed. The movie The Meg was based on the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. Because the movie was so well-liked, it made more than $530 million around the world. If the money made at the box office is any indication, Warner Bros. Pictures will want to make a sequel, which could be the start of a new sci-fi/horror series.

Again, something is hiding in the deep parts of the ocean. Warner Bros. Pictures will release The Meg 2: The Trench in 2020. It is the follow-up to the movie The Meg, which came out in 2018.

In the first movie, a group of scientists finds out that the name-giving prehistoric megalodon really existed. The movie The Meg was based on the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. Because the movie was so well-liked, it made more than $530 million around the world. If the money made at the box office is any indication, Warner Bros. Pictures will want to make a sequel, which could be the start of a new sci-fi/horror series.

What do we know about The Trench, the follow-up to The Meg that will come out in 2019? How much will the story from the first game carry over, and what new things can we look forward to? Who from the first movie is coming back, and who else might we see? When does the movie come out, and where can we see it? What else do you want people to know about The Meg 2: The Trench before they watch it?

Brief Information About The Meg 2

Name of Series: The Meg

Number of Series: 1

Director: Ben Wheatley

Producers: Belle Avery, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Ken Atchity and Chi-Li Wong

Main Character: Jason Statham

The Meg 2 Release Date

I think we should jump right into the release date. Warner Bros. Pictures has scheduled an August 4, 2023 release date for Meg 2: The Trench in the United States. The movie will be out in 2023 as planned, and filming has already begun.

A few months ago, Statham expressed his eagerness to get back into the water.

Sure, we’ll begin filming in January. The film was directed by Ben Wheatley. I look forward to collaborating with him. Honestly, I can’t wait to start going. We’ve been sitting around for a while, waiting for the right script and the right director to show up, and now we finally have everything we need.

They’ve finally reached their final resting place in neat piles. [Ben is] fantastic. Already, we have an excellent acronym in place. I enjoy his films and consider him a skilled director, so I imagine we would get along famously. I believe we have a fantastic opportunity to create something worthwhile.

In his September 2020 email, Steve Alten revealed that he had written the script for Meg 2, named The Trench, and that the studios were interested in it because of its “dark” nature and the prospect of an R-rating (as opposed to the first film’s PG-13).

Production started in full swing at Warner Bros. Location: Leavesden, February 4, 2022, Studio.

The Meg 2 Trailer

A trailer is a long way off when you consider that storyboarding is still in its early stages. Continue reading for the most recent details regarding The Meg 2 as they become available, though. The meg 1 trailer, on the other hand, is posted below.

The Meg 2 Cast

The break before the great group performance. Meg 2: The cast roster for The Trench has already been made public. In the past few months, several new cast members have been recruited for the future film; the following list includes those individuals.

Jason Statham as Jonas TaylorPage

Kennedy as DJ

Cliff Curtis as James ‘Mac’ Mackreides

Shuya Cai as Meiying

Wu Jing

Sienna Guillory

Sergio Peris-Mencheta

Skyler Samuels

The Meg 2 Plot

Man vs. shark rematch This time, Jonas and his team discover evidence that the Megalodon, which has been breeding in the Trench for millions of years, is learning how to navigate the cooler waters above the trench and make its way to the California coast.

In order to stop the destruction along the west coast, Jonas must return to the ocean’s depths and fight the planet’s largest predator once more.

Read more: 

About The Meg

The Meg made $145.4 million in the U.S. and Canada and $384.8 million in other countries. It made a total of $530.2 million worldwide, even though it cost between $130 and 178 million to make.

At first, it was thought that it would make between $20 and $22 million in its first weekend in 4,118 theatres in the U.S. and Canada.

Analysts thought the movie would do better than the low $20 million predictions because it made $4 million on Thursday night. Estimates for the weekend went up to $40 million after the first day, when it earned $16.5 million.

It went on to open with $45.4 million, which was more than any other movie and the best opening of Statham’s and Turteltaub’s careers. It made $21.5 million in its second weekend and $13 million in its third. Both times, Crazy Rich Asians made more money than it did, so it came in second.

The movie opened in 96 other countries and territories to the tune of $101.5 million worldwide opening of $146.9 million. In China, the film’s co-producer made $50.3 million from 12,650 screens in the first weekend and was ranked #3. Mexico ($6.2 million), Russia ($5 million), the U.K. ($4.4 million), Spain ($2.4 million), and the Philippines ($2 million) also had very successful openings. 

The Meg is a science fiction action movie that came out in 2018. It was directed by Jon Turteltaub and written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber. It was loosely based on Steve Alten’s 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror. Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis all have roles in the movie.

A group of scientists on a rescue mission on the floor of the Pacific Ocean runs into a 75-foot-long (23-m) megalodon shark. Walt Disney Studios bought the rights to turn the book into a movie in the 1990s, but the project took years to get off the ground. In the end, Warner Bros.

Pictures bought the rights, and the movie got the go-ahead in 2013. In September 2014, Turteltaub and most of the cast signed on. Filming started in New Zealand and Sanya, China, and ended in January 2016. Both the United States and China made the movie.

The Plot of The Meg Movie

Jonas Taylor, a rescue diver, is trying to save the crew of a damaged nuclear submarine when he sees the hull being hit by something he doesn’t know. Taylor has to run away because two of his crew members are stuck in the broken submarine. He knows that if he tries to save them, everyone he has already saved will die.

A fellow survivor, Dr. Heller, doesn’t believe what he says because he thinks Taylor got drunk and scared because of the pressure.

Five years later, billionaire Jack Morris meets Dr. Minway Zhang at a place called Mana One, an underwater research facility. Zhang and his oceanographer daughter Suyin are in charge of a mission to find the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, which is hidden by a thermocline of hydrogen sulfide.

Lori, Taylor’s ex-wife, and the scientists Toshi and “The Wall” drive the mission submersible. They find a lot of plants and animals that they have never seen before below the thermocline. However, when a large, unknown creature attacks the submersible, it loses contact with Mana One.

James “Mac” Mackreides, the operations manager for Mana One and an old friend of Taylor’s, suggests sending Taylor down to try to save people. Zhang and Mac go to Thailand to find Taylor, even though Heller, who is now part of the Mana One crew, is against it.

At first, he is skeptical but changes his mind after listening to a recording of the conversation between Lori, her crew, and Mana One. Suyin tries to save them while they are away, but a giant squid attacks her. Before the squid could crush her submarine, a giant shark killed it.

Taylor breaks through the thermocline and swims to the sunken submersible because he promised to help. When the shark returns and attacks the submersible before everyone has left, Toshi gives his life so the others can escape.

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The 10 Scariest Sea Monsters in Cinema

 The Best Monster Movies Of The 21st Century So Far

Thalassophobia is the fear of large bodies of water, along with what horrors they may hold, and it is a phobia that cinema has capitalized on since its early days. Ever since people have gone out on the ocean, legends have arisen to explain their natural fear of it. The majority of these result in terrifying sea monsters which, as storytelling progressed, made their way onto the big screen.

You’re Gonna Need A MUCH Bigger Boat

For millions of years, the Megalodon survived at the bottom of Mariana’s Trench in a biome separated by a thick layer of hydrogen sulfide. When a group of researchers breaches the layer however, the enormous beast is released and sets off to feed. 

Understandably, shark movies have somewhat of a bad rap. However, much like the Mosasaurus from Jurassic World, the giant shark in The Meg proves that terrifying sea monsters aren’t only found in fiction. Of course, the difference is that in this movie, the legendary creature has survived to this day. With the majority of our oceans being unexplored, it isn’t totally impossible, which is even more frightening.

Read more: https://collider.com/scariest-sea-monsters-in-cinema/