Posted on 03/24/2014 10:51:54 AM PDT by Red Badger
Arclight Films says it is putting preproduction of its upcoming film Deep Water on hold, due to some uncomfortable similarities between the project and the mysterious disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370.
"Out of sensitivity to the Malaysia flight situation, we've decided to put it on pause for now," Gary Hamilton, managing director of Arclight told THR at the Asian industry tradeshow Filmart in Hong Kong.
An action horror, Deep Water tells the story of a flight that mysteriously crashes in a remote stretch of ocean on its way to China. The crash survivors then have to fend off killer sharks.
The film's tagline in early promotional materials reads: "Survivors of a plane crash face terror beyond reckoning as the plane is starting to sink into a bottomless abyss and soon discover they're surrounded by the most deadliest natural born killers on earth."
On March 8, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from civilian radar screens a little less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board. No confirmed sighting of the plane or its remains have been made since.
It's not the first time that Deep Water's planned director, Alister Grierson, has helmed a movie marked by a bizarre art-imitating-real-life-tragedy quality. Sanctum (2011), the project for which he is best known, is about an underwater cave diving exhibition that turns into a watery, heart-pounding catastrophe. It was released in Australia two weeks before Queensland and Northern New South Wales were hit by devastating floods in 2011.
Originally developed as a sequel to shark horror flick Bait 3D -- which became a surprise hit in China in 2012 after it was sold to the territory on a flat-fee basis, grossing $24.7 million in its first three weeks of release – the project received development funding from Screen Australia and was targeted for a budget of $25 million. The writers of Bait 3D, Shayne Armstrong and Shane Krause, drafted a sequel script; but the project later morphed into Deep Water, with Grierson boarding as director, along with additional writer Terrance Mulloy.
Arclight sources say they are fast-tracking development of a sci-fi adaptation of the classic Joseph Conrad novel, Heart of Darkness, while they put Deep Water on ice to see how the Malaysian flight situation unfolds.
Deep Water is the second APAC-based film project to make a pivot out of sympathy to those impacted by Flight MH370.
MH370: Families Called to Urgent Meeting; Malaysia Press Conference 10 a.m. EDT 3/24/14
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3136667/posts
MALAYSIAN AUTHORITIES: The Plane Crashed With No Survivors
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3136697/posts
Malaysia Grand Prix pushes grieving families of jet passengers from hotel
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3136731/posts
Officials Say Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane “Ended in the Southern Indian Ocean”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3136711/posts
WORLD NEWS Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Ended in Indian Ocean, Prime Minister Says
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3136787/posts
How British satellite company Inmarsat tracked down MH370
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3136789/posts
I bet the producers are still kicking themselves over that decision.
You never know what’s gonna be a hit and what’s not. They may have just needed some quick cash flow to start their next project................
We have a new theory. It was all a film promo. What a fantastic promo!
Most deadliest, huh? As opposed to the regular lesser deadliest.
Already been done in real life. USS Indianapolis.
That was WWII in the Pacific...................
Yes, I know. My point is that story is more compelling and historical.
Like the difference between a deadly heart attack or a MASSIVE deadly heart attack.
“An action horror, Deep Water tells the story of a flight that mysteriously crashes in a remote stretch of ocean on its way to China....”
That does cut a little close to home right now, doesn’t it.
A poster recently posted an animation showing a shark that brought down the aircraft.
He was real close to the “truth”
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