by Jason Mack, Contributing Writer
The path to a beloved book series, and a pair of feature films grossing over $880 million and counting, was paved with hardship and rejection, but author Steve Alten matched the tenacity of the titular megalodon shark to overcome those obstacles and achieve his dream.
Alten’s reason for writing Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror was twofold. The motivation came from being in his mid 30s and struggling to support a family of five. The idea came from an obsession with sharks, which, like most people, was sparked by a love for the Jaws novel and movie.
“When I was around 15 or so I read Jaws, saw the movie, and got hooked onto sharks at that point. I read every true shark attack I could find,” Alten said. “With great whites, there was always this little blurb about the prehistoric cousin accompanied by a black-and-white shot of the Smithsonian’s jaw with six scientists sitting in there. But there was nothing else written.”
With little information available about megalodons, Alten’s interest laid dormant, until 20 years later when the August 14, 1995 issue of TIME magazine featured the cover story, Mysteries of The Deep, about conquering the last frontier of the ocean floor. The article discussed hydrothermal vents, the Mariana Trench, and lifeforms at the bottom of the ocean.
“I just thought, ‘What was that giant shark I thought about years ago?’ So I drove to the library because we didn’t have the internet back then. I found the shark and still found nothing else written about it,” Alten said. “I figured I could cull it with great whites today, and I started going and writing the book. I worked on it every night when I got home from work until 10 at night, and three in the morning on the weekend.”
Despite having little information about megalodons to study, research was still a significant part of Alten’s process. He learned as much as he could about great white sharks and the depths of the ocean to form a plausible tale about the largest apex predator in Earth’s history, which still exists 3.5 million years after it was thought to be extinct.
“Research is really important to me. It is interesting that a lot of the things I wrote, a decade later we find out they are true,” Alten said. “There are bioluminescent sharks. Somebody claimed there were no hydrothermal vents in the Mariana Trench, and yet there have to be, because it is a very seismic area. The whole area is part of the Ring of Fire. Everything else came true. They found all the vents, and God knows what else is down there.”
Generating the idea, doing the research and writing the novel turned out to be the easier part of the process, as getting it published proved to be a grind. After over 60 literary agents passed on the project, Alten finally found his partner in Kenneth Atchity of AEI. Already struggling financially, and needing $5,000 to pay AEI to edit and prepare the novel for sale, Alten rolled the dice by selling his 1971 Chevy Malibu to come up with the cash. The gamble paid off, as the movie rights to Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror were optioned to Disney for $1 million before landing a two-book deal for $1.2 million.
“You look back and I can remember those days. I remember everything that happened, but I can’t even relate at this point,” Alten said.
The process from optioning to seeing the movie come to fruition was long and arduous. After multiple script adaptations were rejected by the studio, the rights reverted to Alten in 1999. New Line Cinema attempted to adapt the book in 2005, but budgetary issues caused the rights to revert to Alten again. Finally, in 2015, Warner Bros. began adapting it, and within a year director Jon Turteltaub and star Jason Statham were on board, along with the majority of the cast.
Once the movie was in production, the struggle for Alten became letting go of the material. He was loosely involved with the first movie, but he had nothing to do with the second production.
“It’s a little bit overwhelming at times. There is such a separation between the movie and the book as far as my participation in it,” Alten said. “For the first movie, Belle Avery and I — she was the lead producer who I optioned it to — we wrote the script and she took it out and got it privately funded. But the second one, I’m not involved in any shape or form. It’s kind of like adopting a child, and then when it graduates from college, never seeing them again.”
Letting go of the material also has its positives, as Alten is able to experience the movies like any fan. Prior to the release of Meg 2: The Trench, Alten enjoyed watching the trailers to spot elements of the novels they chose to adapt.
“It is what it is. That’s exactly what it is as far as an author’s involvement,” he said. “They are doing great. Hopefully it will continue. I think it is a lot easier having source material to reference.
“It’s hard for me to tell. I saw a trailer recently I hadn’t seen before, and it looks like there’s a private facility that holds one of these megs, which is exactly what the story is, so that makes me feel good. But I haven’t read the script, so I won’t know until I go and see the movie. It looks really good. The dorsal fin sure looks like an albino to me.”
Even though the scripts vary greatly from the books, knowing they are utilizing the source material as a guide puts Alten at ease, especially after Avery and the rest of the team earned his trust with the first movie.
“I’m lucky because the producer who is in charge, we are good friends. She came to option the picture, and I trust her,” he said. “I know she will do her best to keep it parallel with things going on in the book, and she has, so I don’t worry about it. It is great. It is amazing. I am just a fan of the movie, and I won’t shut it off until the credit goes by.”
With six books of source material to pull from, and a seventh on the way, Alten is optimistic the film series will continue. After The Meg became a surprise hit in 2018, grossing $530.2 million worldwide, the second film has continued to hold well through four weeks, totaling $352.5 million. International success has been key with $278.1 million coming outside the U.S. That includes $106.3 million in China, and as an American and Chinese co-production, the studios will receive a larger share of those ticket sales than an imported movie would.
“I would venture to say that anything that makes money is worth investing in again,” Alten said. “That’s what it comes down to. They have a big action star from China involved in this one, and that is certainly a big draw in itself.”
While waiting on word of a third movie, Alten is shifting his focus to completing the book series with the seventh and final novel called Meg: Purgatory, which releases in 2024. He is commemorating the conclusion of the series with gradual releases of Meg: Legacy hardback collectors editions available through meglegacy.com.
“I’m looking forward to getting out the first volumes of Meg: Legacy, because this is something I’ve been planning for a while,” Alten said. “With the series ending, I realized it was my last time to go back and align everything over 25 years and seven novels. There are gaps between novels that are very big, and I can fill them up with short stories, plus I can add all the other things that have happened along the way to me personally, which are some ridiculous things, great ups, and horrible downs.”
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