Remember LL Cool J? Okay, let's start over. Remember Deep Blue Sea, the shark-baiting, Samuel L. Jackson-starring 1999 flick? That's better.
It may not have been Jaws (shitting hell, it wasn't even Sharky & George) but the shark-themed sci-fi horror won the hearts, if not the minds, of many a late-90s movie fan with its ridiculous plot - think sharks manipulating gurneys to wreak havoc upon an unwitting group of researchers.
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Although Deep Blue Sea sank with critics upon its release, it made big bank at the box office and did little to dent Jackson's career, which had seen its fair share of ups and downs over the years and was just about getting into its (ongoing) pomp. And now, nearly 20 long years later, the film is going to get a sequel, but it won't be hitting cinemas. Instead, it's going to be shown on SyFy channel (geddit?) as one of the station's original movies.
Credit: Warner Bros./Deep Blue Sea
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For those not in the know, the original film centered on a medical biologist who takes research into Alzheimer's too far by genetically enhancing shark brains, which is, of course, a natural thing to do when carrying out genetic research. It basically results in overly smart sharks who realise they've been caged and decide to get out of their grill and up in everyone else's.
Now that I think about it, the plot is remarkably similar to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, albeit without the tight plot, carefully worded scripting or the presence of John Lithgow, which always makes films better. But you can't exactly hold that against the filmmakers; Lithgow was probably already preparing for his role in Shrek by then.
(Ok, Shrek didn't come out for another two years, but Lithgow's a fucking pro, bruv.)
Credit: Warner Bros./Deep Blue Sea
Anyway, Deep Blue Sea also had a stellar cast including hip-hop star LL Cool J, who was quite cool at the time, uber-cool Swede Stellan Skarsgård and the aforementioned Samuel L. Jackson, whose speech towards the end of the film is the stuff of scriptwriting genius - as are the sharky consequences thereafter.
Jackson, Cool J and other stars from the original are unlikely to make cameos in the sequel, namely because (spoiler alert!) most of them got eaten in the first installment, but there are rumours of appearances from well-known actors such as Michael Beach, of Sons of Anarchy and The 100 fame, and there may be more surprises to come.
Credit: Warner Bros./Deep Blue Sea
Filming is already underway on Deep Blue Sea 2 in Cape Town, South Africa, with the plot rumoured to focus on a doctor who experiments on bull sharks (humanity never learns) with disastrous, bloody, cage-free shark results. Suffice to say, they're not exactly pushing the boat out in terms of variety, but it's bound to be good, if not particularly clean, fun nonetheless.
So keep your fingers (and fins crossed) because it certainly does look like we'll be enjoying some deep-sea, deep-blue, deeply deadly action very soon.
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Words: Ronan O'Shea