Meg 2: The Trench Director Ben Wheatley Just Wants You To Enjoy The Monster Mayhem [Exclusive Interview]

Of course Ben Wheatley had a monster movie in him.

Before he directed "Meg 2: The Trench," Jason Statham's second "giant prehistoric shark threatens the world" outing, Wheatley proved himself capable of floating between genres with a remarkable ease. Nasty, head-splitting horror movies like "Kill List." Pitch-black comedies like "Sightseers." Impossible literary adaptations like "High-Rise." Slick streaming remakes like "Rebecca." And then there are his memorable episodes of "Doctor Who." It was only a matter of time before he made a massive studio-funded B-movie (a term used here with love) where one of the great modern action heroes goes mano-a-sharko with a beast big enough to devour a boat in a single bite. To call this the natural evolution of one of the most interesting modern filmographies would be an understatement. 

I sat down with Wheatley over Zoom ahead of the film's release. Naturally, we talked about monster movies, and how he was fully prepared to work on a big studio movie like "Meg 2" thanks to his television and advertising experience. But we also talked about "Kill List," the beauty of a wholesome Jason Statham, and a largely forgotten British "Godzilla" rip-off called "Gorgo."

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

For the past few years, I feel like I kept seeing you getting attached to a big movie, only for it to not get made. And finally "Meg 2" happens. What drove you to want to make a giant studio movie after years of these smaller thrillers and horror films?

Well, I think generally, as a film fan, I looked at the landscape of cinema, and making a studio picture is part of that ecosystem, isn't it? It's like that. I love studio films, always have done. I love indie films and everything in between as well. So I'd made a conscious decision in the same way that I went and made "Doctor Who." I wanted to do it, I was a fan, so I kind of sought it out. And I think that the way I've made stuff over the years, which is going bouncing backwards and forwards, so it's like "Happy New Year, Colin Burstead" and then "Rebecca" and then "In the Earth." It's like having a connection to the low-budget stuff and then going and doing high-budget stuff is all quite organic.

So with that, I'm also a massive monster movie fan and I wanted to make something big and poppy and fun and multiplexy for a big audience. And [wife and creative partner Amy Jump] and I had been attached to "Tomb Raider" and that was a part of that effort, but Covid saw to that, so we were like, "Oh God, we'd really got quite close to making that film."

So when this came across my desk I was just like, "Yeah, wow. Of course. It's a giant monster movie and it's Jason Statham." And the script itself I really enjoyed. It was kind of, there's something ... it's non-cynical. There was almost like it's that element of those 1940s kind of [Howard] Hawks-y films where there are groups of people desperately trying to do something and they're pushing forward and they're all really heartfelt, and I loved all that. That basically hooked me in, and obviously the opportunity to have giant monsters and smash it up.

One thing I like about the "Meg" movies is how they use Jason Statham. He's this force for positivity. It's by far the most wholesome Jason Statham I think we've ever seen.

Yeah, and it's the same in this, and so is Wu Jing in this. I liked the first one because it was always like they're going, "Can you go and do something really hard?" And you go, "Ah." That's the whole structure of it. It's like, "Oh God, really? Ah, that sounds really bad and dangerous, but I'm going to go and do it." And I think people can relate to that in a way that it's harder when you're watching films about gods smacking each other through walls.

Was "Doctor Who" a good training ground for a movie of this size, where you have to learn how to play nice with other people and learn how to play in a sandbox that's not 100% yours?

I started in advertising. I was making adverts before I was making feature films, and I've been working in television for years, so that's not a problem for me. You just need to know where you are in the hierarchy going in, or that the hierarchy doesn't change on you halfway through. That's when it's painful. But when you know what's going on and you've all agreed on it, then it's fine. I mean, I'd done three episodes of "Strange Angel" for CBS, so working within that American studio thing, it was not unusual for me.

The way it was set up, "Meg," is it was a really clear collaboration with the producers and the studio. There was never any problem in terms of the horror stories you hear about directors clashing with producers, clashing with studio. None of that happened because it was as planned as we could do it. We all agreed on the tone and the approach and everything was drawn out. You could see it, see all the artwork and see all the storyboards of what we were trying to achieve, and everyone moved forward together.