Meg 2 Director Ben Wheatley Finally Explains Why His Tomb Raider Project Fell Apart
Find yourself a more interesting career path than director Ben Wheatley's, who's set to release "Meg 2: The Trench" this week. After cutting his teeth on various television shows throughout the aughts (including "Doctor Who"), Wheatley broke out among film circles with 2015's "High-Rise." The Tom Hiddleston-starring satire, perhaps best described as "'Snowpiercer' in a skyscraper," gave us our first real look at the filmmaker's distinct sensibilities when allowed the freedom to truly wild out. His follow-up, "Free Fire," gathered several of the most charismatic actors around for a single-location extended shootout that seemed to provide Wheatley with a blank check to do whatever he wanted next. That turned out to be ... the sequel to Alicia Vikander's "Tomb Raider," of all things.
Fans have remained curious about what Wheatley would've done with such an unexpected franchise play, but that wasn't meant to be as the project subsequently came into the hands of Misha Green before ultimately falling apart completely and being reconfigured as a total reboot. Still, the mystery of Ben Wheatley's involvement in "Tomb Raider 2" has continued to plague fans (or was I the only one?), but we've finally received a possible answer. In an interview with /Film's Jacob Hall, the director opened up about why he ultimately signed on for "Meg 2" before detailing his other high-profile production that never made it across the finish line:
"So with that, I'm also a massive monster movie fan and I wanted to make something big and poppy and fun and multiplex-y 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.'"
What could've been
As much as film enthusiasts raised an eyebrow at Ben Wheatley joining his biggest production yet with "Meg 2," the collective response to his involvement with the "Tomb Raider" sequel might've had that beat. As he explained above, the pandemic and likely the long delays involved seemed to have the final say in forcing him to move on, but Wheatley quickly pivoted to the Netflix adaptation of "Rebecca" and his pandemic-themed horror flick "In the Earth." Not just any filmmaker could switch back and forth from major studio projects to indie movies with such ease, but luckily Wheatley addressed his unique trajectory and his desire to make something like "Meg 2" in his interview with /Film as well:
"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."
Between praising the "Meg 2" script as "non-cynical" and "heartfelt" and his refreshingly candid feelings about the studio system, it's easier to understand why a filmmaker like Wheatley would find such blockbusters appealing. "Meg 2: The Trench" is now playing in theaters.