It’ll be soldiers versus a great white shark in the upcoming Beast Of War, a “survival action thriller” from director Kiah Roache-Turner.
We love killer shark films. We love action thrillers. We also really like war films. But what if you could put all those genres in a bucket and give it a jolly good stir? By the sounds of things, Beast Of War would be the result.
As reported on by Deadline, Beast Of War is billed as a “survival action thriller” set at the height of the Second World War. After the sinking of their warship, a group of Australian soldiers is left floating in open sea – and it doesn’t take long before a hungry great white shark starts circling.
The film, due to go into production in Australia and Malta next year, is by filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner, who previously made the genre movies Wyrmwood: Road Of The Dead and Nekrotic. He’s also recently made Sting, a horror film about a comic book-obsessed young girl whose giant pet spider has a habit of murdering her neighbours’ pets. Frankly, this sounds brilliant, and we’re hoping a UK release date emerges for it soon.
Meanwhile, back to Beast Of War. Although it’s still early days for the film, it does have a pleasingly florid synopsis, which goes like this:
1942. A warship carries hundreds of Australian soldiers across the Timor Sea to the frontline of WW2. Suddenly, Japanese fighter jets scream out of the sky, and within minutes the ocean becomes a hell of steel, fire, oil, and blood. With the vessel destroyed, a handful of soldiers build a makeshift raft from floating debris as they cling to their lives. Tensions run high between the hot-headed and terrified young men, as they band together in an effort to survive. But their biggest battle is yet to come. In the dark below, a great white shark hunts in the wreckage and is drawn to the smell of fresh blood in the water.
Yes, we would like to see this film, please.
Deadline also reports that Beast Of War’s killer shark will be handled by the Australian effects studio, CreatureNFX – which previously worked on Alien: Covenant – and that said great white will be realised practically, just like Bruce out of Jaws.
Given that Beast Of War hasn’t even started shooting yet, it’ll probably be a while before we hear anything more about the film, but we’ll update you when we do. In the meantime, we’ll be here, thinking about Quint’s haunting monologue from Jaws. “Oh and then you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin’. And the ocean goes red…”
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
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