Steven Quale to direct sharks vs. whale film Alphas

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

After years of going straight to video or TV, shark thrillers have made their return to the big screen in recent years, and they're not going away just yet. Not only are there going to be sequels to this year's hit THE MEG and last year's hit 47 METERS DOWN (2016's THE SHALLOWS, pictured above, is still looking like a one-off), but Voltage Pictures has now agreed to fully finance a new shark thriller called ALPHAS.

Written by Frank Hannah, ALPHAS will be set in 

a coastal community terrorised by a school of sharks. The townspeople decide the only way to deal with the man-eating threat is to unleash a damaged killer whale held for years in solitary confinement after it killed its trainer.

It's "sharks vs. a whale", and this clash of the aquatic titans is set to be directed by Steve Quale, whose previous credits include the underwater documentary ALIENS OF THE DEEP (which he co-directed with James Cameron) and the awesome horror franchise entry FINAL DESTINATION 5.

Voltage CEO Nicolas Chartier will be producing ALPHAS with TAKEN director Pierre Morel and Sentient Entertainment's Renee Tab and Christopher Tuffin. Voltage COO and president Jonathan Deckter serves as executive producer.

The goal is to make this project into a "highly commercial, yet sophisticated" blockbuster. I was sold before they even brought sophistication into the picture, I just want to see fake sharks fight a fake whale. One of my favorite JAWS cash-ins is a killer octopus movie called TENTACLES, which has an octopus vs. killer whales battle in it, so I'm hyped to get a new twist on the TENTACLES scenario.