According to The Hollywood Reporter, New Line Cinema has picked up the rights to Meg, Steve Alten's horror adventure about a prehistoric shark, with Jan de Bont on board to direct.

The story features a 80-foot-long prehistoric shark -- scientifically known as Carcharodon megalodon and believed by some to be an ancestor of the great white shark -- which terrorizes the California coast. Two men from opposite points of view are forced to come together to neutralize the threat.

Alten's "Meg" was published in 1997 and originally was set up at Walt Disney Pictures' Hollywood Pictures label. The book spawned two sequels, "The Trench" and last year's "Meg: Primal Waters." Shane Salerno is rewriting Alten's script. Producing are Ken Atchity, Nick Nunziata, Guillermo Del Toro, Larry Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Chi-Li Wong.

De Bont most recently directed Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.