Ben Wheatley on THE MEG 2 – THE TRENCH
Kermode on Film
HLA Agency
4.4 • 913 Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week's episode Mark talks to director Ben Wheatley. In this archival edition recorded at the BFI Southbank back in May 2023, Ben had freshly completed The Meg 2: The Trench, starring the inimitable Jason Statham. Mark and Ben dive into making of The Meg, and into the monster-movie inspirations that informed it, which include the 1961 classic Mothra, and Godzilla. And the incredible work of the legendary Ray Harryhausen.
Films mentioned in this episode:
The Meg
The Meg 2 - The Trench
Zardoz
A Field in England
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead
Mothra, (Mosura)
Godzillah
People mentioned in this episode:
Jason Statham
Jon Turteltaub
Ishiro Honda
Edgar Rice-Borroughs
Ray Harryhausen
Opening title quotes from:
Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, Walt Disney Productions – featuring Julie Andrews)
Nope (Jordan Peele, Universal Pictures – featuring Keke Palmer)
Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson, HandMade Films – featuring Richard E. Grant)
The Exorcist (William Friedkin, Warner Bros. – featuring Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair)
These films are essential viewing.
Watch them. Love them. Share them.
They are masterpieces.
MK3D is a production of HLA Agency
This episode was edited by Alex Archbold Jones
© HLA Agency
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. |
| 0:03.6 | You find the fun and snap! |
| 0:08.5 | Did you know that the very first assembly of photographs and sequential order to create a motion picture |
| 0:13.8 | was a two-second clip of a black man on horse? |
| 0:17.9 | We want the finest wines available to humanity. |
| 0:21.0 | We want them here and we want them now. |
| 0:24.2 | You really don't want me to play, huh? |
| 0:26.5 | No, I do. |
| 0:27.9 | Captain Hardy said no. |
| 0:29.6 | Captain who? |
| 0:31.9 | Hi, this is Mark Kermode. |
| 0:33.4 | Thanks for downloading this Kermode on film podcast. |
| 0:35.6 | In this week's episode, I talked to Ben Wheatley. |
| 0:38.1 | I spoke to him on stage at the BFI South Bank in May 2020, when he just freshly completed |
| 0:43.5 | the Meg 2, the trench, the sequel to the 2018 Deep Sea Creature feature. We dive into the monster |
| 0:49.9 | movie inspirations behind it, the 1961 classic Mothra and Godzilla, and the incredible work |
| 0:56.5 | of the legendary Ray Harry Housen. |
| 0:58.1 | So let's plunge into the trench with Ben Wheatley. |
| 1:04.2 | Right. |
| 1:06.1 | Our next guest has directed a movie that I have been looking forward to for a huge amount |
| 1:12.3 | of time. The last time he was on the show I said what are you doing next? He said I'm |
| 1:16.9 | doing this I went no way. Will you come back on the program when it's done and |
... |
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