The visual effects-studded film The Meg, directed by American director Jon Turteltaub, features a prehistoric creature and will hit the Chinese theaters in August. [Photo provided to China Daily]

One of the summer's most anticipated blockbusters, The Meg is due to hit Chinese theaters in 2D, 3D and IMAX formats, as well as the homegrown giant-screen DMAX on Aug 10.

Jointly produced by Chinese film company Gravity Pictures and Warner Bros, the Sino-US coproduction has been adapted from American author Steve Alten's 1997 novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror.

Calling the book as "a beautiful and imaginative work," Turteltaub says: "Novels are about thought and feelings. Movies are about images and action. My job is not to film the novel, but to make a great movie based on the novel."

The movie is set at a science research station lying 300 kilometers off the coast of southern China, and the story revolves around the discovery a 75-foot-long megalodon, a prehistoric predator which is believed to have become extinct around 1.5 million years ago.

After the beast attacks a submersible and causes the vehicle and its crew to become trapped at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, a deepsea diver－played by Statham－embarks on an extremely dangerous rescue mission.