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 studio is putting the project on the fast-track with the hopes of a Fall start date according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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 Hollywood Pictures but has been stuck in 'development hell' for nearly a decade til recently. Shane Salerno is rewriting Alten's script. Producing are Ken Atchity, Nick Nunziata, Guillermo Del Toro, Larry Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Chi-Li Wong.

Thanks to 'Chow Down'.