Empires of the Deep is an unreleased 3D action-adventure fantasy film conceived by Jon Jiang, directed by Michael French, written by Randall Frakes and starring Olga Kurylenko. It was described by the production team as “an unlikely love story between a young human and a mermaid… set in a mythical world”, against the backdrop of a war among the titular ’empires of the deep’ such as the crabs.[1] It is reported to be a major US-Chinese co-production, its production budget reaching over $130 million.[2] The film was last reported as being in post-production and seeking worldwide distribution.
In 2010, the film’s English working title was Mermaid Island USA vs the Plesiosaurs.[3] In late 2012, a 3D preview trailer was released to critics, who responded with largely negative reviews.[4][5] In December 2014, the movie was announced as complete and due for release in China in December 2015 after almost five years of post-production, mostly coming from the visual effects, which had increased the budget to well over US$140 million.[4] As of September 2020, the film remains unreleased, going through four directors, 10 scriptwriters and with many of the actors and production and technical crews still unpaid.[6][7]