Deep Water film held over Malaysia Air MH370 similarities

An upcoming film titled Deep Water, a disaster thriller about a flight that crashes in a remote stretch of ocean between Asia and Australia, has been put on hold due to similarities between the project and the real-life disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

"Out of sensitivity to the Malaysia flight situation, we've decided to put it on pause for now," Gary Hamilton, managing director of Arclight Films, told industry publication The Hollywood Reporter this weekend.

According to promotional materials, Deep Water which had been in preproduction follows survivors of a crashed flight facing "terror beyond reckoning as the plane is starting to sink into a bottomless abyss and soon discover they're surrounded by [sharks,] the most deadliest natural born killers on earth."

Still in very early stages, the project is being helmed by Australian director Alister Grierson, perhaps best known for the underwater cave-diving thriller Sanctum.

MH370 ''ended in southern Indian Ocean': Malaysian PM

On Monday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that new data analysis has determined that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370was lost in a remote section of the Indian Ocean west of Perth, Australia.

On March 8, the Beijing-bound the Boeing 777-200ER jet mysteriously dropped off the radar shortly after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur. An international contingent of ships, surveillance planes, submarines and other resources have been sweeping the ocean ever since, in hopes of finding the missing aircraft.

• Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 'ended in southern Indian Ocean,' PM says
• LIVE: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappearance
• Malaysia Airlines MH370: The challenges of a remote ocean search
• Planes that vanished without a trace

Last week, another action-thriller movie project revolving around a commercial flight in peril changed its marketing plan in response to the ongoing search for flight MH370. The Chinese film Last Flight, about a Boeing 747 hit by "unusual events" during its final scheduled flight over the Pacific Ocean, cancelled a lavish Beijing premiere in favour of more understated openings in other cities.