Plane crash movie shelved after Malaysian flight disaster

An Australian flight disaster movie has been shelved in the wake of Monday's tragic news about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the media reported Tuesday.

"Out of sensitivity to the Malaysia flight situation, we've decided to put (Deep Water) on pause for now," Gary Hamilton, managing director of Arclight Films, was quoted as saying by The Hollywood Reporter.

Alister Grierson's "Deep Water", a vague sequel to shark-horror film Bait 3D, follows the story of a doomed flight that crashes into remote depths of the ocean en route to China, according to The New Zealand Herald.

"Survivors of a plane crash face terror beyond reckoning as the plane is starting to sink into a bottomless abyss, and soon discover they're surrounded by the deadliest natural born killers on earth," reads a brief synopsis in early promotional material.

Grierson said that Deep Water is scheduled for release in about two years, when there would be less of a clash with real life events. Pre-production began shortly before MH370 went missing.

Promotion for Vincent Zhou's "Last Flight", starring Ed Westwick and Zhu Zhu, has also been affected by the recent Malaysian catastrophe.

The 3D action thriller involves a Boeing 747 that faces "unusual events" while travelling to a secluded Pacific island.

"Last Flight's" planned Beijing premiere March 21 was cancelled by the film's producer and distributor Shanghai Media group, as many of MH370's passengers were from the city.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is believed to be "lost with no survivors" after first disappearing March 8 less than an hour after take-off from Kuala Lumpur. Bound for Beijing, the ill-fated plane was carrying 239 people, and it is still unknown what caused it to divert from its path.