Close Encounters of the Jaws Kind
Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) may have told Quint (Robert Shaw) that he was gonna need a bigger boat, but in his directorial follow up Steven Spielberg delivered a bigger ship, a mothership in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
We take a look back at the JAWS cast and crew that followed to his next production, as well as the knowing easter egg nods to JAWS for keen-eyed viewers.
Benchley
JAWS may have featured a cameo from the author of the book and co-screenwriter of the original summer blockbuster on the beach as a newscaster, but Spielberg has another nod to the writer in Close Encounters by naming one of the military as Major Benchley.
Richard Dreyfuss
The Matt Hooper actor first heard about the film on the set of the film JAWS and campaigned hard to convince Spielberg that he was the right everyman for the job.
Bob Balaban had a beard for his role, with many people thinking that he was actually Richard Dreyfuss during filming. The actor would go on to feature alongside Roy Scheider in 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984).
Joe Alves
Just as Alves was production designer on the great white shark epic, he was on this film, and as he had found the character of Amity Island in Martha's Vineyard it was Alves who found the iconic Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Alves would gain an Oscar-nomination and win a BAFTA for his work.
John Williams
Fresh of his Oscar win for his score to JAWS Williams World of music would be dominated by the stars in 1977, delivering both music for Star Wars and Close Encounters.
JAWS theme
And such was the reach of the score for JAWS that it apparently even reached outer space with the mothership playing the opening bars of the shark score back to the assembled scientists and crowd, included Richard Dreyfuss.
Elmer
Elmer was Spielberg's dog and had already clocked up appearances in The Sugarland Express (1974) and as the Brody's pet pooch in JAWS - clearly preferring that gig over the stick fetching watery antics of Pipit. He'd complete his Spielberg trilogy in Close Encounters.
The shark from JAWS
It's even said that the shark makes a cameo, just one of the many hidden characters on the giant mothership. And if he is there, he is there in good company alongside the likes of R2D2 and a TIE-fighter.
That giant model now resides in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, where you can look for the shark yourself.
Shark Encounters of the Third Kind
Some 20 years later after the release of JAWS and Close Encounters we'd get the hybrid that absolutely no one asked for.
The film, according to IMDB, is about a group of hostile aliens that crash land at the bottom of the ocean, and via mind control use sharks to terrorise a small town. It sounds like any viewers may get terrorised upon see this film as well, which appears more sigh fi than sci-fi.
Words by Dean Newman
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