JAWS-ING WITH THE DIRECTOR OF UPCOMING SHARKSPLOITATION DOCUMENTARY

With hundreds of shark films swimming around across an ocean of media, it was only a matter of time before someone made a film about them.

That someone is Stephen Scarlata. He's currently in the middle of filming a documentary about the history of shark cinema, which surfaced long before Jaws (1975), but went into overdrive post the release of the Steven Spielberg classic.

And it is a sub-genre that has seen further resurgence in the last 20 years or so, which is when Deep Blue Sea showed us shark cinema was something we all needed more of in our lives.

Stephen has already interviewed the likes of Wendy Benchley, the wife of Jaws author Peter Benchley, Mario Van Peebles, Jaaaaaaaake in Jaws the Revenge (1987) and director of USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016), as well as Misty Talley, the director of that other shark Christmas classic, Santa Jaws (2018).

Here's our own indepth interview with Misty about directing a sharksploitation film - she's also worked on - and her love of Jaws: Interview: Misty Talley Director of 'Santa Jaws'

Turning the tables, it was The Daily Jaws that interviewed Stephen about his love of sharks, what a ‘sharksploitation’ film is, and how how was first introduced to Jaws by his dad.

Stephen has more interviewees to devour before the fin-tastic sounding documentary can be completed, so we hope to speak to him when the project was swum a bit closer to completion.

FURTHER READING JAWS: THE FILM AND THE LEGACY

Words by Dean Newman

If you would like to contribute a guest blog, please visit our ‘work with us’ page