How Steven Spielberg saved "the best JAWS rip off", Piranha

Without JAWS (1975) there would have been no Joe Dante's Piranha (1978), but without Steven Spielberg the film may not have even got released.

Spielberg had got wind that Universal, how were all set to go back in to the water with JAWS 2 (1978), were ready to take out an injunction and close the beaches...we mean any chance of the low budget film about the flesh eating fish getting a release.

Seeing an early version of the film, he instructed them to stand down and let them release it.  In fact, he went as far as to call it "the best of the JAWS rip offs." High praise for this low budget Roger Corman produced film indeed.

Speaking to SciFiNow, Joe Dante recounted when Spielberg told Universal that Piranha was a parody of giant fish movies.  Dante said: “He told them it didn’t have anything to do with JAWS, and they were told to lay off...Spielberg was partially responsible for letting them have the movie.”

At that point in his career, Dante didn't know Spielberg, but would go onto direct a segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Gremlins (1984), Innerspace (1987) and Gremlins 2 (1990), which Spielberg would produce or executive produce.

Piranha wasn’t Dante's first, or last dalliance with JAWS, as he had co-directed Hollywood Boulevard, which features Jeffrey Kramer (Deputy Hendricks) walking in front of a JAWS poster during the opening credits.

Flash forward several years and in 1979 Dante was in the frame to direct the second JAWS sequel, not the JAWS 3D (1983) SeaWorld adventure that we ended up with, but a National Lampoon's style comedy called Jaws 3 – People 0. No, really

Producers of the first two films, Zanuck and Brown, were still chumming the waters for a second shark sequel.

And rather can continue down the road of an adventure horror thriller, they went left field (off the map) and decided on an out and out comedy. You'd have thought that perhaps the disappointing returns of Steven Spielberg's very own 1941 (1979) might have made them think twice, but with the likes of Animal House, Meatballs, Stripes and Airplane! (complete with Jaws spoof intro on the beginning titles) raking it in at the box office, the producers of Jaws and The Sting were sold.

The first completed script was delivered in 1979, just one year after JAWS 2, and was written by John Hughes - who would go onto write the likes of National Lampoon's Vacation, The Breakfast Club and Home Alone. Matty Simmons, Producer of Animal House and National Lampoon's Vacation came up with a story idea.

Well, we say story idea. It was set to open with JAWS novelist Peter Benchley taking a swim in his own pool at night, only to be eaten by a giant shark, clearly paying homage to the original's opening Chrissie Watkins scene.

It was meta, before the term even existed, and was set to be the story of a film crew making a sequel to JAWS, but like the original is beset by production issues. Namely that filming keeps on getting interrupted by actual great white shark attacks. Sheesh. That must have been some great pitch, cos I'm just not getting it. And I love the likes of Airplane! and Kentucky Fried Movie.

And if that wasn't 'hilarious' enough the shark in the shark film being made as part of the - and I use this rather loosely - plot was in actual fact meant to be revealed as an alien that had taken the form of a shark to destroy tourist trade. For those haters, JAWS 3D has probably never sounded so good.

Both JAWS 3's did meet, of sorts, during Innerspace, which saw Dante direct former Mike Brody (Dennis Quaid) is the riotous action packed comedy reimagining of Fantastic Voyage.

And finally Piranha 3D, a 2008 remake that Dante had no hand in, paid JAWS back in full, opening with Richard Dreyfuss, dressed very much like Hooper, needing a bigger boat and humming 'Fair Spanish Ladies' before going the way of Quint.

And that original Piranha from 1978 ended up with its very own sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning, which was directed and disowned by one James Cameron. Don't worry, he'll be back.

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