The Jaws-ome prank Steven Spielberg played on mega star Tom Cruise

What happens when you bring together the world’s best film director and biggest movie star? You get damn good cinema. In 2002, Steven Spielberg directed Tom Cruise in Minority Report, the cinematic adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story set in a future where a special police unit is able to arrest murderers before they commit their crimes, an officer from that unit is himself accused of a future murder.

With Spielberg and Cruise having loved working together and Minority Report proving a massive box office and critical success, another collaboation was a sure bet and we didn’t have to wait long.

Just three years later, Spielcruise were back with another adaptation, War Of The Worlds. An alien invasion threatens the future of humanity. The catastrophic nightmare is depicted through the eyes of one American family fighting for survival.

Even though the subject matter was pretty dark and the shooting schedule tight, Spielberg found an opportunity to play a Jaws-ome prank on Tom Cruise and co-star Dakota Fanning (pictured below) .

During the filming of the underwater scenes (where the ferry capsizes), director Steven Spielberg played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing John Williams’ iconic shark theme from Jaws (also directed by Spielberg) through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage.

Due to Steven Spielberg's last minute post-production work on the film, he had to drop out of a scheduled appearance with Tom Cruise to promote the film on The Oprah Winfrey Show. This was the episode of Cruise's highly publicized "couch jumping" incident. However, a great interview with both Cruise and Spielberg discussing War Of The Worlds is below - enjoy!

Words by Ross Williams

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