As Jaws surfaces on IMAX for the first time here’s 25 facts about the Spielberg shark classic
Jaws is a perfect film engine, a box office gold eating machine, but it very nearly wasn’t.
Before the Jawsmania and the Oscars there was Martha’s Vineyard, 1974, and the shoot on Jaws was overtime and over budget…with its mechanical shark star mostly found malfunctioning underwater.
Added to that, the script was still being written as scenes were filmed and the young director Steven Spielberg woke up every day fearing he would get fired.
And yet, almost 50 years ago, people lined up around the block and around the world to get scared silly by Jaws, the first summer blockbuster.
You’re gonna need a bigger brain to store these facts about Steven Spielberg’s seminal shark thriller, ahead of seeing Jaws - for a limited time - on IMAX. The film opens in the US on September 2, and in the UK on September 9.
1. Originally, the studio was hoping to train a real shark for the film. You read that correctly the first time.
2. The original shooting schedule for Jaws was 58 days, it ballooned to 159.
3. Jaws was released in the US on June 20, 1975, although it was originally planned to be released for Christmas 1974. It would get a Christmas release in the UK, on Boxing Day, 1975.
4. It’s estimated that an astonishing 67 million Americans saw Jaws upon release.
5. No surprise then that it took just 38 days for Jaws to swim past the magic $100 million barrier, the first film ever to do so. It would remain the highest grossing film of all time until the release of Star Wars (1977).
6. Producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck paid Jaws novelist Peter Benchley $175,000 for the movie rights to his book - before it had been published!
7. Jaws Author, Peter Benchley, had a cameo in the film as a news reporter on the beach.
8. Bruce the mechanical shark was named after Steven Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer.
9. Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody) was the first actor cast in the movie: LORRAINE GARY: THE PERFECT CHOICE FOR ELLEN BRODY IN JAWS — The Daily Jaws
10. The fictional town of Amity Island was Martha's Vineyard. As extras, Martha’s Vineyard residents were paid $64 each for running up and down the beach during the shark attack scene.
11. The two actors who played the boys that pulled the cardboard fin prank are brothers in real life, with one of them recently becoming the Chief of Police on Martha’s Vineyard.
12. When composer John Williams first played Steven Spielberg the simple E-F-E-F Jaws motif on the piano, Spielberg thought that he was kidding him. He wasn’t. It continues to be famous in swimming pools worldwide.
13. When is a film about a shark not a film about a shark? When said shark only has four minutes screen time: Why Bruce the shark from Jaws is the greatest practical effect ever made — The Daily Jaws
14. The Ben Gardner head scene was a late addition to the film and was shot in editor, Verna Fields' swimming pool.
15. Quint’s boat, the Orca, was a converted Nova Scotia fishing boat called the ‘Warlock’. After the film its new home was the Universal backlot in LA, sadly it was destroyed after becoming rotten.
16. Star Wars director George Lucas suggested Richard Dreyfuss for the part of Hooper having worked with him on American Graffiti. Lucas would allegedly get his head stuck in Bruce the shark.
17. Horror writer Stephen King declared in a tweet that “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” is the best line in movie history.
18. Steven Spielberg makes an uncredited appearance as the voice of the Amity Point Coastguard. Not to be out done, his dog Elmer appears as the Brody’s dog.
19. The medical inspector / coroner is played by Martha’s Vineyard’s then real-life doctor Robert Nevin. He also appeared as a doctor in Airplane! (1980), which opens with a parody of Jaws.
20. The number plate pulled from the tiger shark’s stomach (007 0 981) is also seen in Deep Blue Sea (1999) and In Ralph Breaks The Internet (2018).
21. The iconic Jaws poster was designed by Roger Kastel, but the shark featured on it is not a great white. Kastel would go on to design the Gone With The Wind-style poster for The Empire Strikes Back (1980). ADD LINK
22. Actors Sterling Hayden and Lee Marvin were first choices to play Quint. Here’s who else was in the running for the roles of Quint, Brody and Hooper.
23. Steven Spielberg didn’t direct the shark exploding - he had already left the island and was on his way back to Los Angeles before the final shot of Jaws.
24. Jaws was nominated for four Oscars. It won three in the categories of best music, sound and editing. It didn't win for best picture. Neither Steven Spielberg nor Robert Shaw were nominated:
25. In 2001, Jaws was named as culturally significant by the library of congress and selected for preservation on the national film registry. We look at Jaws and its legacy.
Words by Dean Newman
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