‘Jaws’ 50th anniversary documentary coming from Nat Geo and Amblin

The tumultuous story behind the making of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Jaws and the writing of its best-selling source material by Peter Benchley are being transformed into a documentary.

Timed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1975 film, Nat Geo has greenlit Jaws @ 50 (working title), a feature documentary focusing on both Spielberg’s film and Benchley’s horror best-seller. The documentary is set for a summer 2025 release on National Geographic, Disney+, and Hulu.

Laurent Bouzereau, who recently completed the documentary Faye about Hollywood star Faye Dunaway, is directing. Bouzereau also authored Spielberg: The First Ten Years, in which he interviewed Spielberg about the making of Jaws, and is currently working on a film about composer John Williams. The documentary will feature footage and photography from the Benchley and Spielberg archives and will explore how the blockbuster inspired a new generation of shark enthusiasts. It is being made in collaboration with ocean conservation and marine policy advocate Wendy Benchley, Peter’s wife.

Laurent created a special 20th anniversary documentary ‘The Making of JAWS’

Produced by Spielberg’s Amblin Documentaries and Nedland Media, the documentary will see Wendy Benchley and Laura A. Bowling as producers, with Amblin’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey serving as executive producers alongside Bouzereau and Markus Keith from Nedland Media and Ted Duvall from National Geographic.

“Jaws, the novel by Peter Benchley and the film by Steven Spielberg, defined both popular literature and cinema,” said Frank and Falvey. “Exploring the past, present, and future legacy of Jaws, along with an informed and inspiring discussion about sharks and the ocean, offers a unique opportunity to merge art and science in one documentary.”

The production of Jaws was notoriously plagued by budget overruns and scheduling delays, with the 26-year-old Spielberg facing a malfunctioning mechanical shark and adverse weather. This challenging production story was dramatized in the Broadway play The Shark Is Broken, written by Ian Shaw, son of Jaws actor Robert Shaw.

“Working on Jaws became a living nightmare, not because I didn't know what I was doing or because I was struggling to visualize the film,” Spielberg told Bouzereau in Spielberg: The First Ten Years, as excerpted by Vanity Fair. “I knew the movie I wanted to make. I just couldn’t get it on film as quickly as I wanted. The end never seemed to be in sight, and yet I was the only person who could reassure the crew that there would be an end someday.”

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