
Surely that had to be the extent of the issues that plagued the filming, right? Nope. So Spielberg, as did many other directors, looked to the acronym WWHD (What Would Hitchcock Do), and decided to change the approach from the horror of seeing the shark to, instead, the shark being the unseen, unknown sense of dread and horror. It was happening on such a frequent basis that Spielberg realized he, somehow, had to make a shark film with no shark (for those counting, issue #5).
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Salt water, fractures, an absorbent-proof skin that absorbed, and corrosion led to the sharks consistently breaking down. And that wasn't the end of the shark problems. Two things sank that day: the shark itself, right to the bottom of the ocean, and Spielberg's heart.

So a shark was taken out to the water for a test run. Minor setback, easily fixed, no harm done. What should have been taken as an omen occurred on land, when one would bite down on George Lucas' head in the shop, the result of a practical joke misfire, prompting the jaws of the shark to be pried open to let Lucas out. Thankfully, three sharks were built for the film, collectively named Bruce after Spielberg's friend and lawyer Bruce Ramer, and they looked great, but inevitably became issue #4. He agreed with Zanuck and Brown's suggestion of Robert Shaw for the role of Quint, and likewise agreed with fellow director and friend George Lucas to cast American Graffiti alum Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper. There certainly was nothing happening on the casting front that was abnormal from any other big Hollywood production, though, so similar situations with the role of Brody begat the casting the roles of Quint and Matt Hooper.


Eventually, Spielberg would find his Chief Brody in actor Roy Scheider. Charlton Heston spread the word that he would be interested in playing Brody, but even the mighty Moses didn't fit Spielberg's vision. Paul Newman and Robert Duvall were among those considered for the role of Brody, but Spielberg didn't want a big name star in the film, so Newman wasn't approached and Duvall would only come on board if he could play Quint. First choices for cast members didn’t bite (no pun intended). for a killer shark film?" he must have thought to himself, "Why not add some scenes of Norman Bates doing stand-up comedy routines to Psycho while I'm at it?" Nevertheless, he agreed.Ĭonfident that the screenplay side was in good hands, the time came to focus on the cast. So he turned to comedy writer and friend Carl Gottlieb to lighten up the script.
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The overall feel of the script was dark, and the characters were largely unlikable, which is an issue when you're filming a movie about a killer shark and the audience is on the shark's side. The rewrite addressed some of the issues that Spielberg had with Benchley's draft, but something still wasn't right. Playwright Howard Sackler was brought in, and he agreed to an uncredited rewrite of the entire script. He, rightly, wanted the main focus of the film to be on the shark and the men hunting it, period. Spielberg had no interest in the subplots. Not one of them matched his vision of the project. Spielberg looked the drafts over, and let out a mighty sigh. This included a number of subplots, including the mayor having mob ties, that the novel was filled with (wisely, a subplot about Ellen Brody having an affair with Hooper was not included). While this was happening, novel author Peter Benchley submitted three screenplay drafts, each of which hewed more toward the events in the book. In their haste, they hadn't really thought about what it would take to actually film the movie. The question they should have asked? Can it be made.

So they bought the movie rights for $175,000, before the novel had even been released to the public. Should we grab it now before another studio grabs it? Absolutely yes. Will author Peter Benchley draw up a screenplay? He's agreed to do up to three, so yes. Can we afford to make it? We can't not afford to make it, so yes. They knew it had the makings for a great movie, so they went through their checklist. Zanuck and David Brown were given a copy of the novel and were hooked. From when Universal picked up the rights to when that iconic John Williams score plays under the opening credits on the big screen, problems plagued Steven Spielberg and company almost daily. The issues with production are legendary, and almost laughingly accurate. If one follows the production history of Jaws, it’s truly remarkable the film got made at all.
