Why did spielberg make jaws

There were endless problems with the shark and it was an impossible shoot. I thought my career was over because no one had ever taken a movie days over schedule. It was successful, but I never wanted to go near the water again. Besides the trauma he experienced working on Jaws , Spielberg probably did his career a favor by steering clear.

After all, none of the sequels were particularly well-received. Although they were financially successful, the Jaws franchise was never intended to exist at all. The film debuted to mostly positive reviews, many of which rightly hailed Spielberg as the next big thing in major moviemaking. Even the best of the bunch come with some problems. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news!

Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Zanuck and David Brown were eager to adapt Peter Benchley's novel to the silver screen, a young year-old Steven Spielberg was adamant to get the job. Having done only TV work, including the TV movie Duel , and one theatrical film, The Sugarland Express , prior, Spielberg was a young-and-hungry filmmaker looking to prove himself. Through his enthusiasm, he won over the producers.

But as the shoot drew nearer, Spielberg's excitement waned. As the BBC reported , he was afraid he'd be typecast "truck and shark director," referring to Duel in addition to Jaws. He set his sights on making Lady Lucky for Fox instead which was eventually directed by Stanley Donen , but Universal exercised their right to veto this decision.

In the end, it was good thing Spielberg stayed on-board. But production wasn't easy. While Jaws is often celebrated for being a tight, well-constructed movie, filled with ceaseless tension and well-executed scares, the production for the movie was easily among the most troublesome of Spielberg's long career. Whether it was casting delays, script rewrites, troubles with the shark, or a boatload of other problems, Jaws didn't have any easy time making its way to the screen, and Richard Dreyfuss was honest about the difficulties that came with making this classic movie.

As he noted at one point , the movie started "without a script, without a cast, and without a shark. One of the biggest reasons why the production of Jaws proved to be so very challenging and troublesome was not merely because the shark wouldn't cooperate the producers initially wanted a real shark but that proved to be impossible , but because it was apparently the first major movie to be shot on the ocean. Not in the ocean, mind you, but on the ocean. As it was discussed in HBO's documentary, Spielberg , the decision to make the movie a little more realistic by being on the open shores pushed the production back several days over a , in fact and it caused the film's once-modest budget to skyrocket.

Rather than film in a lake or on a set, a young Spielberg was adamant about realism. While it clearly resulted in a pain-in-the-ass shoot, it did help overall. Even before the movie started rolling, Jaws had a number of problems and mishaps behind the scenes. As the fellow filmmaker visited his friend during pre-production on Jaws , Lucas saw some of the troubles the crew faced with the faulty mechanical shark as it was being constructed.

Being a tech fan, Lucas stuck his noggin inside the mechanical contraption to see how it worked. Nevertheless, in the midst of these shenanigans, the shark once again malfunctioned and Lucas got stuck inside the shark. Thankfully, the filmmakers were able to get him out. While casual moviegoers are prone to call the great white shark in Jaws by the movie's title, this isn't the name the mechanical shark was given on set.

Indeed, for the labored crew who worked on this troubled production, the shark was known simply as "Bruce," named as Steven Spielberg's lawyer. As for the reason why, it's not especially clear, but it was quickly adopted. Fans of Spielberg's movie and the ill-fated sequels that it spawned have also taken to calling the shark "Bruce," and the name has stuck around in the decades following the film's release.

For instance, in one of several homages to Jaws , Finding Nemo 's primary shark is also named Bruce, seemingly as a tribute to Spielberg's famous film. Filmmaking is a collaborative process.