Remember the sequel to Jaws? The only thing worth it was changed in the middle of filming

When Hollywood succeeds, Hollywood wants to capitalize on it. So when Jaws, Steven Spielberg’s shark movie, made a fortune in 1975, sequels soon followed.

The producer of the first film, Richard D. Zanuck chose to direct this sequel with John D. Hancock, who wrote and directed 1971’s little-known Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, a horror film about madness, whose dark theme pleased him greatly. The rest is Hancock saying it on a podcast microphone The Daily Jaws (via Collider).

Haunted Brody

Hancock says that upon his arrival, author Howard Sackler had already signed off on the first draft of the script, a prequel, that he had reviewed. “terrible” And finally he hired his wife Dorothy Tristan, after trying to hire screenwriters with more experience, such as Nancy Dowd (La Castagne), Edward Anhalt (Jeremiah Johnson) or David Rabe (Outrage).

Universal agrees to film the version written by Tristan. His idea is to deal with the traumatic aspect of the events of the first film about the inhabitants of Amity Island. Tourism is at half-mast, Sheriff Broad is haunted by deaths under his watch, the population depressed and the municipality in debt. Visually, Hancock sees a picture “saturated”Less colorful than the Technicolor of the first film.

They were released after 1 month of filming

Casting took months, filming was delayed because Richard Zanuck refused to play Robert A. Matt, who was responsible for the mechanical shark that caused so much trouble in the first film, was rehired, and Sidney Sheinberg, Universal’s president, insisted that it be put back together. Instead, Hancock agrees with Zanuck, believing that Matt refuses to work with the existing shark again and instead complicates the animal’s mechanism even more.

It’s time to shoot, which takes place over three to four weeks under the direction of John Hancock. Until the day a private jet landed in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts with Shinberg on board. He leaves again, and that same evening, Zanuck and David Brown (the film’s other producer) tell Hancock he’s fired.

Between a rock and a hard place

For Hancock, this sudden fear of the studio comes in particular from the Oscar-winning editor of the first Jaws, Verna Fields, who has since become a vice president at Universal. He felt he should direct Jaws 2, but Zanuck turned him down for the job. Still according to Hancock, Fields began to spread rumors that “diary” (Scenes shot daily and sent to the studio for approval) were difficult to use and that he did not know how to edit them himself. “The studio lost confidence”– he announced today.

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After Hancock’s ouster, Universal offered the film to Fields, but the Directors Guild rejected the deal on the grounds that a studio director cannot take over a film from a Directors Guild member. To appease the guild, Universal officially hired Jeannot Schwarke, and allowed Fields to shoot the film behind the scenes.

Above all, the conflict between Sheinberg and Zanuck on all subjects – apparently dating back three years to the first Jaws – also pitted Hancock against those who decided the fate of his film. Besides being civil friends with Zanuck, it was difficult for him to take sides.

Hancock’s departure had other consequences, such as the ousting of Tegan West and Ricky Schroder, who were to play the Brody children, but also Dana Elkar, who was to be played by Len Peterson. Her character, a much darker and mafia-facing version of Dorothy Tristan, replaces Jeannot Schwartz as a potential love interest for Ellen Brody’s character. Finally, Dorothy Tristan is not named in the script.

Universal has never seen a budget

With new scenes shot with new actors, and footage Hancock shot over the past month simply trashed, Jaws 2’s budget rises to $30 million, making it the most expensive film ever released by Universal.

Sackler and Tristan’s screenplay—far from a finished film—was eventually turned into a novel, adapted by Hank Searles, and published in April 1978, about two months before Jeannot Schwarke’s feature film was released.

When it hit the screens, Jaws 2 collected $77.7 million on American soil, a good result, but a far cry from the $260 million the original film brought in. It still became the 6th highest-grossing film at the US box office in 1978.