Steven Spielberg’s directing career blew up after his film Jaws was released in 1975. This is one of my all-time favorite films and I also love the behind-the-scenes stories of the production of the film. Spielberg went through hell making this movie, but in the end, the movie became the first big summer blockbuster and he came out of it a winner.
During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Spielberg shared some great stories and insight into the making of Jaws. One of the things he discussed was how he came to direct the project and explained that he thought of the movie as a sequel to his previous film Duel.
The filmmaker talked about how he found out about the Jaws movie, saying:
“I do remember working on the postproduction of my first theatrical film The Sugarland Express, and seeing a galley proof of a book called Jaws. This was way before the title entered the national consciousness—it was just a word—JAWS. I asked if I could read the book, still not knowing this was about a great white shark, a predator off the beaches of a town called Amity. I had no idea this was about to become one of the greatest best sellers in the nation.”
He went on to say that the film project was originally offered to another director and that director was already scheduled to meet with the author of the book, Peter Benchley. Spielberg said, “So, when I read the book over that weekend, it wasn’t available for me to direct.” He then shared what he was thinking after he read the book, and how he saw it as a sequel to Duel:
“But I got through the book. And I immediately thought: Wow, this is like a TV movie I made about a truck and a hapless driver, called Duel. And of course, I’m young and I’m stupid and I’m saying, ‘Duel . . . gee . . . that has four letters, and Jaws has four letters . . . and they’re both about these leviathans preying on innocent people.’ And I saw such comparison between the two that I thought of Jaws as a sequel to Duel, only on water.”
As you might imagine, he was very interested in the project and he met with producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown, who owned the film rights to pitch them on his concept. He said to them, “I know how to make this into a film. I know what to cut out. I know what to keep. That sea hunt for that shark is extraordinary! I know how to do this.”
But, the author was already meeting with another director, and according to Spielberg, “That was that, until I got a call from Dick asking me to come meet with him and David.” It’s at that point they offered him the directing gig! Spielberg went on to describe what happened in that meeting and what happened with the other director:
“They sat me down and announced, ‘We want you to direct Jaws.’ I said, ‘Whatever happened to the director?’ And they explained, ‘We had the meeting with him, but he kept referring to the shark in front of Peter Benchley as ‘the white whale.’ And Peter became very disinterested in having his shark called a whale.’ And that’s how the project finally came to me.”
That’s how Spielberg became attached to Jaws! Little did he know the crazy production problems he would face while actually making the movie. But at that moment, there’s no doubt he was freakin’ stoked that he actually landed this directing gig!