Jaws reboot: Steven Spielberg shoots the idea down again

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The Jaws franchise got away from Steven Spielberg for a while, leading to the release of three increasingly bad sequels – but for the last thirty years, Spielberg's working relationship with Universal has allowed him to keep an iron grip on the property. You know Universal would be continuing to milk the hell of the Jaws name if it weren't for Spielberg. We'd have seen more sequels by now, and probably some kind of reboot or remake. In fact, the folks over at Deadline recently heard that Universal had brought the subject up to Spielberg in hopes that he might be open to the idea of bringing Jaws back.

Here's what Deadline said: 

One area the director will not revisit is Jaws. Deadline heard recently that Universal broached the subject to reboot Spielberg's breakout classic, with Spielberg producing, and the answer was a firm no. Some at Universal and Amblin said this was already known and not a recent conversation. Whatever, while Jaws sequels fell far short of Spielberg’s original, some films should just be left alone and appreciated in their original form. Spielberg directed a number of them, including E.T. and Schindler’s List. 

I do think there could be there could still be another good movie made in the world of Jaws, certainly something much better than Jaws 3D and Jaws: The Revenge… but there are so many shark thrillers out there now, why bother? Jaws should be something special, not just another shark movie released in the same year as a dozen others. So I'm with Spielberg on this one. Leave Jaws alone. If Universal is interested in giving the world an awesome new shark movie, great, go for it. There's no need to slap the Jaws title on there.

Directed by Spielberg from a screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, Jaws (watch it HERE) was released in 1975 and has the following synopsis: 

When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody wants to close the beaches, but mayor Larry Vaughn overrules him, fearing that the loss of tourist revenue will cripple the town. Ichthyologist Matt Hooper and grizzled ship captain Quint offer to help Brody capture the killer beast, and the trio engage in an epic battle of man vs. nature.

Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Murray Hamilton, and Lorraine Gary star.