Jaws: Making a Splash in Hollywood documentary celebrates the 50th anniversary of Spielberg’s classic

Just a few days ago, we learned that National Geographic, Amblin Documentaries, and Nedland Media are teaming up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest movies ever made, director Steven Spielberg’s classic Jaws, with a documentary called Jaws @ 50. Now Deadline reveals that Jaws @ 50 has some competition, as distributor Newen Connect is working with directors Olivier Bonnard and Antoine Coursat on their own Jaws documentary, Jaws: Making a Splash in Hollywood!

A Capa production for Arte France, Jaws: Making a Splash in Hollywood will feature vintage interviews with Spielberg and cast member Richard Dreyfuss, as well as new interviews with “Wendy Benchley, marine conservationist and widow of Jaws author Peter Benchley, Jaws screenplay co-writer and actor Carl Gottlieb, actress Lorraine Gary, who played Ellen Brody, Joe Alves, production designer of Jaws (he also directed the third Jaws film), writer Matthew Robbins, who contributed to the Jaws screenplay, and Ian Shaw, son of Robert Shaw, aka “Quint.” Ian Shaw wrote the Broadway play The Shark Is Broken about the relationship of his dad, Dreyfuss, and Roy Scheider (“Brody”) on set.”

Chloé Persyn, head of factual distribution for Newen Connect, believes there’s plenty of room for two new Jaws documentaries, and Bonnard agrees – especially since Jaws @ 50 is expected to dig into the making of the film, while Jaws: Making a Splash in Hollywood will be a look at the way Jaws dramatically changed Hollywood, spurring the studios to focus virtually their entire attention and business model on creating gigantic hits.

Bonnard said, “There’s a before and an after Jaws. Very unknowingly, but Spielberg basically made the very first blockbuster… It was a very realistic movie shot entirely on location with actors who were not huge stars at the time. And yet it’s the template for the big Hollywood blockbusters that Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark and everything are going to build upon. Very, very often I think Hollywood tended to forget that Jaws also had some very, very well drawn characters and the first half of the movie is setting up those characters, the dynamics between them, which ultimately pays off so well in the second half.“

Coursat added, “This movie, which is like a happy accident, a series of happy accidents, Hollywood basically tries to make it into a formula. And there’s no encapsulating that magic again.“

Does Jaws: Making a Splash in Hollywood sound interesting to you? What do you think of the fact that we’re getting two new Jaws documentaries for the 50th anniversary? Let us know by leaving a comment below.