Jaws reboot pitch from Universal got a firm “no” from Spielberg

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Jaws is widely considered one of Steven Spielberg's best films and one of the best films of all time. It's a true classic of cinema and while it has spawned some truly questionable sequels, it has avoided the reboot treatment since its release back in 1975. This doesn't mean that Universal Pictures hasn't tried. It has been revealed that the studio was interested in a Jaws reboot at one point but Steven Spielberg made it very clear that the idea was, as they say, dead in the water. 

It was recently announced that hell had frozen over, and Steven Spielberg's company Amblin signed a deal with Netflix to produce several movies a year for the streamer. This was a miraculous development, considering that Spielberg had been critical of Netflix in the past. Buried within all of the reports covering the news was the reboot tidbit about Jaws. Per the report, "Universal broached the subject to reboot Spielberg's breakout classic, with Spielberg producing." The answer was swift and said to be a "firm no."

Not much more was revealed from the report except that "this was already known and not a recent conversation." We don't know the exact time period this conversation went down but all that matters is that it's not going to happen as long as Spielberg has breath in his lungs. Universal would be silly to sidestep the director and try to make something like this happen anyway, especially considering he still has a deal in place to make movies for the studio. There is no way they would destroy such a positive working relationship to make a Jaws remake that most likely wouldn't work in the first place.

Jaws is one of the most beloved blockbusters in cinema history and is widely believed to have started what we know as the summer movie season. Based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel of the same name, the film was Spielberg's first foray into blockbuster filmmaking following the release of Duel and The Sugarland Express. Produced for just $12 million, the film went on to gross $470 million worldwide. The production was famously troubled but Spielberg was able to take his brilliance as a director and make some of these issues work in his favor. The mechanical shark isn't working as it should? Well, let's turn this into a situation where what we don't is more frightening than what we do see and use its absence to generate tension. Diving into the production of Jaws is one of the most intriguing filmmaking stories and it's a testament of Spielberg's talents, even back then, that he was able to pull a pure classic out of less than ideal circumstances.

Would YOU ever want to see a Jaws reboot?