The summer movie season wouldn’t be what it is today without Steven Spielberg‘s “Jaws,” which arguably created the blockbuster in Hollywood. The same can’t be said of the 1975 film’s three sequels, each one worst than the last; and the less said about “Jaws: The Revenge,” the better. But maybe, if Joe Dante got to make his idea for a “Jaws” sequel, film audiences would look on the entire movie series a little more kindly. Or maybe not, considering its working title was “Jaws 3, People 0.”
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EW reports that Dante breaks down the legend of his unmade “Jaws” sequel in Shudder‘s documentary “Sharksploitation,” premiering on the streamer today. And as Dante tells it, the concept of “Jaws 3, People 0” came from his Roger Corman-produced 1978 break-out “Piranha” coming out the same year as “Jaws 2.” “The second “Jaws” movie had come out right around the time of “Piranha,”” says Dante in the exclusive clip, above. “Universal was very concerned and annoyed that Roger was putting out his rip-off of “Jaws” the same year that “Jaws 2” was coming out and so they apparently threatened an injunction. I discovered much later that Spielberg had stepped in… and said, ‘No, you don’t get it, this is a spoof, this isn’t really a rip-off,’ although it is a rip-off. And we basically got away with it, I guess is the phrase. And because of that, I was offered “Jaws 3, People 0.””
So was “Jaws 3, People 0” originally Dante’s idea? No, it was dreamt up by Matty Simmons, CEO Of Twenty First Century Communications, aka: National Lampoon, Inc. It’s hardly a surprise that the man who co-produced “Animal House” hatched up a kooky “Jaws” sequel. Simmons gives a run down of his sequel idea in “Sharksploitation.” “I was over at Universal. My next-door neighbors were Dick Zanuck and David Brown, [the producers on “Jaws”]” he said. “First thing [Brown] said to me was, ‘Dick and I would love to make a movie with you guys.’ So, out of the blue — I just started kidding around — I just said, ‘”Jaws 3, People Nothing.”‘I said, ‘Peter Benchley (who wrote the original “Jaws” book) walks out of his house in a bathing suit, jumps into his pool, and disappears. And the next thing we see a fin floating around in the pool.’… He said, ‘I love it, I love it, I’ll call you tomorrow. We’re going to make this movie.'”
Given the greenlight, Simmons went wild with ideas about the sequel, recruiting a young John Hughes and another screenwriter named Tod Carroll to help write the script. And Simmons planned on making his “Jaws” movie a raunchy comedy that strayed from the traditional family dynamics of the series’ first two installments. One enticing idea? Casting actress Bo Derek, who would be “nude from the waist up through a good deal of the picture.” But Dante foresaw the creative issues between Simmons and Universal before they seven arose. “The “National Lampoon” people wanted to make an R-rated comedy, like “Animal House,”” says Dante. “And the more conservative Zanuck and Brown team wanted to make a PG and have it be a wide-release family picture.” Eventually, those creative differences nixed the sequel entirely.
The result for “Jaws 3, People 0” going nowhere? 1983’s “Jaws 3-D” with Dennis Quaid, a meager sequel that cashed in on the ’80s 3-D crazy. But Dante still wonders what might have been. “I think the project died because they just couldn’t agree on what movie they were making,” said the director. “And you can’t go into a movie with two entities as powerful as “National Lampoon” was at that time and Zanuck and Brown and have them fighting constantly through the entire movie. It’s just a bad idea and I think they just pulled the plug.” Simmons echoed Dante’s sentiments. “They had to choose between me and Spielberg and I suspect they made the right choice,” he said.
But even it doesn’t exist as a feature film, the legend of “Jaws 3, People 0” lives on in infamy in “Sharksploitation. Stephen Scarlata directs the doc, which explores the history of sharks on film. Other interviewees in Scarlata’s film include the legendary Corman and “Jaws” screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, and more.
Take a look at a trailer for “Sharksploitation” about “Jaw 3, People 0” below.
