Spielberg reportedly paid for the additional floating-head scare himself, filming a model in a pool clouded with powdered milk. — Bill Simmons
Spielberg reportedly tried to leave Jaws for Lucky Lady but was blocked. The discussion names its director as Stanley Donnan in the transcript and its cast as Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds and Gene Hackman, calls it a hit that has become obscure, and says Lucas recruited its British crew for Star Wars. — Sean Fennessey
Shallow ocean depth allowed recovery of the mechanical shark, which required continuous maintenance. — Chris Ryan
Spielberg reportedly regretted not using a tank, while the speakers defend the real ocean as essential to the movie. — Bill Simmons
Unwanted boats, soaked equipment and a sinking vessel contributed to a shoot expanding far beyond its schedule. — Bill Simmons
A reported anticipated crew prank prompted Spielberg to leave before the final shot. — Bill Simmons
The Making of Jaws is strongly recommended for its extensive interviews and production history. — Sean Fennessey
Visions of Light is cited for Michael Chapman’s account of rejecting fixed tripod shots because tilting boat horizons would make audiences sick, leading to fluid handheld work. The speaker is uncertain whether Chapman was Jaws’s camera operator and connects him with later Raging Bull cinematography. — Chris Ryan
Shaw’s drinking and antagonism toward Dreyfuss are described through production accounts and documentary recollections. — Bill Simmons
A reported escalating cash dare to jump from the mast ended when Spielberg intervened to protect the actor needed for filming. — Bill Simmons
The mechanical shark was reportedly named Bruce after Spielberg’s lawyer. — Bill Simmons
The tracking-and-zoom shot is admired as iconic, with concern that repeating it now would feel clichéd.
Mythbusters reportedly found that shooting the tank would not cause the film’s explosion.
A writer whose surname is uncertain in the transcript, heard as Gabbler or Gables, is credited with interpreting Dreyfuss as science, Quint as spiritualism and Brody as the common man. The speakers find the spiritualism label amusing and call the interpretation overthinking while enjoying the idea that the common man succeeds. — Bill Simmons
The Taylors reportedly used a smaller diver and cage to make real shark footage look proportionally larger. — Bill Simmons
Footage of an empty cage attack reportedly led to Hooper surviving; the shark’s accidental snag also entered the rewritten scene. — Sean Fennessey
Mrs. Kintner’s performer reportedly struck the actor for real across seventeen takes because a fake slap was difficult. — Bill Simmons
Benchley reportedly objected to the tank climax and was removed from the set; he also appears as a reporter. — Bill Simmons
A proposed Quint introduction mocking Moby Dick was abandoned when Peck reportedly withheld permission because he disliked his performance. — Bill Simmons
The extra head scare reportedly weakened the later shark scare, prompting a single-major-scare lesson; the speakers question whether that holds in the trailer-heavy present. — Bill Simmons
The reshoot reportedly cost Spielberg three thousand dollars; a tarp helped cover the milk-clouded pool. — Bill Simmons
The filming schedule went from 52 days to 155 days. — Bill Simmons
Shaw reportedly kept fleeing back to Canada because staying in the United States too long would mean paying taxes. — Bill Simmons
In the late seventies the film almost happened with Clint Eastwood and Richard Pryor until Eastwood did Escape from Alcatraz instead; that version would surely be far less racist and would become a Richard Pryor movie in the Brewster's Millions or Stir Crazy mold, probably sillier, and Pryor was coming apart on sets then, setting himself on fire in what the hosts date as 1982.
Jeff Bridges turned down Jack Cates because he did not want another cop movie; nobody could be better than Nolte, though a method Bridges putting on twenty pounds and going dark might have been pretty good, and Nolte is still permanently Jack Cates in a way an Ed Harris version would not have been.
Gregory Hines was the first choice for Reggie and dropped out to do Cotton Club, prompting a Running Scared tangent: a total 48 Hours ripoff in which Hines is really funny, and whose Florida Keys stretch with Michael McDonald is the movie one host wanted the whole time; Hines would have been pretty good, obviously not Eddie Murphy good.
Sly Stallone and Burt Reynolds allegedly both turned down Jack Cates, the kind of claim attached to every movie of the era; Reynolds could have taken the part to a bad place and might have ruined the movie, though Longest Yard-era Reynolds was good in tight roles like this.
Earlier, the studio nearly fired Eddie three or four days into the shoot because they did not think he was funny enough, with Michael Eisner running Paramount; called a good what-if that would have been a bad decision.
