The Shark Is Still Working
Encyclopedia
The Shark is Still Working is a documentary film
on the impact and legacy of the 1975 Steven Spielberg
blockbuster Jaws
. It features interviews with a range of cast and crew from the film. It is narrated by Roy Scheider
and dedicated to Peter Benchley
. Although advance copies have received very good reviews from professional critics, a release date has not yet been announced.
The documentary is notable as it has been produced by fans, building on Laurent Bouzereau's feature that has been included on some laserdisc and DVD releases.
Throughout other documentaries over the years, such as Bouzereau and BBC
's In the Teeth of Jaws, Richard Dreyfuss
has recounted tales about the distressed production of Jaws, where loudspeakers seemed to constantly echo the desperate phrase, “The shark is NOT working!.” Eventually, upon successful attempts to fix the malfunctioning sea monster, those echoes transformed into elated cheers to the contrary.
Over thirty years after Jaws was released, the new feature-length documentary is titled The Shark is Still Working as a reference to the producers' thesis that the film ever continues to inspire and entertain new generations of film watchers and offers as much "bite for the buck" as ever.
Jaws ranks among the fifty greatest movies of all time according to the American Film Institute
and ranks the second greatest thriller behind Alfred Hitchcock
’s Psycho
. The now-famous “making-of” stories of Jaws have been recorded in countless books, documentaries, essays, and specials over the years.
. Among the more notable of those interviewed are Steven Spielberg
, Roy Scheider
, Richard Dreyfuss
, John Williams
, Peter Benchley
(in what would be his final on-camera interview), Carl Gottlieb
, Joe Alves
, Richard Zanuck, David Brown
, Susan Backlinie, Jeffrey Kramer
, Ron & Valerie Taylor
, Dick Warlock
, Kevin Smith
, Robert Rodriguez
, Bryan Singer
, Greg Nicotero, Tom Savini
, Eli Roth
, M. Night Shyamalan
, Percy Rodriguez
(in what would be his final public appearance), and Paul McPhee
.
United Film Festival
.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
on the impact and legacy of the 1975 Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
blockbuster Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
. It features interviews with a range of cast and crew from the film. It is narrated by Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
and dedicated to Peter Benchley
Peter Benchley
Peter Bradford Benchley was an American author, best known for his novel Jaws and its subsequent film adaptation, the latter co-written by Benchley and directed by Steven Spielberg...
. Although advance copies have received very good reviews from professional critics, a release date has not yet been announced.
The documentary is notable as it has been produced by fans, building on Laurent Bouzereau's feature that has been included on some laserdisc and DVD releases.
Throughout other documentaries over the years, such as Bouzereau and BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's In the Teeth of Jaws, Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
has recounted tales about the distressed production of Jaws, where loudspeakers seemed to constantly echo the desperate phrase, “The shark is NOT working!.” Eventually, upon successful attempts to fix the malfunctioning sea monster, those echoes transformed into elated cheers to the contrary.
Over thirty years after Jaws was released, the new feature-length documentary is titled The Shark is Still Working as a reference to the producers' thesis that the film ever continues to inspire and entertain new generations of film watchers and offers as much "bite for the buck" as ever.
Jaws ranks among the fifty greatest movies of all time according to the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
and ranks the second greatest thriller behind Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
’s Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
. The now-famous “making-of” stories of Jaws have been recorded in countless books, documentaries, essays, and specials over the years.
Crew
The Shark Is Still Working was created by producers James Gelet, Jake Gove, Erik Hollander, and James-Michael Roddy.Participants
The documentary features exclusive interviews with most of the cast and crew of Jaws, as well as celebrities whose careers have been influenced by the film. It was written by James Gelet, directed by Erik Hollander and narrated by Chief Brody himself, Academy Award nominee Roy ScheiderRoy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
. Among the more notable of those interviewed are Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
, Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
, John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
, Peter Benchley
Peter Benchley
Peter Bradford Benchley was an American author, best known for his novel Jaws and its subsequent film adaptation, the latter co-written by Benchley and directed by Steven Spielberg...
(in what would be his final on-camera interview), Carl Gottlieb
Carl Gottlieb
Carl Gottlieb is an American screenwriter, actor, comedian and executive. He is probably best known for co-writing the screenplay for Jaws, as well as directing the 1981 low-budget cult film Caveman.-Early life:...
, Joe Alves
Joe Alves
Joe Alves is an American film production designer, perhaps best known for his work on three of the Jaws films. He directed Jaws 3-D....
, Richard Zanuck, David Brown
David Brown (producer)
David Brown was an American film producer.-Early life and career:Brown was born in New York City, the son of Lillian and Edward Fisher Brown. He was best known as the producing partner of Richard D. Zanuck. They were jointly awarded the Irving G...
, Susan Backlinie, Jeffrey Kramer
Jeffrey Kramer
Jeffrey Kramer is an American film and television actor and film producer.-Life and career:Kramer was born in New York City and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, graduating from Teaneck High School with the Class of 1963. He made his first appearance on the TV series Barney Miller starring in the...
, Ron & Valerie Taylor
Ron & Valerie Taylor
Ron Taylor and Valerie Taylor are prominent Australian shark and underwater experts. Their expertise has been called upon for films such as Jaws, Orca and Sky Pirates....
, Dick Warlock
Dick Warlock
Dick Warlock is an American actor and stuntman. He is best known for playing Michael Myers in Halloween II and he was Kurt Russell's personal stunt double for over 25 years....
, Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
, Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
, Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer is an American film director and film producer. Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects, and is especially well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.-Early life:Singer was born in New...
, Greg Nicotero, Tom Savini
Tom Savini
Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...
, Eli Roth
Eli Roth
Eli Raphael Roth is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. He is known for his role as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds for which he won both a SAG Award and a BFCA Critic's Choice Award...
, M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
, Percy Rodriguez
Percy Rodriguez
Percy Rodriguez was a Canadian actor who appeared in many television shows and films from the 1950s to the 1980s...
(in what would be his final public appearance), and Paul McPhee
Paul McPhee
Paul McPhee is an American artist born and raised in Southern California, currently residing in Martha’s Vineyard Island. He grew up with a love for the sea. He started his art career with painting marine life art and has expanded his talents by creating designs of many genres...
.
Premiere
The Shark is Still Working made its world premiere May 2, 2009 at the Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
United Film Festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
.