Steven Spielberg recently spoke at a preview for the upcoming Jaws: The Exhibition at the Academy Museum, reflecting on the trials and tribulations of making the film and expressing his gratitude for the career it helped spawn, Variety reports.
Released on June 20th, 1975, Jaws was adapted from the novel by Peter Benchley and would turn into a cultural phenomenon. Grossing over $260 million worldwide, it became the highest-grossing film at that time, propelling the then 28-year-old Spielberg to superstardom and helping transition the film industry from the New Hollywood movement to the current blockbuster era.
The water-based thriller also became known for its nightmarish production on the Atlantic Ocean, going 100 days over schedule and millions over budget. A fact the director discussed 50 years later at the Academy Museum:
I thought that was going to go swimmingly, and I had really no idea that the second you tempt Mother Nature and tempt fate, everything starts to conspire against you…Everybody was saying to me, ‘You are never going to get hired again.’
However, the director also commended how working with his cast and crew helped him see filming through to the end and the eventual success it would lead to:
The camaraderie that happens when you’re just trying to survive something, it brought all of us closer together…this was the ultimate example that when you work as a team, you can actually get the ball across the finish line…I’m very proud of the movie. The film certainly cost me a pound of flesh, but gave me a ton of career.
Spielberg went on to praise the Academy Museum’s Exhibition, which has over 200 items from the production, some from fans, including a full scale model of the shark, Spielberg’s annotated script, storyboards and original concept illustrations of the shark by production designer Joe Alves, composer John Williams’s sheet music, the original Jaws clapper board from Spielberg’s collection, the Panavision underwater camera, a shark cage, a costume worn by actor Roy Scheider, original shark design schematics by design engineer Frank Wurmser, a prop dorsal fin, rare behind-the-scenes images and merchandise, and visual displays.
Spielberg was particularly tickled that the collection included a buoy from the opening scene when the shark carries off its first victim:
I mean, why would anybody…know to take the buoy home and sit on it for 50 years?
Jaws: The Exhibition opens on Sunday, September 14, and runs through July 26, 2026.
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