Dreyfuss was not saddled to this sequel as Scheider was, and he certainly didn't need to reprise his role; he had become an in-demand star and was busy leading other films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Goodbye Girl, in which he won a Best Actor Oscar.
“I would have done the sequel if I hadn't had such a horrible time at sea on the first film,” he claimed. It transpires that Roy Scheider also voiced doubts about Jaws 2. Like Spielberg, he argued that a sequel could add nothing to the story, and the scary shark premise would tire rapidly.
Richard Dreyfuss didn't really want a part in "Jaws" at first. He was convinced that his latest picture, "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," would be a big success, and turned Spielberg down for the role of Matt Hooper.
Richard Dreyfuss has shared a rare post to explain why he initially turned down Jaws. The actor appeared in the 1975 blockbuster alongside Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw.
Richard Dreyfuss Tells a Hilarious Story About the Filming of "Jaws"
Why didn t Robert Shaw like Richard Dreyfuss?
In footage used in Jaws: The Inside Story, the late actor recalled, "[Shaw] really thought Dreyfuss needed a slapping down, [that he was a] young punk with no stage experience." He continued, "Shaw would say, 'Look at you, Dreyfuss. You eat and you drink and you're fat and you're sloppy. At your age, that's criminal.
“I truly, and to this day, regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film. I really, truly regret that,” Spielberg said during an interview on the BBC's “Desert Island Discs.
Roy Scheider, who played Police Chief Brody in the first two had no interest in a third Jaws, saying “Mephistopheles … couldn't talk me into doing [it].” Instead, Jaws 3 stars Dennis Quaid as Brody's grown-up son.
The original script actually had Hooper in the story. Once Dreyfuss passed the producers toyed with the idea of having another actor play the part. Eventually smarter heads prevailed, and it was decided that Matt Hooper would always be sailing.
Spielberg revealed to Entertainment Weekly that he suffered from PTSD from shooting the film thanks to the countless script changes and animatronic issues.
Former Police Chief Martin Brody died of a heart attack in the beginning of Jaws: The Revenge. He was not seen, but his death was revealed to the audience in the beginning.
When the shark attacks the man in the estuary, the man is barefoot. However, when the severed leg sinks to the bottom, there is a shoe on the foot. During the scene when Brody is typing up a report about the first shark attack victim, he spells "coroner", "corner".
The sequel is about a killer shark terrorizing Amity Island, a fictional seaside resort. Directed by Jeannot Szwarc and starring Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gray and released by Universal Studios. Much of Jaws II was filmed in Navarre Beach, Okaloosa Island and Destin.
Jaws 3, People Nothing would ultimately be canceled, with Universal instead deciding to make a more traditional sequel with 1983's Dennis Quaid-starring Jaws 3-D. "I think the project died because they just couldn't agree on what movie they were making," says Dante.
Obsessed to kill the shark, Quint accelerated the boat to full speed, looking to draw the shark, which was chasing them, into shallow water and drown it, ignoring Hooper's urges that doing so would blow out the boats engine with it damaged like it was. Inevitably, the engine exploded, immobilizing the boat.
As the famed director told Entertainment Weekly, "I would have done the sequel if I hadn't had such a horrible time at sea on the first film." This, coupled with the infamously temperamental mechanical shark and the movie's ever-increasing budget, seemed to turn Spielberg away from pursuing a second "Jaws" outing.
The events likely traumatised Brody, leading to a major fear of sharks and if another one appeared in Amity, the thought that it wanted revenge for the previous one would enter his mind. Hank Searls' novelization of Jaws 2 implies that the shark in Jaws 2 is actually the female mate of the shark in Jaws.
Chris Lowe, director of the shark lab at California State University at Long Beach, said the movie caused people to view sharks as malicious toward humans. “'Jaws' was kind of a turning point,” Lowe said. “It got people thinking very negatively about sharks, which just made it so much easier to overfish them.”
Who did the director originally want for Quint in Jaws?
Like a zealous sailor scouring the seas for the catch of a lifetime, the director hoped to net Academy Award-winner Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen) as Quint. The only problem? "He wasn't interested," Spielberg said. "What I heard was that he wanted to go fishing for real!
Sterling Hayden was the fist actor to be offered the role of the shark hunter seeking vengeance. Hayden was perhaps best known as the corrupt police captain in Francis Ford Copolla's The Godfather (1972). He'd turned it down due to tax reasons.
At the start of their journey, Quint criticized Matt Hooper for bringing his more advanced research and hunting equipment on his ship. He felt it was flashy and unnecessary because they were just going fishing. Quint also caught his own fair share of monsters and had no issues with his fishing pole and ship.
The debate over the shooting stars in Jaws continues, with some claiming they were real and others asserting they were CGI effects. Evidence suggests that the shooting stars were likely created through CGI, with visual effects artists analyzing the motion blur and lack of distortion.
Though the film takes place in the fictional town of Amity Island in New York, it was actually filmed throughout Martha's Vineyard, Mass. (Long Island was considered "too busy" — the filmmakers wanted an island that would feel eerily empty to filmgoers.)
