Steven Spielberg has been truly remarkable throughout his long career. While there have been quite not-so-notable movies, the director’s entire filmography is enough to make even the best of the best jealous. From kickstarting the Jurassic Park franchise to Indiana Jones, many of the brilliant iconic movies of today’s age have been the creation of Spielberg.
Having started his career with the then-one-of-a-kind movie, Jaws, the director has been adamant about not remaking any of his movies. Despite remaking one old classic from 1943, Spielberg has maintained he would not let anyone remake Jaws while he is still alive.
Steven Spielberg Won’t Let Jaws To Be Remade!
Creating Jaws was no easy feat, from schedule issues to going over budget, Steven Spielberg‘s initial run as a director of the ocean classic was no less than a disaster. However, all his efforts bore fruit when the movie went on to become one of the best movies of all time, grossing over $483 million worldwide (via The Numbers).
Now an iconic cult classic, the movie has inspired countless subsequent films and even led the way to many sequels. Although not one movie has managed to amaze and enthrall viewers the way Jaws did, there have been some calls for the movie to be remade given the extraordinary progress we have since made in technology and more.
However, Spielberg has been pretty firm on his opinion of never letting his legendary cult classic be made. In 2021, while revealing the partnership between Spielberg’s Amblin with Netflix, Deadline revealed how making a Jaws remake is something totally out of question for the Oscar-winning filmmaker. Even when offered by Universal to produce such a remake, Spielberg has remained firm on his decision.
While having Jaws remade is sure to turn into a disaster, Spielberg’s persistence is quite shocking given how the filmmaker himself made a remake of an old classic. Back in 1989, the filmmaker made a remake of 1943’s A Guy Named Joe called Always. Moreover, Spielberg’s West Side Story from 2021 is also an adaptation of a stage musical from 1957 of the same name, and a 1961 film.
It is, thus, ironic that Spielberg would make not one, but two remakes, and yet wouldn’t let his $483 million movie be remade!
Steven Spielberg Later Regretted Not Being Involved in the Jaws Franchise
Steven Spielberg’s Jaws might not have been remade and potentially will not be as long as Spielberg is alive, the movie did spawn several sequels. Yet, none of the movies had the same charm as the original, mostly because the director refused to return for the subsequent sequels.
In an interview, Spielberg revealed how the studio had wanted him to return for Jaws 2 and Jaws 3, yet the director was done with the sea and the tumultuous time he had spent upon the mercy of Mother Nature while shooting his iconic film.
I was done, I was done with the ocean… I would have absolutely jumped at the chance to own the sequel because I knew that when I was walking away from the sequel I was walking away from a huge piece of my life that I had helped to create, but it wasn’t a hard decision to walk way from it. I just could not imagine going back out to the ocean and sitting in a boat for 9 months.
Spielberg had remarked once while talking to Ain’t It Cool News. Yet, he added how regretful he feels to have let the franchise go.
I was happy and relieved not to have made the movie, but also I wasn’t happy with the sequel and I realized I had let a franchise go that I could have made a good contribution to.
Further remarking how he has an idea of what his own Jaws sequel would look like. We hope we might get a Jaws sequel from the auteur himself, instead of a remake that might jeopardize the legacy of Spielberg’s work and the legacy of the first film.
Jaws can be streamed on Netflix, while Always can be rented on Amazon Prime.
