Jaws Doc in preparation for its 50th anniversary in 2025

The notoriously tumultuous story of the making of Steven Spielberg’s hit Jaws and Peter Benchley’s writing of its hit source material gets the documentary treatment.

On the 50th anniversary of the 1975 film, Nat Geo gave the green light Jaws @ 50 (working title), a feature-length documentary that will focus on both Spielberg’s film and the writing of Benchley’s best-selling horror novel. A summer 2025 release is planned on National Geographic and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

Laurent Bouzereau should direct. The filmmaker has just completed the non-fiction project Faye, centered on the career and legacy of Hollywood star Faye Dunaway. Bouzereau wrote the book Spielberg: the first ten yearswhere he spoke to Spielberg about the making of Jawsand he is also in production on a film about composer John Williams.

The documentary will include footage and photographs from Benchley and Spielberg’s archives, and will also examine how the blockbuster gave birth to a new generation of shark obsessives. The paper will be produced in collaboration with ocean conservation and marine policy advocate Wendy Benchley, Peter’s wife.

Spielberg’s Amblin Documentaries and Nedland Media are behind the documentary, which will be produced by Benchley and Laura A. Bowling. Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey of Amblin will executive produce, with Bouzereau and Markus Keith of Nedland Media and Ted Duvall of National Geographic.

“Jaws Peter Benchley’s novel and Steven Spielberg’s film defined both popular literature and cinema,” Frank and Falvey said. “The idea of ​​delving into the past, present and future heritage of Jawscombined with an insightful and inspiring discussion about sharks and the ocean in a documentary, is a unique opportunity to explore the perfect union between art and science.

The production Jaws was notoriously over budget and over schedule, as the 26-year-old Spielberg had to contend with a constantly malfunctioning shark and bad weather. The making-of story was the basis for a Broadway play The shark is brokenwho was already also on stage in the West End and was originally from Ian Shaw, the son of Jaws actor Robert Shaw.

“Be certain Jaws became a living nightmare, and not because I didn’t know what I was doing or because I was having trouble finding the movie in my head. I knew the film I wanted to make. I just couldn’t film the movie I had in mind as quickly as I wanted,” Spielberg told Bouzereau in Spielberg: the first ten yearss, taken from Vanity Fair. “The end never seemed to be in sight, and yet I was the only person who could reassure the crew that this would all end one day.”