Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton and Jeffrey Kramer. Newcomers include Joseph Mascolo, Collin Wilcox, Ann Dusenberry, Mark Gruner, Don Wilkes, Barry Coe, Marc Gilpin, Gary Springer, Gigi Vorgan, John Dukakis, David Elliott and Billy Van Zandt.
Jaws 2 is the ninth motion picture on the highly successful production slate of the Zanuck/Brown Company in an association with Universal that began in 1971. In addition to the epic "MacArthur," starring Gregory Peck, they have the Academy Award-winning "The Sting" and the critically-acclaimed "The Sugarland Express" among their credits. The Zanuck/Brown slate of future films includes "When Worlds Collide" - a joint venture between Universal and Paramount, written by Stirling Silliphant and based on an original story by Anthony Burgess - and a continuation of "Gone With the Wind," to be a major undertaking by Universal in association with MGM. Since his first directorial assignment for TV's "Ironside" series, Jaws 2 director Jeannot Szwarc has run up an impressive list of nearly 100 television credits, including several TV-movies, two shows for "Hallmark Hall of Fame" and episodes of such top-rated series as "Columbo," "Kojak," "Baretta," "Marcus Welby, M.D." Szwarc got his first feature film assignment from the late producer-director, William Castle. on "Bug."
Roy Scheider, the hero of "Jaws," reprises his role as the small-town police chief more concerned with saving his fellow towns-people's lives than their financial security. An Oscar nominee as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "The French Connection," he has since vaulted to stardom with his roles in "Sorcerer," "Marathon Man," "Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York" and "The Seven Ups."
Lorraine Gary also returns in Jaws 2 starring as an anxious mother and the patient wife of the Amity police chief. She followed her theatrical film debut in "Jaws" with a complete change of pace, starring in the comedy, "Car Wash."
A veteran performer familiar to most moviegoers and television watchers, Murray Hamilton again undertakes the role of Larry Vaughan, Amity's mayor. Among his motion picture credits are "The Way We Were," "The Graduate," "Casey's Shadow" and "Damnation Alley." Screenwriters Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler collaborated on a script packed with classic suspense, action and drama, Gottlieb co-authored the screenplay of the original "Jaws" with novelist Peter Benchley, He also wrote the Richard Pryor starrer, "Which Way Is Up? " His TV writing credits include "The Smothers Brothers Show," "The Odd Couple" and five Flip Wilson specials, He authored "Jaws Log." Playwright and screenplay writer Harold Sackler won a Pulitzer Prize for his Broadway hit, "The Great White Hope." He also co-wrote the Charlion Heston starrer for Universal, "Gray Lady Down."
Filmed entirely on location, Jaws 2 began production June 6 on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts. This was the same site previously used to depict the Long Island resort community of Amity, created by author Peter Benchly in his bestselling novel upon which "Jaws" was based. The next four months were spent at Navarre Beach, Florida, filming some of the most exciting, dramatic and technically-difficult boat and shark attack action ever conceived or attempted. Because of the extensive shooting which took place at sea, it was a prior requirement that many in the crew be licensed scuba divers. But even diving skill was sometimes not enough to combat surging tides, high surf, thick fog and strong winds - the usual conditions of ocean-bound photography,
Any weather obstacles that arose only compounded the difficulty in executing the immense number of special effects employed to sustain the film's excitement. These included explosions, boat burnings, capsizing and sinking and,of course, the incredible excitement of a giant shark attacking and being attacked.
"The ocean is a great humbler, I learned that while making the original 'Jaws' and during the shooting of 'Jaws 2' I found that it was doubly true." So notes Roy Scheider, starring with Lorraine Gary and Murray Hamilton in Jaws 2 a Richard D, Zanuck/David Brown Production for Universal, who is now an expert on the subject. During the filming of these two motion pictures, he logged several hundred hours at sea and so speaks from first-hand experience. "You're always contending with tides, surf and wind, for openers," says the rugged star. "Then, there are always the added entries. During the making of 'Jaws 2,' we had to deal with jellyfish, sharks, waterspouts and hurricane warnings, too," For those of us who are not familiar with the awesome effects of tide, surf and wind at sea, Scheider offers some examples. "The problems with surf are fairly obvious. If you're out there in small craft or on a 20-foot-square flat barge and there are waves ranging from six to 10 feet, everyone and everything gets bounced around like a jellybean in a cement mixer,"
Tides and wind created special problems during the making of Jaws 2 "When you're filming on water, every boat in the picture has to be anchored in place in its starting and finishing position in the shot," explains Scheider, "In this movie, we were constantly dealing with sailboats. So you spend four hours anchoring the 11 sailboats in position and, just when you're ready to shoot the wind changes, The sails are now blowing in the wrong direction and you have to start all over!" If it all sounds frustrating, that's because it was. Another constant battle fought during the production of Jaws 2 was against the unrelenting corrosive effect of salt water on everything metallic. "Obviously the major area in which this took its toll was on our special effects shark and its support equipment. Just think of the thousands of metal parts which were rusting away, freezing up or being eaten away by the continual exposure. And even when all this equipment was sitting on the beach, the corrosion continued, because the air was loaded with salt." Click here for more
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