Latest news with #Bouzereau
New York Post
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Jaws' doc director proclaims he never wants to see another sequel
He doesn't want any bigger boats. Laurent Bouzereau, director of the new National Geographic documentary 'Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story,' exclusively spoke to The Post about if he thinks there will be more sequels made to Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic. 'I hope not,' said Bouzereau, 63. 'You look at Mona Lisa and you go, 'Oh, will we ever see a copy of the same person seen by someone else?' I sure as hope not. So I apply the same thing to something as perfect as 'Jaws.'' 10 Laurent Bouzereau in his interview with The Post. New York Post Describing the iconic shark movie as 'a piece of art that stands the test of time,' Bouzereau said he thinks the film 'should be re-examined constantly or discovered even by new generations.' 'Which is in fact one of the goals of this documentary film is to get people to watch 'Jaws' again,' the French-American filmmaker added, 'or to watch it for the first time.' 10 A crew member works on the mechanical shark on the set of 'Jaws.' Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC 10 Steven Spielberg on the set of 'Jaws.' Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC 'Jaws,' based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel, was followed by three sequels that didn't involve Spielberg, 78, or Benchley. The new documentary gives a behind-the-scenes look at 'Jaws' with rare archival footage and interviews with conservationists and directors, including Spielberg himself. 'I was thrilled to be able to tell the story of a true masterpiece and a true auteur in Mr. Spielberg,' Bouzereau told The Post. 'And I found myself really rediscovering it in a way way that actually I had never suspected.' 10 Steven Spielberg and Laurent Bouzerea during an interview for 'Jaws @ 50.' National Geographic/Chris Johnson 'It is a love letter,' Bouzereau added about the doc, 'but I hope that it's also a very inspirational film for people who may never have seen 'Jaws,' because it's a story of persistence and perseverance and overcoming the odds and the triumph of the human spirit when you're faced with a situation like Steven was.' 10 Steven Spielberg on the set of 'Jaws.' Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC 10 Steven Spielberg on the set of 'Jaws.' Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC Bouzereau said it wasn't difficult to get famed directors James Cameron, J.J. Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, George Lucas, Jordan Peele, Robert Zemeckis and more to participate in the doc. 'People were really wanting to talk about 'Jaws.' The only thing that was in the way was my very, very fast production schedule,' he explained. 'Even though we didn't compromise over anything, those great directors are extremely busy and to match up with everybody's schedule is definitely a challenge.' 'However, the list was very carefully put together and had nothing to do really with the profile of the people as much as it had to do with what they represent in culture today and how great it is that from Jim Cameron to Guillermo del Toro to J.J., Jordan Peele, Bob Zemeckis, all of them own a part of 'Jaws' in a very unique and specific way,' Bouzereau added. 10 Laurent Bouzereau in his interview with The Post. New York Post 10 Steven Spielberg, Bill Butler, and crew on the set of 'Jaws' in 1974. Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC The filmmaker also spoke to how the success of 'Jaws' impacted the 'Star Wars' franchise, which debuted two years later. 'I think it does sort of continue what 'Jaws' has started as far as merchandising, for example,' said Bouzereau. 'I think there is a realization, although much more from George's point of view, because the studio didn't get the rights to all of the merchandising.' 10 People line up outside of the Rivoli Theater in New York City to see 'Jaws' in 1975. Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC 10 Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in 'Star Wars – A New Hope' (1977). ©Lucasfilm Ltd./courtesy Everett / Everett Collection 'So that realization that when a film has a cultural impact, like 'Jaws,' people want to own it, they want to wear it, they want to listen to it constantly. You are part of a movement of people who loved something and you want the world to know it,' he continued. 'And you want them to know that you're part of the culture and you belong in the 'Jaws' culture and you belong in the 'Star Wars' culture.' 'Jaws @ 50' premieres July 10 on National Geographic and will stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
Miami Herald
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Steven Spielberg shares ‘Jaws' nightmares in ‘Jaws @ 50' doc
LOS ANGELES, July 9 (UPI) -- Director Laurent Bouzerau says his documentary Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, premiering Thursday on National Geographic, gave director Steven Spielberg a chance to open up about his traumatic experiences making Jaws. Jaws was a famously troubled production, from mechanical shark malfunctions to weather delays filming at sea. For the documentary, Spielberg told Bouzereau about having nightmares about production even after the 1975 film became a blockbuster hit. In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Bouzerau discussed his approach to Spielberg, whose films he has documented throughout his own career. Bouzereau said the 50th anniversary of Jaws gave Spielberg new perspective on how the film forged his career. "Having had my own journey as a person for over 50 years now, we can all relate to things that can either make you or break you," Bouzereau said. "I certainly was surprised by the generosity that he offered by sharing those stories with me." Those stories included Spielberg hiding on the Orca -- the boat Brody (Roy Scheider), Hooper (Richard Dreyfus) and Quint (Robert Shaw) sail to hunt the shark -- when it was moved to the Universal backlot for the studio tour. "I feel also the 50 year perspective, after the career he's had, is very different from the way he's talked about Jaws before," Bouzereau said. "And not with the kind of heart and soul that I think he poured into this new documentary." Jaws @ 50 relates how Spielberg took a meeting at Universal Pictures after making The Sugarland Express for the studio. He gravitated towards Peter Benchley's book Jaws, which inspired the film, in galley form before it was published. Benchley's widow, Wendy, and their children are featured in the documentary. Wendy visited the production in Martha's Vineyard with Peter and recalls Peter trying to convince Spielberg to reduce the shark's length from 25 to a more realistic 15 feet. "Steven understood that if you were going to have a dramatic movie, you needed to have a shark that was big enough to swallow somebody whole," Wendy said. "So he had the right instincts for the movie and I think Peter had the right instincts for a book." Jaws is credited with starting the summer blockbuster. The film itself spawned three sequels, which Bouzerau decided were not part of Spielberg's story. "After Jaws, he was on the path of doing Close Encounters [of the Third Kind]," Bouzereau said. "I wanted to really end on the high note which is cinema has been changed and Jaws is a unique experience." Not that Bouzereau considers Jaws: The Revenge, the fourth film, a low point. He just felt it would be too convoluted to explain the sequels. "I'm not criticizing those films," he said. "I don't dislike Jaws 2. I saw it when it came out and I really like that director [Jeannot Szwarc] as well. He did a movie called Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve that was really good." The Benchleys never saw the three sequels either. "We were not involved at all with them so I have no opinion," Wendy said. "It's wonderful. Why not? But, from what I hear from people, the original is the best." Another perspective Bouzereau wanted to bring to Jaws @ 50 was the film's influence on subsequent generations of filmmakers. James Cameron, Steven Soderbergh, J.J. Abrams, Guillermo del Toro and Jordan Peele also share how Jaws influenced their craft. "Generationally. the film had been passed on from a certain type of director," Bouzeareau said. "When you talk to someone like Jordan Peele, who's clearly two generations away from Steven, the fact that he uses Jaws as an example of his type of storytelling is remarkable." The success of Jaws also led the Benchleys into careers in ocean conservation. Because the shark in Jaws was scary, it led to excessive hunting of sharks. Wendy's work with Environmental Defense Fun and Wild Aid has shown her that both protecting sharks and the ocean environments have led to improvements. "There are acres and acres of marine protected areas around the world now," she said. "If you leave the ocean alone, the coral will come back. The fish will come back. You will have much more biomass and those fish will be bigger and when they swim out, they can be caught for food." Cameron is also involved in ocean and shark conservation in addition to filmmaking. It was Bouzereau's goal to show that the legacy of Jaws is more than nostalgia. "All those cast members of my film were chosen very specifically to address a layer that I felt was needed to prove my point that Jaws is as useful as it was 50 years ago," he said. Jaws @ 50 premieres Thursday on National Geographic and will stream on Disney+ and Hulu Friday. 2025 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
UPI
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
Steven Spielberg shares 'Jaws' nightmares in 'Jaws @ 50' doc
1 of 5 | Steven Spielberg (L) sits down with Laurent Bouzereau in "Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story," premiering Thursday on National Geographic. Photo courtesy of National Geographic LOS ANGELES, July 9 (UPI) -- Director Laurent Bouzerau says his documentary Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, premiering Thursday on National Geographic, gave director Steven Spielberg a chance to open up about his traumatic experiences making Jaws. Jaws was a famously troubled production, from mechanical shark malfunctions to weather delays filming at sea. For the documentary, Spielberg told Bouzereau about having nightmares about production even after the 1975 film became a blockbuster hit. In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Bouzerau discussed his approach to Spielberg, whose films he has documented throughout his own career. Bouzereau said the 50th anniversary of Jaws gave Spielberg new perspective on how the film forged his career. "Having had my own journey as a person for over 50 years now, we can all relate to things that can either make you or break you," Bouzereau said. "I certainly was surprised by the generosity that he offered by sharing those stories with me." Those stories included Spielberg hiding on the Orca -- the boat Brody (Roy Scheider), Hooper (Richard Dreyfus) and Quint (Robert Shaw) sail to hunt the shark -- when it was moved to the Universal backlot for the studio tour. "I feel also the 50 year perspective, after the career he's had, is very different from the way he's talked about Jaws before," Bouzereau said. "And not with the kind of heart and soul that I think he poured into this new documentary." Jaws @ 50 relates how Spielberg took a meeting at Universal Pictures after making The Sugarland Express for the studio. He gravitated towards Peter Benchley's book Jaws, which inspired the film, in galley form before it was published. Benchley's widow, Wendy, and their children are featured in the documentary. Wendy visited the production in Martha's Vineyard with Peter and recalls Peter trying to convince Spielberg to reduce the shark's length from 25 to a more realistic 15 feet. "Steven understood that if you were going to have a dramatic movie, you needed to have a shark that was big enough to swallow somebody whole," Wendy said. "So he had the right instincts for the movie and I think Peter had the right instincts for a book." Jaws is credited with starting the summer blockbuster. The film itself spawned three sequels, which Bouzerau decided were not part of Spielberg's story. "After Jaws, he was on the path of doing Close Encounters [of the Third Kind]," Bouzereau said. "I wanted to really end on the high note which is cinema has been changed and Jaws is a unique experience." Not that Bouzereau considers Jaws: The Revenge, the fourth film, a low point. He just felt it would be too convoluted to explain the sequels. "I'm not criticizing those films," he said. "I don't dislike Jaws 2. I saw it when it came out and I really like that director [Jeannot Szwarc] as well. He did a movie called Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve that was really good." The Benchleys never saw the three sequels either. "We were not involved at all with them so I have no opinion," Wendy said. "It's wonderful. Why not? But, from what I hear from people, the original is the best." Another perspective Bouzereau wanted to bring to Jaws @ 50 was the film's influence on subsequent generations of filmmakers. James Cameron, Steven Soderbergh, J.J. Abrams, Guillermo del Toro and Jordan Peele also share how Jaws influenced their craft. "Generationally. the film had been passed on from a certain type of director," Bouzeareau said. "When you talk to someone like Jordan Peele, who's clearly two generations away from Steven, the fact that he uses Jaws as an example of his type of storytelling is remarkable." The success of Jaws also led the Benchleys into careers in ocean conservation. Because the shark in Jaws was scary, it led to excessive hunting of sharks. Wendy's work with Environmental Defense Fun and Wild Aid has shown her that both protecting sharks and the ocean environments have led to improvements. "There are acres and acres of marine protected areas around the world now," she said. "If you leave the ocean alone, the coral will come back. The fish will come back. You will have much more biomass and those fish will be bigger and when they swim out, they can be caught for food." Cameron is also involved in ocean and shark conservation in addition to filmmaking. It was Bouzereau's goal to show that the legacy of Jaws is more than nostalgia. "All those cast members of my film were chosen very specifically to address a layer that I felt was needed to prove my point that Jaws is as useful as it was 50 years ago," he said. Jaws @ 50 premieres Thursday on National Geographic and will stream on Disney+ and Hulu Friday.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Music by John Williams' Doc Director on How Spielberg Convinced the Legendary Composer to Do the Film
When it comes to film music, there is no name more recognizable than John Williams, known for scores to movies like Jaws, Star Wars, E.T., Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park in a career that has spanned seven decades. It's shocking, then, to know that there has been no documentary about his life and career until now. 'I have felt — as a filmmaker who loves to document people who inspire me, and who inspire people — that it was missing,' Music by John Williams director Laurent Bouzereau tells THR. 'I've known John 30 years, and there's not been a year where I've not said to him or to his representative or to Steven Spielberg, 'When are we going to do a doc on John?' ' More from The Hollywood Reporter How World-Building Took Over Television Chris Brown Freed on $6.7 Million Bail in Assault Case, U.K. Court Rules UMG to Move New York Offices in 2027 Turns out, all it took was a gala at The Kennedy Center celebrating Williams' 90th birthday to get the ball rolling. Bouzereau was tasked with interviewing directors who had worked with the legendary composer for a birthday greeting, but 'when I sat across all those people, they had incredible stories about John, and so I told Steven, 'We have to do this film. This is not a why. It's a why not.' ' Spielberg, with whom Bouzereau has a 30-year professional relationship, was the one who convinced Williams to do the documentary, although he was 'tentative' at first. 'I got a chance to talk to John directly, and he said, 'I don't really want to do this. I don't want to talk about myself.' And I said, 'John, it's not about you, it's about your music.' That reassured him, and by the end, he just couldn't get enough of us!' Bouzereau, who has made retrospective documentaries on Spielberg's Jaws and E.T., among others, knew that the anchor of the film would be Williams' relationship with Spielberg. 'Trying to find a point of entry in the film was very difficult, because when someone has lived close to a century and has been making music since he was 5 years old, where do you begin?' he says. 'So I thought, 'What is the one score that started him with us, the viewers and the audience?' And it was really Jaws.' The documentary takes audiences through Williams' prolific career and showcases how score elevates a scene — imagine, for example, the shark attacking from beneath without the synonymous 'bum-bum bum-bum.' To capture the composer's artistic impact, the film also features interviews with Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, George Lucas, Ron Howard and Coldplay's Chris Martin, among many more. The pressure to profile someone known to so many generations was 'gigantic,' says Bouzereau. 'I didn't want it to be a hit parade — I wanted to tell a story, and I wanted it to be inspiring to people, like how you fall in love with a craft and how you hold on to that dream. And even though John's is an incredible success story, he also acknowledges that he was at the right place at the right time.' This story first appeared in a May stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
