Steven Spielberg's Jaws is considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time – and that fact is even easier to appreciate when you know about all of the troubles that were experienced by the production. Specifically, the mechanical shark used by the film, which was given the nickname "Bruce," was crazy unreliable and frequently broke down, leaving the crew struggling to figure out how to proceed.
The story is a classic piece of Hollywood history, and what makes it even better is that Bruce has now been restored, and he looks absolutely fantastic:
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be opening its doors in a few months – specifically in April – and this week movie fans got a sneak peek at what must surely be one of their coolest instillations. Apparently there has been an effort made recently to restore the mechanical shark from Jaws, and he is now going to live forever in the Los Angeles-based institution suspended from the ceiling.
This news is cool all by itself, but what makes it even better is the news of who it was that was put in charge of rebuilding Bruce and making him look as amazing as he does today. That honor was bestowed on Greg Nicotero, who is perhaps best known today for doing the special effects makeup on The Walking Dead, but has a legacy of work that includes awesome movies including Evil Dead II, Spawn, Sin City, The Mist, and many, many more.
In his own social media post unveiling the awesome Jaws shark at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Nicotero wrote,
Very proud to see our restoration of the last original casting of the shark from Jaws taking its place in the soon to be open Motion Picture Academy Museum. Truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and I couldn’t be more proud to know that for years to come people will be able to marvel at this amazing creation and pay tribute to every technician that worked on the film. Huge thanks to every at KNB for their dedication to this project and Steven, Joe Alves and Roy Arbogast.
This is a pretty amazing end to the story of Jaws' production when you think about it. Because the mechanical shark was so faulty, Steven Spielberg was limited in the amount of time he could spend shooting it, and as a result the creature is kept hidden for the majority of the movie. This ended up being a seriously great thing for the film, as it's an aspect of the filmmaking that builds phenomenal tension – but now all of the work that was done to try and get the monster built was even more worth it, as fans will be able to enjoy looking at the design for years to come in the museum.
Speaking of which, if you're looking at the picture above and thinking, "Wow, I really need to see that in person," you should mark your calendars. After years of work, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is set to open its doors on April 30, 2021. It will surely have more than a few surprises in store for movie fans, so be on the look out for more information about it as we get closer and closer to the date.
