Friday, August 08, 2008

Jaws 2: Afterword

Mrs. Taft: Good morning. Selling some more of the good life?
Ellen Brody: Oh, yeah... Piece of this, piece of that - it all adds up.
Betty Allen Archer has begun a terrific series in the Gulf Breeze News, looking back thirty years ago to the filming of "Jaws 2." It's well written, thoroughly documented, and a great read. Here's a small taste:
The making of 'Jaws2,' the movie sequel to the mega-hit 'Jaws,' might have been old-hat movie making to the professionals involved, but for the residents of Gulf Breeze and Navarre, it was a real happening.
* * *
So many local lives were affected. Area residents, including students from Gulf Breeze High School, were hired as extras. It was exciting as locals anticipated being seen worldwide on the silver screen.
We happened by these parts back then and recall seeing the cast gather daily along Navarre Beach over several days. The movie set was visible across the Gulf all the way from Ft. Walton Beach.

From there, it looked like a lot of fun. Maybe not so much for Roy Scheider, as it turns out.

IMDB reports that due to the Panhandle's notoriously fickle weather, "Many ocean scenes were actually shot in the Choctawhatchee Bay."

No matter. Follow the Gulf Breeze News series and see what happened when Hollywood touched the Emerald Coast. Part 2 is next week.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid, my dad worked for Phillip Kingry, who was the screen-credited "Marine Coordinator" on that film. I can remember fake rocks and foam pieces of shark lying around the garage for years!

muebles en madrid said...

This cannot succeed in reality, that is exactly what I suppose.