JAWS 2 FAQ

Are there any JAWS 2 alternate versions/lost scenes?

Yes. There's five scenes added to the television version:

Ellen, adding wine to the fruit punch, and tells the waitress to smile and look cute.
Brody, given Peterson a parking ticket because, he was parking at a "No Parking" zone.
The Council argues about the incident at the beach.
The Council goes into Mayor Vaughn's office to take a vote to fire Brody.
The shark attacks the helicopter pilot, after capsizing it underwater.

Was Steven Spielberg involved with JAWS 2?

No, he was approached to do it but he was busy making Close Encounters of the Third Kind (as was Richard Dreyfuss, who was also asked to return).

NEW 5/23/01 -- in the JAWS 2 DVD documentary, the producers claim that Spielberg was approached after original directory John Hancock was fired. Spielberg would return to direct JAWS 2 only if Richard Dreyfuss would return and he could scrap everything start from scratch. Needless to say, the producers didn't want that to happen ...

Who ended up directing JAWS 2?

JAWS 2 was originally slated to be directed by John Hancock, with a script written by Dorothy Tristan, who happened to be his wife. The novel, JAWS 2 by Hank Searls, is based more on Tristan's script, with the major subplot of the Mafia moving in with Mayor Vaughn to sell the seaside property. For whatever reason, producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown were unhappy with the way the film was progressing and fired Hancock. Hancock reportedly wanted to make it more of a "people" film, and not concentrate as much on the shark! Of course, Hancock's wife went with him, and refused to cooperate on any rewrites of the film. Hancock was replaced by Jeannot Szwarc.

Why did Roy Scheider appear in JAWS 2?

According to Michael Smith, president of the Roy Scheider fan club and an extra in JAWS 2:

"Roy Scheider signed a three-picture deal with Universal after JAWS. His first role was to reunite with William Friedkin to do Sorcerer (1977) (which was co-produced by Paramount). His second role was to be 'Michael' in The Deer Hunter (1978), a part that was eventually played by Robert DeNiro. Two weeks into production, Roy got the finished script and disagreed with the ending ('Michael' goes back to Vietnam to find his buddy Nick, only to watch him kill himself in the final Russian Roulette game). Roy reasoned that this guy would not go half way around the world to find his friend, only to have him kill himself. Well, the good old 'creative differences' had reared their ugly head, and Roy walked."

"Universal offered to forget about his quitting The Deer Hunter if Roy would agree to do JAWS 2. They also offered to count JAWS 2 as two films, so that he would be out of his contract with Universal after the film was completed. Although both Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss wanted to be part of the JAWS sequel, the delays in Alabama on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) kept them both out of the production. Universal had already promised a June 16, 1978 opening to theatre owners in early 1977! In fact, I remember getting the teaser poster (the shark fin sillouetted against the sunset, with the tag line 'Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water ...') a few weeks before JAWS 2 began filming in Florida."

"Needless to say, Roy took Universal's offer, got his suntan, and spent Christmas Eve frying the shark. I spoke to him on the phone right before he left for NYC that night, and he was glad the whole experience was over. I have to commend him on the fact that even though the entire focus of the film changed (firing the original director, whose wife had written the script, etc.) Roy gave his all, and still speaks well of his experience."

(Special thanks to Michael for this information!)