Peter Benchley, author of Jaws, has passed away. I recall finding the hardcover novel in the mid-seventies and reading about halfway through it, enjoying the gory shark-bite descriptions and the sex. It wasn't until the movie premiered on cable TV that I finally got to see the rest of the story (albeit, typically, a slightly different story than the novel. In particular, Roy Scheider's Brody seemed much younger than the aging sheriff in the novel.)
The LA Times revealed that Benchley was originally going to call his first novel "Silence in the Water," which sounds like a bad Movie of the Week. He and his father tossed around 200 possible titles; one that gets mentioned is -- I kid you not -- "Wha's That Noshin' On My Laig.' "
3 comments:
Yes, Harry Meadows did not make the big screen. Jackie Gleason would have been perfect.
The movie also dropped the sub-plot with Brody's wife having an emotional affair with Hooper. Spielberg evidently didn't want a prominent female character in his male-bonding epic. But also, it would be harder to believe a woman being more attracted to a hairy (and probably fishy) Richard Dreyfuss than a still-young Scheider.
Yes, John Goodman could be Brody, Debra Winger could be the wife and then Lee Majors could be Hooper and then it would all work out.
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