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Steven Spielberg has delivered some impeccable Hollywood projects that continue to serve as a great inspiration for filmmakers. However, many often forgetthat the directorhimself was a newbie once upon a time,justlike any other in the industry. Despite facing challenges, he created a masterpiece likeJaws(his second feature film), which was a complete nightmare to shoot.
Nevertheless, itended up cementingits place in the cinematic world and heavily inspired M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter inthemakingofher new horror project,The Watcher,starring Dakota Fanning.
M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Credits Steven Spielberg’sJawsas Inspiration forThe Watcher
M. Night Shyamalan’s daughtermakes her directorial debut withThe Watcher,based on the novel of the same name by A. M. Shine.The movie revolves around 28-year-old artist Mina (Dakota Fanning)whogetsstranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. Seeking shelter, she unknowingly gets trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
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Given that the movie heavily showcases the presence of mysterious creatures, it relies more on feeling the tension rather than watching them on-screen.
Reflecting on the same,Ishana Night Shyamalantalks withJake Hamiltonto reveal that Steven Spielberg’sJaws“waskind ofthe heavy inspiration”for her directorial debut.She shared her thoughts on whatmade her take inspirationfrom the 1975 movie.
For me, that’skind ofmasterful storytelling,kind ofdrawing out the fear. But yeah, it was very apparent to me at the beginning that thekindofmoment you show the thing, it becomes less scary.
For the unversed,the aquatic thrillerheavily relies on the suspense factor to keep the storyflowing,without revealing the creatures on the screen to a great extent.Shealso implemented the same technique in the 2024 movie assheadded,
SoIwanted to pull that as long as I could. And it wasvery mucha process of trial and error and kind of quite literally like moving around the pieces in the script and note card form and then doing the same thing in the edit and just feeling out where the movie wanted that kind ofbigmoment.
It’s quite interesting that the writer chose to draw inspiration from Spielberg’s renowned project, which faced significant production challenges. Although the pre-production saga also had its share of problems, the tumultuous production the movie went through makes it truly remarkable that it did end up being made.
JawsHad a Tumultous Production!
For the record, despite winning several accolades and critical praise, the movie was a complete nightmare to shoot. Several factors contributed to its disastrous shooting, including the production venue. Having no experience of working on a killer shark movie, Spielberg chose to film on the ocean. From bad weather to soaking wet cameras, the decision just delayed the production comprehensively.
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Another reason was the shark itself, which was technical, creating several problems when taken out to the water for a test run. Due to the technical challenges, he changed his approach to make the sharks unseen, creating suspense and horror for fans tovisualize the terrorthat was intended to stay hidden on the screen.
The change in approach led to unwanted challenges that ballooned the scheduled 55-day shoot into 159 days. Even the production budget further compounded the damage as the budget became $12 million, which was 300 percent over what the studios originally allocated, as perPBS.org.
Nonetheless, the movie surged past $483.6 million at the global box office (viaThe Numbers) and left an indelible mark on the cinematic world.
The Watchersis available in theatres whereasJawscan be streamed on Hulu.
Priya Sharma
Articles Published :1321
Priya Sharma, Senior Content Writer and Social Media Manager at FandomWire and Animated Times. Having graduated in Journalism and Mass Communication, she possesses extensive expertise in crafting engaging and informative content. She has written over 2000 articles across Animated Times and FandomWire on pop culture, showing her dedication to delivering diverse and trending content to readers across the world. Apart from pop culture, she is quite enthusiastic about the Hallyu culture and is exploring the world of anime, expanding the horizons of her knowledge.
