10 Directors Who Were Kicked Off A Movie

6. Dick Richards - Jaws

Richard Donner Superman
Universal Pictures

Jaws is one of the most iconic movies in Hollywood history. As well as launching one of the all-time great directorial careers, creating the 'high-concept' summer blockbuster and revolutionizing the way movies were marketed and released, it simply stands the test of time as a brilliant piece of filmmaking.

History could have turned out so very differently, if original director Dick Richards hadn't been fired. Allegedly, producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown grew so annoyed by Richards' habit of referring to the shark as a whale that they got the sneaking suspicion that he wasn't the right man for the job and let him go.

Unproven 26 year-old Steven Spielberg lobbied hard for the job, and was eventually hired. What followed was an infamously tortured production that went $5m over budget and 100 days over schedule and somehow delivered one of the greatest movies ever made.

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