10 Scrapped Horror Movie Sequels Much Better Than What We Got

JAWS is an idea that doesn't quite lend itself to sequels as ultimately any follow up would hit the same beats of that film. But with the amount of money it earned, Universal Studios would have been mad to not even attempt one, which they did three years later. And while 1978's JAWS 2 was also a success, the concept of a shark attacking a small island community was already stretched to its breaking point.

Realizing a third entry would have to be radically different, producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown attempted to find a way to keep the franchise fresh and after viewing the Paramount Pictures spoof Airplane!, the twosome believed they found the perfect way... turn the series into a comedy.

Together with founder of National Lampoon Matty Simmons, Zanuck and Brown hired John Hughes (Sixteen Candles, Vacation, The Breakfast Club) to take a stab at the screenplay. Now titled JAWS 3: People: 0, Hughes' plot followed a film crew shooting a new JAWS sequel (in which the shark is an alien) being stalked by an actual great white shark.

The script was filled with Scream type meta humor, with many jokes aimed at Hollywood itself and an opening scene in which Peter Benchley, writer of the novel JAWS, was attacked in his swimming pool by the shark.

This was the extent of the comedy. Sounds hysterical, doesn't it?

Even with Joe Dante (Gremlins, The ‘Burbs) in talks to direct there’s no way that this interesting idea for a film would’ve been anything but a JAWS: The Revenge type failure. But don’t take my word for it, you can suffer through the script yourself as it’s available on-line here.