6. Steven Spielberg Wasn't The Original Director
The original director, Dick Richards (
The Culpepper Cattle Company), was fired after meeting with the film producers and studio executives. In this meeting, Richards detailed his vision for an opening scene with the town of Amity in the background and the "giant whale" rising up out of the ocean. It wasn't the first time in this meeting that Richards referred to the shark as a whale. The producers and Benchley refused to work with someone who didn't know the difference between a whale and a shark. Richards was gone and Spielberg was in.
7. Hooper's Life Was Saved By a Real Great White
If you have read the novel, you know that Richard Dreyfuss' character Hooper was killed by the shark. Hooper's death was part of the original script for the movie. However, long delays in shooting with "Bruce", primarily due to mechanical failures, forced Spielberg to hire Ron and Valerie Taylor to shoot footage of real great whites off the coast of Australia. It was intended that an actor or a dummy in the shark cage would be filmed for Hooper's death scene. Sharks were enticed to attack the cage, but with little success. At one point, with the cage empty, a great white finally attacked and became entangled in the cage's cables. The ensuing footage of the empty cage being ripped to pieces was so outstanding that the plot was changed to allow Hooper to escape the cage during its destruction. Production executive Bill Gilmore said of the scene "The shark down in Australia rewrote the script and saved Dreyfuss' character."