Close Encounters Of The Third Kind's Script Featured A Scene Even Steven Spielberg Couldn't Pull Off
The pre-digital age of blockbuster filmmaking was a wonderland of handmade awe. Every astounding image you saw on a movie screen was tactile. Be it a mechanical shark, a model Ferris wheel rolling down the Santa Monica Pier, or a flying saucer crashing into the United States Capitol, you knew these were tangible creations placed in front of a camera. Though great filmmakers know how to dazzle us with the ones and zeroes of CGI, I far prefer the rough magic practiced by masters like Ray Harryhausen, Douglas Trumbull, and John Dykstra.
The practical visual effects revolution kicked off with Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," which flaunted mind-blowing outer space imagery from the legendary Trumbull. The next major leap came in 1977 when Dykstra invented motion control technology to thrust viewers into the nerve-frazzling trench run during the finale of "Star Wars." While moviegoers kept lining up to revisit that galaxy far,...
The practical visual effects revolution kicked off with Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," which flaunted mind-blowing outer space imagery from the legendary Trumbull. The next major leap came in 1977 when Dykstra invented motion control technology to thrust viewers into the nerve-frazzling trench run during the finale of "Star Wars." While moviegoers kept lining up to revisit that galaxy far,...
- 12/10/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
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Gregory Jein, the acclaimed model maker and artist who worked on eight Star Trek properties and earned Oscar nominations for Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941, has died. He was 76.
Jein died May 22 in his Los Angeles home after a long history of health issues that included a battle with diabetes, a family spokeswoman told The Hollywood Reporter. His family elected to keep his death quiet until this week, she added.
According to the website Memory Alpha, Jein began his association with Star Trek in 1977 by designing a Klingon battle cruiser for Star Trek: Phase II, which would have been the first live-action spinoff of NBC’s original Star Trek had it gone forward.
He collaborated with visual effects maestro Douglas Trumbull on Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), then followed with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country...
Gregory Jein, the acclaimed model maker and artist who worked on eight Star Trek properties and earned Oscar nominations for Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941, has died. He was 76.
Jein died May 22 in his Los Angeles home after a long history of health issues that included a battle with diabetes, a family spokeswoman told The Hollywood Reporter. His family elected to keep his death quiet until this week, she added.
According to the website Memory Alpha, Jein began his association with Star Trek in 1977 by designing a Klingon battle cruiser for Star Trek: Phase II, which would have been the first live-action spinoff of NBC’s original Star Trek had it gone forward.
He collaborated with visual effects maestro Douglas Trumbull on Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), then followed with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country...
- 6/29/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Bruce the Shark” installation at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, November 2020 – Credit: Photo by Todd Wawrychuk/©Academy Museum Foundation
Bruce The Shark moved into his new home this week.
Cue John Williams theme music.
In 2016, The Academy Museum announced that it had accepted into its collection a major gift of the sole surviving full-scale model of the 1975 Jaws shark, donated by Nathan Adlen. The monumental Fiberglas model is the fourth and final version made from the original mold. Created for display at the Universal Studios Hollywood at the time of the film’s release, the prop remained a popular backdrop for photos until 1990, when it was moved to the yard of Aadlen Brothers Auto Wrecking, a firm in Sun Valley, California, that regularly bought or hauled used vehicles from Universal Studios. With the business slated to close in January 2016, owner Nathan Adlen has made a generous...
Bruce The Shark moved into his new home this week.
Cue John Williams theme music.
In 2016, The Academy Museum announced that it had accepted into its collection a major gift of the sole surviving full-scale model of the 1975 Jaws shark, donated by Nathan Adlen. The monumental Fiberglas model is the fourth and final version made from the original mold. Created for display at the Universal Studios Hollywood at the time of the film’s release, the prop remained a popular backdrop for photos until 1990, when it was moved to the yard of Aadlen Brothers Auto Wrecking, a firm in Sun Valley, California, that regularly bought or hauled used vehicles from Universal Studios. With the business slated to close in January 2016, owner Nathan Adlen has made a generous...
- 11/25/2020
- by Michelle Hannett
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Bruuuuuuuuce! No, you aren’t listening to the chant of fans at a Springsteen concert. That cheer is for Bruce, the so nicknamed full-scale shark model from Jaws, the iconic 1975 film that continues to make beachgoers afraid to go into the water. Now they can also be afraid to visit the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which in 2016 acquired the fourth and final and only surviving version of the shark model derived from the original Jaws mold, and on Friday finished up on the weeklong installation at the much-delayed and eagerly awaited museum which is on track to finally open to the public on April 30, 2021.
The Jaws attraction is not only significant for the Academy and its new venture because of the fact the film won three Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture, but also as a bona fide superstar draw that is the...
The Jaws attraction is not only significant for the Academy and its new venture because of the fact the film won three Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture, but also as a bona fide superstar draw that is the...
- 11/23/2020
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
For the past quarter-century or so, the final remaining copy of the shark in “Jaws” has resided in an auto wrecking yard in Sun Valley, California. News broke yesterday that he’s moving on to a new home. Owner of the junkyard, Nathan Adlen, is donating the shark to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ museum. Now this shark model didn’t appear in the 1975 Steven Spielberg blockbuster (which, by the way, made it to the top 10 of HitFix’s Ultimate Horror Poll). But this shark survives as an important piece of cinema history since the three animatronic sharks used in the film have been destroyed. This fourth shark was cast from the same mold as the other three. (Joe Alves and Roy Arbogast, who designed and crafted the shark, confirmed that this junkyard shark is indeed the genuine fourth Bruce when they visited him for an NPR...
- 1/9/2016
- by Emily Rome
- Hitfix
The Academy Museum announced today that it has accepted into its collection a major gift of the sole surviving full-scale model of the 1975 Jaws shark, donated by Nathan Adlen. The monumental Fiberglas model is the fourth and final version made from the original mold. Created for display at the Universal Studios Hollywood at the time of the film’s release, the prop remained a popular backdrop for photos until 1990, when it was moved to the yard of Aadlen Brothers Auto Wrecking, a firm in Sun Valley, California, that regularly bought or hauled used vehicles from Universal Studios. With the business slated to close in January 2016, owner Nathan Adlen has made a generous gift of the historic prop to the Academy Museum.
The shark model will join the Museum’s unmatched holdings—including an underwater apparatus and fin used in Jaws and Jaws II—as the largest object to enter the Academy’s collection to date.
The shark model will join the Museum’s unmatched holdings—including an underwater apparatus and fin used in Jaws and Jaws II—as the largest object to enter the Academy’s collection to date.
- 1/7/2016
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Where is "Jaws" star Bruce the shark now? The answer is a little complicated. Fact: three animatronic sharks were created for the making of Steven Spielberg's 1975 horror classic, all of which have since been destroyed. But not so fast! One other "shark" was made from the same original mold created by production designer Joe Alves and Oscar-nominated special effects designer Roy Arbogast, and that one's still in existence. The location: the self-service yard at Aadlen Brothers Auto Wrecking in Sun Valley, California. While this fourth shark wasn't used in the film, it hung at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park from 1975 to 1990 before eventually landing at Aadlen Brothers. It's a little worse for wear -- or at least it was in 2010, when NPR reporter Cory Turner (who tracked it down for a story) described it this way: "Its skin was cracked; its color badly faded. Instead of rows of menacing teeth,...
- 6/17/2015
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
Arrow Video unveils one of the most impressive Blu-ray packages of 2015 with its remastered presentation of Brian Yuzna’s languished body horror classic Society. Completed in 1989, along with the writer/producer’s sophomore effort Bride of Re-Animator, his debut wouldn’t see theatrical release in the Us until 1992, several months after David Cronenberg unveiled similar monstrous sphincter designs in the celebrated Naked Lunch. Though it’s generated a loyal cult following, and was treated to a 2002 DVD release that’s long been out of print, Yuzna’s class conscious metaphor still manages to unsettle with its inspired gross-out spectacle, gifting audiences a finale every bit as memorable as Cronenberg’s early provocations.
Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) has never felt like he quite belongs to his upper class Beverly Hills family. His parents seem to have an unnervingly close relationship with his sister (Patrice Jennings) and they don’t really seem...
Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) has never felt like he quite belongs to his upper class Beverly Hills family. His parents seem to have an unnervingly close relationship with his sister (Patrice Jennings) and they don’t really seem...
- 6/9/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
An NPR reporter, Cory Turner, recently went on a journey to track down the mechanical shark used in Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" movie. Apparently three copies were created from the same mold and where named Bruce after Spielberg's lawyer Bruce Ramer. Spielberg's spokesman explained that all three sharks were destroyed immediately after filming, but Turner learned on Facebook that a fourth was created (from the same mold) for display at Universal Studios Theme Park. In 1990, the shark was taken down and shipped out to a junkyard in Southern California. The reporter tracked the junkyard down and brought Joe Alves and Roy Arbogast, who built the original shark, to verify its authenticity. "It's the real one. Definitely. It's from the same mold," said Arbogast after examining the creature. "It's just kinda' nice to see it again after 25 or 30 years. It's amazing that it's still here." The original shark was 25-feet long and weighed hundreds of pounds.
- 6/7/2010
- WorstPreviews.com
The mechanical shark which terrorised Richard Dreyfuss and the stars of Steven Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster Jaws has been found, ending a decades-long search for the beast.
The three shark models initially built for the film - all dubbed "Bruce" after Speilberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer - were said to have been destroyed after filming.
However, NPR reporter Cory Turner recently learned of the existence of a scaled-down fourth shark also made for the film. The smaller model was featured at Universal Studios Theme Park for 15 years, but was dumped in an unknown location after it was taken down from display in 1990.
It has finally been found by Turner at a junkyard in Los Angeles' Sun Valley area.
Roy Arbogast, a member of the special effects crew on Jaws, says, "It's the real one. It's just kinda nice to see it again after 25 or 30 years. It's amazing that it's still here."...
The three shark models initially built for the film - all dubbed "Bruce" after Speilberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer - were said to have been destroyed after filming.
However, NPR reporter Cory Turner recently learned of the existence of a scaled-down fourth shark also made for the film. The smaller model was featured at Universal Studios Theme Park for 15 years, but was dumped in an unknown location after it was taken down from display in 1990.
It has finally been found by Turner at a junkyard in Los Angeles' Sun Valley area.
Roy Arbogast, a member of the special effects crew on Jaws, says, "It's the real one. It's just kinda nice to see it again after 25 or 30 years. It's amazing that it's still here."...
- 6/7/2010
- WENN
It always blows my mind when a studio goes to great lengths to create props for a film only to disassemble or dispose of them once they're doing with production. I assume it happens less often these days given the prevalence of online prop auctions and charity donations, but as a film fan it just hurts me to know that some of the best props from some of our most iconic movie franchises have ended up in dumpsters simply because nobody could be bothered to keep them. Case in point, Bruce, the life-size shark model Steven Spielberg used in Jaws.
There were three original Bruces constructed for production, each weighing in at 400 pounds and measuring 25 feet in length, but after everything was wrapped all three were destroyed (perhaps out of revenge considering how famously difficult it was to get the mechanical killers of the sea to work properly once in the actual ocean). However,...
There were three original Bruces constructed for production, each weighing in at 400 pounds and measuring 25 feet in length, but after everything was wrapped all three were destroyed (perhaps out of revenge considering how famously difficult it was to get the mechanical killers of the sea to work properly once in the actual ocean). However,...
- 6/6/2010
- by Peter Hall
- Cinematical
The father of the modern blockbuster summer film — and one of the greatest movies of all time — Jaws, is coming up on its 35th Anniversary this summer. Released in North America on June 20, 1975, the film was nominated for Best Picture and ultimately won three Oscars for film editing, sound and original score. It also launched director Steven Spielberg on a Hollywood career trajectory unsurpassed to this day.
But it was Jaws' impact on moviegoers that was perhaps its most profound legacy. Peter Benchley's 1974 novel — upon which the film was based — terrorized readers on a primal level, leading sunbathers to fear going in the water lest they become a "hot lunch" for the oceans' most fearsome predator: the Great White Shark.
Spielberg thoroughly captured the visceral terror of the novel in his film through a combination of an intelligent and suspenseful screenplay from Carl Gottlieb, tremendous performances from a cadre of top-notch actors…...
But it was Jaws' impact on moviegoers that was perhaps its most profound legacy. Peter Benchley's 1974 novel — upon which the film was based — terrorized readers on a primal level, leading sunbathers to fear going in the water lest they become a "hot lunch" for the oceans' most fearsome predator: the Great White Shark.
Spielberg thoroughly captured the visceral terror of the novel in his film through a combination of an intelligent and suspenseful screenplay from Carl Gottlieb, tremendous performances from a cadre of top-notch actors…...
- 6/6/2010
- CinemaSpy
Now this is some exciting news for you special effects and Jaws junkies out in Bidite land. With the 35th anniversary of Steven Spielberg's classic blockbuster just around the corner, an NPR reporter set out to track down the mechanical beast that has been lost for so many years...
According to Yahoo! News, "Reporter and "Jaws"-enthusiast Cory Turner set out to track down Bruce's whereabouts, he went straight to the source -- the movie's director. A spokesman for Steven Spielberg explained that the original Bruces had all been destroyed, as no one had thought to save them.
But theories circulated on a Facebook page (Click Here) for the famous shark that another Bruce might be out there. After a little research, Turner discovered that a fourth shark had indeed been cast from the original mold, just months after its brothers were constructed. The baby of the Bruce family...
According to Yahoo! News, "Reporter and "Jaws"-enthusiast Cory Turner set out to track down Bruce's whereabouts, he went straight to the source -- the movie's director. A spokesman for Steven Spielberg explained that the original Bruces had all been destroyed, as no one had thought to save them.
But theories circulated on a Facebook page (Click Here) for the famous shark that another Bruce might be out there. After a little research, Turner discovered that a fourth shark had indeed been cast from the original mold, just months after its brothers were constructed. The baby of the Bruce family...
- 6/5/2010
- by admin
- Horrorbid
Anyone familiar with the making of Steven Spielberg's classic film Jaws will know that there were times when the making of the movie was a nightmare for everyone on set. In hindsight, though, it was definitely worth the trouble because of the influence the film has had and the devotion shown by its many fans.
None of those fans can be more devoted that the makers of The Shark is Still Working (Tsisw). Tsisw is an independently-made documentary that oozes adoration for Jaws. Nonetheless, it manages to be nautical miles better than many making-of features Hollywood puts out as glorified advertising for its products. It was produced by uber-Jaws fans James Gelet (Grizzly Park, The Marks of a Cult: A Biblical Analysis), Jake Gove (webmaster of JAWSmovie.com), J. Michael Roddy (The Psycho Legacy), and director and Jaws prop collector Erik Hollander (Grizzly Park). The appreciation these people...
None of those fans can be more devoted that the makers of The Shark is Still Working (Tsisw). Tsisw is an independently-made documentary that oozes adoration for Jaws. Nonetheless, it manages to be nautical miles better than many making-of features Hollywood puts out as glorified advertising for its products. It was produced by uber-Jaws fans James Gelet (Grizzly Park, The Marks of a Cult: A Biblical Analysis), Jake Gove (webmaster of JAWSmovie.com), J. Michael Roddy (The Psycho Legacy), and director and Jaws prop collector Erik Hollander (Grizzly Park). The appreciation these people...
- 4/28/2009
- CinemaSpy
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