Remakes and reboots. Love 'em or hate 'em, they keep coming. Popular flicks of yesteryear receive the redo treatment on a regular basis, modernized for contemporary audiences by studios hoping to capture their nostalgic imaginations along with their hard-earned cash. Although, not every box-office winner sits in that category – including Steven Spielberg's 1975 hit Jaws.
And, judging by this latest tidbit, that's not gonna change any time soon. In a recent report – announcing Spielberg's production company Amblin partnering with Netflix – the news resurfaced: "One area [Spielberg] will not revisit is Jaws. Deadline heard recently that Universal broached the subject to reboot Spielberg’s breakout classic, with Spielberg producing, and the answer was a firm no. Some at Universal and Amblin said this was already known and not a recent conversation."
The director's lack of enthusiasm for revisiting Jaws is long-standing. "I would never remake one of my own movies – starting with Jaws – but there are Amblin titles in the library that could inspire new stories that were made popular by the films," he told Deadline in 2015, confirming without a shadow of a doubt: "I would never remake Jaws," he said.
Interestingly, he also turned down offers to helm the sequels. Work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind took him out of the running for Jaws 2, but Universal held out hope he'd lens Jaws 3. An unpleasant experience shooting the first flick out on the water turned him off the idea, and it seems he's wielded his heft in the years since to prevent anyone else from revisiting Jaws, either.
Jaws defined the term "blockbuster", yet it managed to elude the reboot treatment for nearly 40 years. Spielberg isn't sworn off continuing franchises entirely, however. Indiana Jones 5 kicked off filming in the UK this month, with Harrison Ford back in the lead as the archaeologist explorer. Alas, Spielberg's taking a step away from directing to produce instead, handing the directorial reins to Logan's James Mangold.
Indiana Jones 5 is expected to arrive July 29, 2022. Until then, check out our guide to all of 2021's upcoming movie release dates to see what's on the big-screen horizon.
