Is Spielberg Planning A Secret Jaws Reboot?

It's a strange thing about multi-millionaires with more money than they'll ever be able to spend. They usually seem to really want to have more money that they'll never be able to spend.

And the latest addition to the list comes in the form of Steven Spielberg. Fresh from the box office record-destroying success of Jurassic World, it seems the super-director is splitting his DreamWorks company from Disney, in order to join up with Universal, who he worked with on the recent dinosaur film - and they could be rebooting both Jaws and Back To The Future.

It's rumoured that the last film to be distributed with Disney will be the adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic The BFG in July next year at which point a new deal will be signed with Universal - and seemingly both parties are keen on revisiting old franchises in order to rake in more of the money that Jurassic World has made.

TheHollywood Reporter writes that, "Spielberg, 68, who was a hands-on executive producer on Universal’s Jurassic World, is essential to future dinosaur movies (the next already is dated for June 2018) as well as associated theme-park attractions. Sources say Spielberg commanded his rich director’s fee for Jurassic World — a percentage of profit worth tens of millions of dollars — from which he then paid helmer Colin Trevorrow. He also is key on potential reboots of other Universal franchises such as Jaws and Back to the Future. Universal declined to comment, as did DreamWorks."

The original Jaws film came out back in 1975, spawning three sequels of diminishing returns, in a manner similar to Jurassic Park. Back To The Future meanwhile, is widely hailed as one of the greatest movie trilogies ever made, with its three films being released in 1985, 1989 and 1990.

However, the original director (Spielberg executive produced) of BTTF Robert Zemeckis has already said that a reboot would happen "over my dead body" - with his co-writer, and fellow rights holder Bob Gale seemingly in agreement. The contracts that they both signed with Universal and Amblin Entertainment in 1984 apparently preclude the production of any BTTF-related films without their approval - as long as they are both alive.

So we can guarantee that either Universal have already hired a crack team of lawyers to see if there's a way out, or Gale and Zemeckis should be wary of any suspicious sounds in the middle of the night from now on.

So Jaws looks the more likely of the two projects to actually happen. Would it be any good? Would it have the same shock factor as the original? Will they find a bigger boat? We shall soon see.

(Image: AllStar)