'Jaws' Returns to Theaters For a Special 40th Anniversary Screening

It's hard to believe that it's been 40 years since Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the Peter Benchley novel, Jaws, instantly terrified all who waded into theaters.

Whether you consider Jaws a horror movie, a thriller, or a cautionary tale to never again go swimming in the ocean, it's made a lasting impact to this very day. As a little girl, I begged to see Jaws and to this day, it has affected my swimming habits. When I hear that iconic John Williams score, I get chills.

Now, on June 21, you can check it out the way it's meant to have been seen...on the big screen. In a select 500 theaters, special screenings of the film will be presented by Fathom Events, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), and Universal Pictures. According to Entertainment Weekly, "TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz will provide a special introduction for an afternoon and evening showing, as well as an encore presentation on June 24."

You can click here to see if a theater near you is participating and also, to purchase tickets in advance. Tickets are available starting on May 29.

Will you be getting your feet wet? And remember, most people get attacked by sharks in three feet of water about ten feet from the beach. Happy Summer! Oh and enjoy the original trailer embedded below...

-Larissa Mrykalo

'Jaws' behind the scenes pic

To celebrate the release of Jaws on Blu-ray, fellow Jaws junkie Eric (aka Quint) Vespe over at Ain't It Cool published this great shot as part of his Behind The Scenes Pic of the Day column. This is a photo I've seen before of Robert Shaw (the original Quint) lounging about between takes with Bruce the shark. Can you guess what scene they're shooting?

-Aaron Sagers

Jawsfest kickoff at Martha's Vineyard

Jawsfest is in full effect at Martha's Vineyard, where the film Jaws was shot in 1974. The festival, held Aug. 9-12, 2012, attracts fans from around the world to pay tribute to Steven Spielberg's movie - which happened to also be the first blockbuster.

According to a Universal Studios' press release, the festival also pays homage to the men and women of Jaws who have passed with a special focus on Peter Benchley, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw. The event also coincides with Universal Studios' 100th Anniversary celebration and the Aug. 14 release of Jaws on Blu-ray.

Check out this clip courtesy Universal from Jawsfest:

Shark Week episode guide

Air Jaws, courtesy Discovery

The best way to celebrate the 25th Shark Week is with education and preparation. So here is the episode guide for Shark Week 2012. Tune in or set those DVRs.

AIR JAWS APOCALYPSE
Sunday, Aug. 12, 9PM E/P

Picking up where 2011’s Emmy®-nominated Ultimate Air Jaws left off, photographer, author and shark expert Chris Fallows and legendary natural history producer Jeff Kurr embark on a quest to learn more about the great white sharks of Seal Island, South Africa – and one shark in particular. Colossus is a massive 14-foot great white that dominates all other sharks in the area. Kurr and his team push the envelope even further with a new camera specially designed for the shoot, new angles and new hair-raising encounters… even if it means risking their lives for the ultimate close-up with Colossus. And what they discover in this yearlong filming expedition is a true scientific breakthrough: dozens of great whites clustered in shallow water, feeding on smaller sharks and rays – with Colossus dominating the grounds and nearly eating the camera.

Shark Week: I believe in monsters

Air Jaws, courtesy Discovery

BY AARON SAGERS

I believe in monsters, and one bit me on the foot – a small one. I grew up on the beaches of Florida and was literally in over my head one day. It isn’t as if I was in that deep of water for an eight or nine year-old, but it was deep enough I was bouncing up and down, launching off the sand below, to keep popping my head up for air. Adults were all around me, but none of that mattered when I bounced down and something clamped on.

There was a tough, alien feeling below my feet immediately preceding the pain that sunk in. Right underneath the part of my brain that was processing that pain – a lot of it - was a thought of “shark, shark, shark!

This was happening probably two years before Discovery Channel launched Shark Week in 1988, more than a decade after Jaws made America afraid to go into the water – but still probably a year before Jaws 4 made it personal (and personally helped to ruin Michael Caine’s career for another decade).

A kid who wanted to be a marine biologist well into high school, and who attended “sea camp” with his eighth grade class, I have always been a bit of an ocean nerd, and specifically a shark nerd. And Shark Week, launching its twenty-fifth year on Aug. 12 on Discovery, has been one of my holidays. Referred to in my home as Sharkmas, Sharkmukkah and Shar-kwanzaa, it is a yearly celebration of Mother Nature’s ultimate predators.

Indiana Jones gets Blu-ray release date

courtesy Paramount Pictures

The end of Summer and beginning of Fall 2012 will henceforth be referred to as the Season of Spielberg.

Even though we've known the Indiana Jones series would be appearing in Blu-ray form for a few months now, it was announced by Paramount Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm that Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection would arrive Sept. 18 - and included a completely restored Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The Indy collection comes about a month after Jaws is released on Blu-ray on Aug. 14, and about a month before E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial hits in October (with the digitally erased guns back).

Now, watch the previously-released trailer for the Indiana Jones collection (along with trailers for Jaws and E.T.), and try to contain the goosebumps ... after the jump

- Aaron Sagers

‘Walking Dead’ man: Three days before Frank Darabont was fired

As good as Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic book zombie series has been, it was Frank Darabont who brought the show about living with the undead to life.

The mastermind behind The Mist and The Green Mile, The Walking Dead showrunner – who also directed the pilot episode of Dead – adapted the comics into a compelling drama that drew 5.3 million viewers for the premiere on AMC and grew into six million for the finale.

The Walking Dead brought zombies into a high quality class of entertainment, and when asked about why that is, producer and makeup effects master Greg Nicotero (of KNB EFX Group) said simply, “That’s because of Frank.”

Which is why it was so shocking when Darabont was replaced as showrunner on July 26 by AMC. The Hollywood Reporter writes Darabont was fired during a one-day visit by AMC execs to the Dead set. The firing was the latest in some very unpopular moves by the network of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, which has riled fans and Hollywood creators alike. There are currently a lot of rumblings within the Dead army about the future of the show.

But when ParanormalPopCulture.com spoke with Darabont and Nicotero about Season Two of The Walking Dead on July 23 at San Diego Comic-Con International, he didn’t seem to be aware of his fate. In fact, we found two guys enthusiastic about their new season who wanted to offer juicy tidbits and fun anecdotes about the show – including some info on zombie Easter Eggs that call out Jaws (Nicotero’s favorite movie), Evil Dead, Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks (from Mad Men) and others.

Check out the videos below, along with the Season Two trailer for Dead. And try not to get too depressed that Darabont (appearing in the right side of the frame, sometimes obscured by an Arrowhead water bottle) has exited from this great show.

The Walking Dead, Season Two, premieres Oct. 16 on AMC.

'Haunted' Thorpe Park hires ghost buster for new ride

So you're planning a new ride at perhaps the most popular theme park in the country (this particular country being England). It is going to be a doozy of a ride, a water one, in fact, with a 64-foot descent in a wild water raft that never stops spiralling all set in a themed New Hampshire town hit by a tidal wave.

Yup, the "Storm Surge" ride was going to be awesome - except for one problem: After all the planning that went into this ride, once work began, people started seeing ghosts hanging about, including one of a headless monk.

What do you do?

Well, according to The Press Association, if you're Thorpe Park in Surrey, England, you move the ride and hire a paranormal investigator to observe the ride's March 17 opening. After stories of paranormal sightings went public, the park hired ghost buster Jim Arnold to hang out at the opening and "monitor the situation for the next 12 months" over fears that the ride has disturbed ancient burial grounds.

"If the spirits are unhappy with anything, we should pick something up straight away," he says.

 Meanwhile, Mike Vallis, divisional director of Thorpe Park, tell The Press Association, "The interest as to whether we might have disturbed a paranormal element has been immense and advice from more than 30 paranormal mediums and religious members, who contacted the park, has been to bless the site, which we have done, for peace of mind of staff and customers."

Stealth coaster, also in 'Amity,'
photo by Neil Lewin

OK, so jokes about meddling kids and haunted amusement parks aside, this is an interesting news bit - and also potential publicity stunt.

While believers might find the activity conceivable at the construction site (built upon an old quarry), it also makes sense that a theme park may want to drum up attention in advance of their big season and much-hyped ride. Keep in mind this is the same Thorpe Park that comically banned roller coaster riders from raising their arms on hot days to stop the spread of body odor. The stinky ban was never enforced but resulted in a lot of press for the park, and was chalked up as a stunt.

So like the stinky ban, who is to say the haunted water ride isn't yet another P.R. move? After all, a quick visit to the Storm Surge Web site reveals the name for the drowned town is Amity, which makes us think of sharks and ghostly Amityvill-ians.  

Not to mention, the event was important enough to Thorpe Park to have their press relations team draft a press release on the matter (which follows) ... but we're still pulling for the headless monk.

The Thorpe Park press release:

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY PROMPTS THORPE PARK MANAGEMENT TO CALL IN FORENSIC EXPERTS AT NEW RIDE STORM SURGE 

Known for its heart racing, thrill chasing rides, THORPE PARK is well versed at dealing with the screams of terror and torment from its guests. But when employees at the nation’s Thrill Capital started to feel the fear around the development of new ride Storm Surge, management decided to take action with some dramatic conclusions. During its planning stages, the location of the new water ride due to open in March 2011, was set to be parallel to an area known as Monk’s Walk, an old footpath that has linked the ruins of Chertsey Abbey to Thorpe Church since AD666. Following an increase of employee reported ghostly sightings around the proposed site, including that of a headless monk, senior Park management decided to appease worries by consulting a registered paranormal detection agency with some worrying results. 

Mike Vallis, Divisional Director of THORPE PARK comments: “It became apparent that something strange was going on when teams started clearing Storm Surge’s initial site. Staff reports of eerie goings on in the Park shot up and the only physical change in the Park, at that time, was the beginning of ground preparation work for the new ride. As employees were getting freaked out, we decided to call on an expert to see whether there was anything to report but had no idea of the dramatic effects.” 

Following a management review of the report produced by South West London Paranormal, and consultation with them in November 2010, it was recommended a deeper investigation be carried out. 

Senior Paranormal expert of South West London Paranormal, Jim Arnold comments: “We carry out these kinds of investigations quite regularly, with medium to weak results being reported on a weekly basis. THORPE PARK however was more striking as results were picked up immediately, with orbs, ghostly images in photography and Ouija reaction results being strongest around the site where they were proposing to build Storm Surge. The results were so strong, we felt the only explanation could be that an ancient burial ground or settlement was being disturbed, prompting the extra paranormal activity.” 

Being one of the country’s tallest water rides, towering at 64 feet tall, Storm Surge’s foundations would have penetrated over fifteen metres deep disturbing anything in their path – something management were keen to avoid as stone coffins have previously been excavated from areas nearby. Fearing groundwork teams for the new ride may end up disturbing an ancient settlement or burial ground, and keen to hit the Storm Surge opening date of 17th March 2011, management took the unprecedented decision to immediately relocate the ride to another area of the Park and call in a forensic team to investigate. Forensic Geophysicist and research fellow Peter Masters of Cranfield University has since been called in to analyse the site, using deep ground radar, to decide whether the paranormal claims could be with merit. 

Peter Masters comments: “From the preliminary investigations we have picked up signatures similar to that of a burial ground – possibly ancient. Although this could simply be an old building, with THORPE PARK’s history, the investigation is definitely worth continuing.” 

The forensic investigation will continue until March 2011, by which point Storm Surge, in its new location, will be open to the public. As a matter of precaution, THORPE PARK management has also enlisted the help of Reverend Tim Hillier (Rural Dean of Runnymede) and Fr. Damian Miles (Vicar of Thorpe) to bless the areas involved. This includes Storm Surge to ensure customers aren’t scared away by haunting tales of terror or idle paranormal gossip. Mike Vallis, 

Divisional Director of THORPE PARK comments: “It has definitely been a rollercoaster few months. It was a huge decision for us to relocate Storm Surge, however the potential of us disturbing anything, be it paranormal or otherwise, is definitely not something we wanted to do. That and the fact that we want to ensure our employees carry 100% peace of mind whilst working.”

The Night Shift: Skeleton back into the closet

The Night Shift is the production diary of Fighting Owl Film's new independent supernatural-adventure-comedy of the same name currently in "post" in Mobile, AL. Over the course of the next several weeks and months, you'll get an insider's peek at what it's like for filmmakers to craft a new entry of paranormal pop culture from Erin Lilley, a producer and actress on the film.
 

Skeleton Back Into The Closet

 

Tonight, Herbie finds his voice. Soren is recording it as I type. For those who haven't seen the short film, Herbie is a limbless skeleton torso and snappily dressed man about town. He's also our main character's best friend, Jimminy Cricket-esque voice of reason and without argument, the most popular character from the short. He's also a plastic animatronic.

In theory (don't you just love when things start off that way?), one person would work the remote control to turn Herbie's neck, and the voice actor would speak the lines into a microphone. The voice would activate Herb's robotic jaw, and would also emit from a speaker in the skull so his scene partner could hear the lines. Any lines not picked up by the overhead boom mic could later be dubbed in, but we hoped to not have too many of those. In theory.  

Herb's what we liked to refer to as "our Bruce." You know, the shark from Jaws? In our case, instead of, "The shark is not working!" blaring over the megaphone, we heard, "The skull is not working...again!!"

The Night Shift: Undead laundry & police intervention

The Night Shift is the on-set diary of Fighting Owl Film's new independent supernatural-adventure-comedy of the same name currently in pre-production in Mobile, AL. Over the course of the next several weeks and months, you'll get an insider's peek at what it's like for filmmakers to craft a new entry of paranormal pop culture from Erin Lilley, a producer and actress on the film.

Undead Laundry & Police Intervention

I have seen the world post-zombie apocalypse, and it's going to require a lot of detergent. I just went through my fourth bottle of stain stick, and need to buy a fifth and probably sixth, tonight. I'm also about halfway through a bag of something called Power Booster that sounds like a whole lot more fun than it really is.

We finished up filming with the undead extras on Wednesday, and as soon as Thomas yelled, "Cut!" I was attacked and completely surrounded by about 20 half-dressed zombies, all eager to get home at a reasonable hour, and all trying to throw their costumes and prosthetics on top of me. I actually had to yell, "I have two hands and they're both full! Follow me to my car!" and lead the pack of flesh-eaters back to my little Nissan so I could at least have a light to see by and a couple of garbage bags for the laundry.

When I opened the bags the next day ... oh, the horror. I honestly think this was the scariest part of working with zombies. The clothes were hot from being in the car, wet with sweat, and there was actual condensation on the insides of the bags. I really can't begin to describe it. Just, if you ever find yourself working with costumes in a tropical climate, never, never, never leave anything worn in a plastic bag in your trunk. You won't like what you find.

I sorted out the sweaty piles of reds, darks, lights and hand-washables, and got to work trying to get out the make-up stains. Now you may ask, "Why bother? Can't you just toss them in the trash or donate them somewhere?" I know that was my inclination when I opened the first bag.

Actually, my first thought was more along the lines of lighter fluid and a match, but I digress.

See, not all of the costumes are ours. Two costumes were borrowed, and the rest could be donated (for a lovely tax credit), but nowhere around here will take clothing that's in that bad shape. Plus, a few costumes were fairly elaborate, and are marked to be resold on ebay. With all that in mind, I set to work with the stain stick. 

It's been five days, but I've made it through the lights and darks, and can happily report that about 99% of the make-up has come out. Of course, we still have costumes yet to be returned.  To paraphrase Sheriff Brody, we're going to need a bigger washer.

On a completely unrelated note, it seems I'm married to a chainsaw-wielding maniac. Well, according to one person who called the cops on us, anyway. It seems Thomas and our DP, Soren, were carrying props from Thomas' car to our wooded location on the local college's ROTC trail. One of the props was a plastic axe, and Thomas had it over his shoulder. The two were the first on set, so they took their time and, more or less, mosied around the trail. Someone drove past, saw the axe, and called the campus police to report a crazed maniac with a chainsaw.

Obviously, the caller needed an educational trip to the hardware store.

Campus police knew we were filming and figured it was us (we've had a contract with the school for ages), but came out anyway and had a good chuckle. Couldn't have been nicer.

Then Saturday night, at the smaller of our cemetery locations, someone called the cops on us - again. We're not entirely sure what the complaint was, but as soon as the city police arrived and saw the lights, camera and werewolf, they fell out laughing. They checked to make sure we had permission to be there (we did, of course) and told us to have fun making the movie. One even pulled out his phone to videotape some of the action. Again, they couldn't have been nicer. Of course, our lead was a wreck for a little while. He had a very realistic-looking revolver strapped to his leg the whole time. Whoops.

Next Week:  I honestly have no idea, but hopefully something that doesn't involve Power Booster or bail money.  One can hope. Until then, you can follow Fighting Owl Films on Facebook (and check out the new, improved logo shown here) or by going to the official movie site, www.thenightshiftmovie.com. You can keep up with the movie's progress on Twitter at @NightShiftMovie.

The first bite: Official 'Piranha 3-D' trailer

I love Joe Dante's original 1978 Piranha. It was camp-tastic and managed to be gory while spoofing Jaws. Plus, it introduced the world to the genius of Operation: Razorteeth - which I still think could've been a viable national defense strategy (look it up).

Anyhow, everything I've been hearing about the new Piranha 3-D is encouraging, and the trailer (after the jump) lives up to my expectations so far. Aside from the swarms of cryptozoological chomping fish, the Aug. 27 release appears to have nothing to do with the original, but director Alexandre Aja (along with a cast that includes Adam Scott, Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell and Ving Rhames) seems to be honoring the original by restarting the franchise with a maximum overdrive bloody carnage proud B-grade flick that unleashes hungry buggers on a debauched, drunken Spring Break.

Aja promised MTV the movie would have "3-D double-D boobs" and a wet T-shirt contest climax (hosted by Eli Roth) with thousands of spring breakers on the water "when the piranhas come and start attacking everyone; it’s almost 25 minutes of a huge massacre, and it’s really insane."

As if that's not encouraging enough, comic actor Adam Scott revealed this to the Onion A.V. Club:

Apparently it’s the bloodiest movie in history, which is easy to believe, because at the lake we were shooting at, they had a tanker truck filled with fake blood that would just pump into the lake continually during this one massacre scene ... from what I’ve seen, it has a sense of humor about itself, and it’s also really scary and really, really violent. I would call it a popcorn movie from the planet Popcorn. It’s just all boobs, blood, and—I don’t know, what’s the other ‘b’? Barbecue.

Add to all that a supporting cast with Christopher "Doc Brown" Lloyd and Richard Dreyfuss (in an homage to his Matt Hooper Jaws character), and suddenly Piranha 3-D is a summer movie I'm eagerly anticipating because, let's face it, any flick that combines rampant coed nudity and gore is my particular bucket of cinematic chum.

Both the 1978 and 2010 trailers are embedded for your enjoyment ...