A movie site, Filmrot.com, has been pursuing a story that Universal is mulling a low-budget, STDVD (straight to DVD) Jaws sequel entitled Jaws: The Rising. Supposedly a script has been written, and given a gloss or rewrite by another guy. This could be anything from a fact to a hoax (the Filmrot guy notes he’s since gotten a copy of the ‘script,’ which he describes as “worryingly slim,” which to me sounds more like a proposal than an actual screenplay).
Still, the plot synopsis, which continues the truly retarded tendency of the series to keep the Brody family involved in the proceedings (for no real reason), and which actually follow-ups after the infamous bomb Jaws: The Revenge, sounds exactly, and depressingly, like what you’d expect:
“When his mother, Ellen, and her second husband, Hoagie Newcombe, are killed in a car accident on Amity Island, respected marine biologist Michael Brody returns to the island of his childhood, with his wife Carla and teenage daughter Thea, to tie up her affairs. As the summer weeks go by and tourist season kicks in, Michael decides to keep his family there for one last summer in his ‘family home’, giving young Thea the chance to make friends and build a budding romance with Jason, the local teenage sailing champion. When an Amity surfing contest is disrupted by a shark attack Michael decides to take his family and flee the island once and for all. Disobeying her father’s orders Thea runs off and spends the night out on Jason’s boat. But, when a savage storm kicks in, Thea and Jason find themselves stranded at sea and a nearby oil tanker – and it’s crew – becomes crippled in the storm’s aftermath. A family of large Great White Sharks start to circle and attempt attacks, forcing Michael to team up with new Amity Chief of Police, Elgar Douglas, and local fisherman Lyle Buffet and attempt a rescue attempt.”
Note the multiple sharks, which allows for several shark blowing-up sequences (and suggests the film will emulate the moronic Deep Blue Sea as well as the latter Jaws movies). Of course, this all but confirms that the sharks will be entirely or all but entirely realized with CG.
Blech.
By the way, director Kevin Smith inquired about this with Universal’s top brass, and was told this is not happening. Maybe not, but if Rogue or Meg (should it actually get made) do much of anything at all, this has all the hallmarks of something that might get made. In any case, the idea is so entirely lame that it’s hard to believe it’s not somewhere in the pipeline, whether it ever sees the light of day or not.
