The One Person That Saved Steven Spielberg From Being Fired As Jaws' Director
Steven Spielberg's breakthrough movie, famously, did not come easy. In 1974, the up-and-coming filmmaker — then in his twenties — took on the difficult task of adapting a brand new, super-successful novel into what would become the first summer blockbuster, overseeing complex action sequences, massive practical effects set-ups, and shoots in the open ocean. It was a challenge that the filmmaker was hesitant to take on in the first place, and Spielberg eventually ended up over budget and over schedule.
As a product of movie-making titan Universal Pictures, it would've been easy for executives to simply replace Spielberg with another filmmaker. According to the director himself, though, one exec vouched for him, and it was a decision that impacted the rest of his career. Entertainment Weekly once asked Spielberg why he was never fired from "Jaws," and he replied: "Sid Sheinberg always blocked it." As the then-president of Universal, Sheinberg had final say in what happened to "Jaws," and given that his wife, Lorraine Gary, starred in the movie, he surely wanted it to succeed.
Sid Sheinberg saved the day
Sheinberg's confidence in "Jaws" went beyond simply wanting it to work, though. It was seen as a vote of confidence in Spielberg himself, and the two soon developed a fantastic working relationship that would result in movies like "Jurassic Park," "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," and "Schindler's List." According to the New York Times, Sheinberg oversaw the opening of Universal Studios Orlando, a theme park that incorporated some of Spielberg's most popular films into its very DNA. When Sheinberg died in 2019, Spielberg was bereft, and wrote a statement shared by Deadline that concluded with a heartfelt message:
"We were a team for 25 years and he was my dear friend for 50. I have no concept about how to accept that Sid is gone. For the rest of my life I will owe him more than I can express."
Back in the "Jaws" days, Spielberg says Sheinberg was a quiet force in his favor. "Every time there was an intention to replace me, Sid stepped in quietly behind the scenes and stopped it," he told EW in 2011. Spielberg said producers Dick Zanuck and David Brown were always warning him "that the other shoe was about to drop," but even then, it doesn't sound like there was strong contention between anyone involved. "They didn't warn me to threaten me or to intimidate me — they just said, 'Is there anything you can do with the script, with the schedule, to avert a shutdown?'" he recalled, noting that the problems arose from going off track after shooting all the parts of the film set on land, so he couldn't offer many changes.
The pair's partnership made cinematic history
"I didn't have anything to do, because I couldn't cut the script," Spielberg explained. "I couldn't cut the third act out of 'Jaws'! I had to just keep moving forward, and the schedule was dictated by the mechanical shark and by the weather conditions." The director conceded that his team's choice to shoot on the ocean rather than in a tank was "hubris," but he also still maintained in the EW interview that, "had we shot in the tank, I don't think 'Jaws' would have been very successful because it would look really phony." Despite having "picked the worst place in the world to shoot" and nearly getting fired more than once during production, Spielberg completed the version of "Jaws" he wanted to make.
It was also, obviously, the version the world wanted to see. Accounting for re-releases, the film has grossed nearly half a billion dollars worldwide, and that's before accounting for inflation. The film garnered three sequels that all turned a profit, and jump-started one of the most fruitful cinematic partnerships of all time. Sheinberg wasn't always known for showing unwavering support of artistic endeavors — he got in a high profile beef with Terry Gilliam over "Brazil," and was at the center of a lawsuit against "Donkey Kong" — but he is remembered as one of Spielberg's earliest and most consistent mentors. According to his NYT obituary, Sheinberg gave Spielberg his first jobs in TV, set the budget for "Jaws," and once told the beginning filmmaker: "A lot of people will stick with you in success. I'll stick with you in failure." Luckily, aside from the "Jaws" shoot fiasco, Spielberg never found much failure to speak of.