Almost half a century has elapsed – which is said to be soon – since the Steven Spielberg marked a before and after with that masterpiece titled ‘Jaws’; an impeccable feature film, no matter how you look at it, that transcended as the first blockbuster in the history of cinema and whose formula continues to be imitated today.
During these five decades, the string of impersonators of the classic has been large enough to be included within its own subgenre, known as “jawsploitation” —a mixture of the original title of the film, ‘Jaws’, and the term “exploitation”— and which, eventually, left the bottom of the sea to confront human sufferers with the most diverse creatures such as bears, dogs and even tomatoes.
But today we are not going to leave the aquatic environment to tell the peculiar story of how Hollywood’s King Midas himself managed to save one of the most famous seventies productions in terms of terror with angry animals and wanting to snack on people: the hilarious ‘Piranha’ by Joe Dantereleased in 1978 under the New World Pictures label.
Competition… unfair?
The premise of ‘Piranha’ did not exactly invent the wheel, practically copying what could be seen years before in ‘Jaws’, but changing the maritime setting for the fluvial one to face a suffering group of vacationers against the titular fish in a river. The key to his success lay in a much lighter, comical and self-aware toneand a dream team when looking back.
This was made up of the legendary producer and fundamental figure of series B Roger Corman —executive producer shielded by producer Jon Davison—, by the very young creator of special effects rob bottin —who would give his definitive blow on the table with ‘The Thing’ by John Carpenter—, by the Oscar-nominated screenwriter for ‘Lone Star’ and ‘Passion Fish’ john sayles and for a Joe Dante who was taking his first steps before signing jewels like ‘Howls’ or ‘Gremlins’. A dream team of, at that time, walking around the house, which ended up facing a rock and a hard place.
The reason was Universal’s decision to produce a sequel to ‘Jaws’ to take advantage, like Corman and company, of the triumph of the original film and gain traction with its slipstream. Thus, Jeannot Szwarc took over from Spielberg in the direction and led a production that set its release date in the summer of 1978 —specifically June 16—; two weeks before ‘Piranha’.
As expected, in the major they were not at all happy with the idea that what they considered a plagiarism of their latest pretty girl could eat their toast at the box office, if only for crumbs. To avoid this, at Universal they decided to call the men with the briefcases and ties and take legal action to completely paralyze the premiere of its competitor; But then an unexpected savior appeared.
steven to the rescue
This was none other than Steven Spielberg himself, who was among the audience at a screening of ‘Piranha’ prior to its release. The one in Ohio, as Dante himself recounted in the Gilbert Gottfried podcast, loved the film and stressed to Universal that it was viewed more as a parody than a copy —in fact, he came to describe it as “the best of the rip offs from ‘Jaws'”—words more than enough for the studio to call a retreat with its plan to sue New World.
The story ended in a happy ending for everyone. On the one hand, Universal started the journey of ‘Jaws 2’ with an opening weekend of almost 10 million dollars and closed its first run through theaters with 77 million in pocket —later, with reruns and the contribution of the international market, the film would reap a total of 187 million dollars.
On the other hand, it is estimated that the benefits of ‘Piranha’ were close to 16 million dollars from an investment of slightly more than half a million. A round play that, in addition, spawned an amazing franchise which was revitalized in 2010 with the hilarious and wild ‘Piranha 3D’ directed by Alexandre Aja.
And as far as Joe Dante and Steven Spielberg are concerned, it seems that their taste for aquatic animals meant the beginning of a prolific and long friendship that took its next cinematographic step in 1983when they collaborated with John Landis in the notable —and controversial for irrelevant issues— ‘In the limits of reality’.
Another day we will talk about the chaos of ‘Piranha 2′, its directors’ dance and the mess that a James Cameron who debuted in directing with the wrong foot…