What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is going in here? Havent been here in a while and it looks like you'ins have made yourself a new playground...anyhow, I came across this tidbit online and thought it might be of some interest here. I am a sucker for a shark movie and I actually saw this at the theater. It was awful, even seeing it again years later is is awful....not even a " so bad its good " type of movie..
"Though INGLORIOUS BASTARDS is suddenly a hot property again thanks to Quentin Tarantino, the opportunity to see GREAT WHITE in a U.S. theater would've easily been the highlight of the evening. This is, after all, the notorious JAWS knockoff against which Universal Pictures filed an injunction in the spring of 1982. Why? Well, Universal had their own JAWS knockoff in production for summer 1983: JAWS 3-D. And though these Italian-produced cash-ins were usually under-promoted grindhouse schlock, GREAT WHITE's distributor, Film Ventures International, was aggressively spending millions of dollars to sell the movie nationwide. When the picture opened to huge business on March 5, 1982, its fate was sealed: GREAT WHITE was deemed a threat to Universal's "original" killer shark franchise, and it went away for good.
That Universal would take such a hard-line against Castellari's movie now strikes me as overzealous; it's been viewable for free on the internet for years, and it's really only remembered by completist geeks like me (who'd just convinced their parents to take them to see the film on the very weekend it was banished from theaters). The DVD release of the movie might cause a smattering of hype, but it's not like there's an ongoing JAWS franchise to be damaged (although I'm constantly hearing rumors of a JAWS remake/reboot in development at Universal). Time to ease up on that injunction, Universal. In 2008, GREAT WHITE is, at most, a curio.
I recently exchanged emails with Severin's Carl Daft, and he gave me this update on The New Beverly flap and the possibility of GREAT WHITE ever receiving a commercial release in the United States:
The only contact with Universal came from The New Beverly Cinema and they received a letter back citing the injunction itself whereby it was agreed that GREAT WHITE would never be shown again in the U.S without the prior written approval of Universal. And in this event Universal were not prepared to give that written approval to allow us to screen the film at The New Beverly. They also cite that the injunction stands in other territories but without naming which territories. Since getting wind of Universal’s position the company we were going to license the title from have got cold feet and now there is no deal to be done in the U.S, even if we were prepared to take on the risk. The film is of course out in Scandinavia without any problems and I am hopeful that we can strike a deal for UK rights to the movie and release it there without any fuss.
So there you have it: GREAT WHITE, starring James Franciscus and Vic Morrow, is safe for Scandanavia and nowhere else. This is unfortunate, as there's a Tarantino/Castellari interview in the can for an eventual DVD. "
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I clearly remember in 1982, standing at the concession stand at The Mariemont Theater in Cincinnati, Ohio (I was at a showing of THE GRIM REAPER (now it is called something else on DVD…it is an Italian horror film as were many during the early 80′s). Anyway, I’m standing at the concession stand and I hear the previews playing and I hear this narration and it sounds so simmilar to the original JAWS trailer that I rush into the theater to catch it and it ofcourse was the trailer for GREAT WHITE! I remember being so excited and I even went back to that theater the next day just to see the preview again! As is the case with so many movies, the trailer is way better than the film. I certainly see how GREAT WHITE was so very simmilar to JAWS. They took a proven formula for advertising and recycled it almost to a tee. There was even an advance GREAT WHITE FACTS one-sheet that is the equivalent to SHARKFACTS used for JAWS. However, everything about GREAT WHITE pales in comparson to the quality of JAWS. Basically, it is a poor man’s JAWS. The truest form of schlock is GREAT WHITE. Don’t get me wrong, I like it for what it is and see as an outcasted distant cousin to JAWS….oh, who am I kidding it was really all about the money more than anything. But that aside, the end product is entertaining in a demented kind of way! A good example is an off-brand bottle of aspirin. Let’s say the aspirin is called Headache B Gone and manufactured in Hong Kong and on the front of the bottle it says “compare to TYLENOL”. Same thing with these movies in the fact that one has a sterling reputation and works a helluva lot better than the other one!
I did go to see GREAT WHITE on its opening weekend and I remember being so very excited! There was tons of TV spots the week before its opening too. I remember chuckling throughout and when the obviously toy shark’s head pops off at the end from the bomb James Franciscus planted in it’s mouth, I think it looked like it was filmed in an aquarium tank! When all’s said and done, at least we’ve got JAWS to admire as a film of remarkable craftsmanship and GREAT WHITE to have fun with.