When you're mounting your own shark movie, are you more worried about not trying to do what Jaws did, or are you more wanting to study what it did right and trying to figure out how to adapt that into your own shark movie? It's

both.

It's both.

You'd be a fool not to look at the classics that came before you, even the not so classic films.

So one of the things I do on all my movies is I pull together like a list of like 10 to 30 movies that are touchstones for the production.

Sometimes they're from a tonal standpoint, sometimes from a story standpoint, sometimes from a production standpoint.

And I get copies of them, and I play them on a loop in my office.

I don't know the politics of it, but I also don't feel like it's fake, which is why he's good at it.

and what uh this this shark is massive right like how much bigger than to use as an example the shark and jaws how much bigger is this bull shark

it's actually smaller it's small it is yeah yeah it's only 17 feet long but i had them make me a life-size replica of it and i put it in my office so anytime we had a meeting or we were talking about the size of the set and and the physical production team were trying to get me to make this set smaller i would just point to it i'd be like Look at how big the shark is.

It's not as big as the shark in Jaws, but it's huge.

We cannot make the set any smaller.

What would you like to recommend?

Well, speaking of the devil's mouth, my lead actress is this really talented performer named Catherine Newton.

And she was in a movie that I think deserves another look called Lisa Frankenstein.

It was written by Diablo Cody.

Of course.

Um, I think it's, I don't know, I think there's something about young people, you know, in their late high school or early college years, you know, just after college when they're trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be.

That's kind of an interesting moment in people's lives to sort of focus in on.

Uh, and s- so I, I find myself drawn to those stories often.

I also think I like movies that look and feel bigger than they are.

I like to push the envelope of the resources I'm given, and it's easier to do that with younger actors [laughs] who are kinda down for the challenge.

When you start dealing with more established movie stars, you know, they're not always so inclined to jump on something that's might be a little underfunded for what we're trying to do.

Yeah.

Yeah

... uh, her husband, my uncle Jay, uh, tragically passed away my senior year at Dartmouth.

And she called me up.

And we've always been kinda kindred spirits.

We come from a very cerebral, sort of almost bookish family, and we're kind of the loud cutups.

And so we've always felt, um, uh, we've always been a little closer than, like, a traditional aunt and nephew.

And she called me up and said, "Listen, you know, I would love it if you would consider moving in with us for a year.

Wow.

[laughs]

[laughs] I couldn't agree more.

I love that.

Yeah, I mean, look, the whole movie was a challenge.

When you were shooting in and around water, movie cameras don't like the water They don't work when they get wet.

So just figuring out a way to move the camera even was a challenge.

You can't use a dolly, you can't use Steadicam, you can't even shoot handheld because when you waterproof a camera, it's too heavy for a person to lift it.

So just figuring out how to make the movie was, was difficult.

I'd love to hear about your experience acting underwater, how this changes how you go preparing for a scene and kind of attacking your performance.

Uh, sure, I'll jump right in.

I mean, what you do is sheer force of will, because nobody wanted to do it.

That scene, uh, everyone wanted me to cut.

Everyone wanted me to cut that.

They were like, "It's too hard.

Uh, we can't do it." And it was also my favorite scene when I read the script.

We're so cool."