The New Canaan Playhouse this week will host a premiering event for the documentary “Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story.”
The Elm Street movie theater will do a one-time screening of the National Geographic documentary celebrating Jaws’ 50th anniversary at 9 p.m. Thursday.
“We obviously wanted to show the movie, but we also wanted to make an event out of it,” CinemaLab CEO Luke Parker-Bowles said. “People should wear beachwear; with their admission, they will get luxurious Playhouse swag bags and other things like a photo opportunity with a shark suit.”
When asked why this documentary was so special, Parker-Bowles described Jaws as a near-perfect movie.
“It’s an extraordinary symbiosis of documentary and narrative,” he said. “I think some people are scared of documentaries, but this is one you can’t miss.”
The documentary details the making of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 summer blockbuster that set box office records and redefined the cinematic landscape. The Academy Award–winning Jaws was followed by three sequels and has become one of the most well-known movie franchises of all time.
It “features compelling interviews with Hollywood’s most influential directors, from Steven Soderbergh to Jordan Peele, who speak to the film’s lasting influence, alongside insights from leading shark scientists, who address the complex relationship between humans and these often-misunderstood creatures,” according to the Nantucket Film Festival.
For a $50 admission, guests will receive a screening of the movie, a Playhouse-branded swag bag, a small popcorn, a special menu of themed items to buy and photo opportunities.
“It’s such a special movie that we wanted to go all-in,” Parker-Bowles said. “That’s the mantra we have at the Playhouse: go big or go home.”
All ages are welcome at the event, as it’s an opportunity for kids to be introduced to the movie industry or for adults to reminisce about the iconic film, he said.
“It’ll get kids who haven’t seen the movie excited about seeing it,” Parker-Bowles said. “For the broader audience, I think they’ll be fascinated to see the bits of Martha’s Vineyard included in the film. Also, maybe it takes them back to their heyday, and they can remember themselves at the movie theaters.”
Tickets are selling fast, and the 100-person event will “absolutely sell out in the next couple of days,” according to Parker-Bowles.
Tickets for the July 10 event at 9 p.m. can be purchased here.
There’s a New Canaan connection to JAWS. My classmate at Saxe and NCHS, James Contner, was a Camera Operator on the film. He subsequently graduated in his career to working as a Cinematographer, and then as a Director on such TV series as MIAMI VICE and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Jim once told me that while working the camera on JAWS he peered through the lens at virtually every shot in the film and it was all as routine as a day at the office. But when he saw all those shots put together in the film, he said, “It scared the hell out of me.”
New Canaan man, Jim Contner, did the filming for Jaws!!