Yesterday evening, CineVue were kindly invited along to the latest Jameson Cult Film Club event, which presented a very special screening Steven Spielberg’s digitally restored, monster movie classic Jaws (1977). Setting up shop within London’s Greenwich Yacht Club, hundreds of guests congregated around the yard, bar and burger-flogging BBQ to watch on as Spielberg’s abnormally large great white shark proceeded to chew its way through the population of Amity Island, USA.
Attending his very first JCFC event was the series’ new curator, British actor and director Andy Serkis. In a brief but telling round table interview, Serkis revealed that Spielberg’s Jaws was one of the first films he can remember seeing at the cinema, and has stuck in his mind for its fabulous story and groundbreaking animatronic effects (despite the relative unreliability of ‘Bruce’, the model shark in question). As curator, Serkis has a great deal of input into the selection of future JCFC screenings, so expect to see cult classics of Jaws’ stature making their way to London locations in the very near future.
Serkis said of his involvement: “I was delighted to be asked to come on board as curator for the 2012 series of the Jameson Cult Film Club; the movies in this year’s line-up are some of my favourite cult films of all time and being a huge film buff myself it was a great opportunity for me to get geeky about some of the greatest cult classics ever made. It’s been a fantastic night at the launch event – Jaws was a groundbreaking film in its day and it’s great to see it back on the big screen and brought to life so well by Jameson Cult Film Club. There are lots more great films coming up this year and in 2013 so I hope everyone enjoys the line-up that we’ve put together.”
As for theatricality, Jameson clearly aren’t content with letting arch-rivals Secret Cinema take all the plaudits. Wandering actors valiantly played out their parts as the late Roy Scheider’s Chief Brody, Robert Shaw’s Captain Quint and Richard Dreyfuss’ know-it-all oceanographer Hooper, as on-lookers chowed down on American culinary stalwarts – namely, burgers and hot dogs. There was even talk of an ominous shark fin seen gliding through the murky waters of the Thames…
With James Cameron’s original The Terminator (1984) and Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992) pencilled in fro October, it would appear that the Jameson Cult Film Club is back in action – just make sure you pack yourself a poncho for future outdoor screenings.
For more info on Jameson Cult Film Club, visit jamesoncultfilmclub.com. Jaws is now available to own on Blu-ray, courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Daniel Green
