Jaws Star Returning to Face a New Shark Threat in Into the Deep (2024)

It is almost fifty years since Richard Dreyfuss faced down a great white shark in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, and now he is about to do it all over again in the new movie Into the Deep. Releasing later this year, the movie is "about a group of divers searching for sunken treasure who witness the murder of drug dealers by modern-day pirates, but that is the least of their worries as a killer great white shark stands between them and their escape from the water."

Dreyfuss’ character in the movie has not yet been revealed, but he will star alongside Scout Taylor-Compton, best known for taking over Jamie Lee Curtis’ role of Laurie Strode in Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween, and Queen of the Damned’s Stuart Townsend. The film is directed by Christian Sesma from a script by Josh Ridgway and Chad Law.

Movies featuring sharks, and other terrors of the seas, have always been popular in the horror genre. As one of the greatest thrillers of all time, Jaws certainly played a part in that popularity. Unlike his Jaws costars Roy Scheider, who appeared in Jaws 2, and Robert Shaw, who starred in The Deep, Into the Deep marks the first time Dreyfuss has dipped his toe back into a shark-related movie since his appearance as marine biologist Matt Hooper in the 1975 film.

Related: Jaws: The Malfunctioning Shark Was the Best Thing for the Movie

Richard Dreyfuss Courted Controversy When Discussing New Oscar Inclusivity Rules

Since his first uncredited movie appearances in Valley of the Dolls and The Graduate in 1967, Dreyfuss found great success in Hollywood from his 1973 appearance in American Graffiti – which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – through movies including Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Stakeout, and Mr Holland’s Opus, to his most recent role in the 2023 biographical sports film Sweetwater.

At the age of 76, Dreyfuss has continued to add to his impressive list of credits, both in movies and on TV, and Into the Deep is just the latest of these.

Earlier this year, the actor was caught up in controversy when expressing his opinion on new rules implemented by the Academy in relation to how movies would need to meet “inclusion standards” in order to have a chance to win the biggest prizes available at the Oscars. Slamming the idea that changing standards in society should dictate who can and cannot play certain roles, Dreyfuss told PBS’ Firing Line in March:

“They make me vomit. This is an art form. It’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money, but it’s an art. No one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is. And what are we risking? Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings? You can’t legislate that. And you have to let life be life. Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man? Is someone else being told that if they’re not Jewish, they shouldn’t play the ‘Merchant of Venice?’ Are we crazy? Do we not know that art is art?”

As someone who has been in the industry across seven decades, Dreyfuss has seen the changing face of Hollywood as much as anyone. However, it seems there are somethings that will always continue to circle back again and again, and just like the constant conversations about movie diversity, Dreyfuss’ return to the water will soon be coming around when Into the Deep is released sometime later this year.