A crowdfunder has been started for a documentary about Jaws production designer Joe Alves: more details here.
Joes Alves has an enviable filmography. Working with Steven Spielberg as art and production designer from his feature directorial debut The Sugarland Express to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Alves is likely best remembered for designing the iconic, if notoriously unreliable, shark (named Bruce after Spielberg’s lawyer) for Jaws, as well as directing Jaws 3-D
Now, a Kickstarter campaign has been launched to fund the production of the terrifically named Not Your Average Joe, a documentary which aims to highlight Alves’ contributions to cinema.
The pitch on the crowdfunder reads as follows:
Working in Hollywood in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s Joe rubbed shoulders with just about everybody. Even finding time to introduce Paul Newman to another of Joe’s loves, motor racing. Joe went from animating on Forbidden Planet and Sleeping Beauty to building up to forty sets a week for Universal on shows like The Psychiatrist and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, to most famously designing the iconic Bruce the shark for Jaws. Leading to a years long working relationship with Steven Spielberg.
But it doesn’t end there… he has connections to just about everyone including Elvis Presley, Audrey Hepburn, James Stewart, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Goldie Hawn, John Carpenter and even… Herman Munster.
There are various tiers available, with £20 getting you a HD download of the finished film, with more expensive tiers getting you prints of Alves’ original designs for Jaws and much more.
You can read more about Not Your Average Joe and donate to the crowdfunder here.
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