Earlier this year, The Daily Jaws reported that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has been working on a restoration of "Bruce" from Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Jaws, with Greg Nicotero and his company KNF FX working on bringing the iconic shark back to its former glory. In case you didn't know, there were a total of four sharks used during the production of Jaws, and only this one remains.
This shark in particular had been on display at Universal Studios for years, but as Nicotero told The Daily Jaws earlier this year, it had been sitting in a junkyard for quite some time.
"It was in pretty rough shape," the Academy Museum’s Sophie Hunter explained to the site. "It needed a major restoration. It was filled with wasp nests and dirt."
"We’ve stripped all the old paint off of it, we’re patching all the cracks, we have to redo the eyes. We’re gonna restore it to what it would have looked like on day one of filming for Jaws," Nicotero added.
This week, the Academy Museum shared a few pictures of the restoration-in-progress, which you can check out below. Nicotero also shared a few through his own Instagram.
He wrote on Instagram, "Honored to restore the last original casting from the original molds for the soon to open Academy Museum. We have spent the last 4 months restoring this piece to go on display utilizing original teeth and consulting with production designer Joe Alves and several original effects techs Cal Accord, Kevin Pike and Toy Arbogast. An honor to work with these brilliant artists and the folks at KNB working feverishly."
