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When shooting originally began (with John D. Hancock as director), Amity was envisioned as a near ghost-town, with boarded-up stores, crumbling facades on buildings and an economy in shambles after the events of Jaws (1975). Hancock quickly ran into problems: First, the residents of Martha's Vineyard, where the film was being shot, refused to allow permission for their stores and houses to be boarded up. Secondly, his dailies were constantly being criticized by the studio for being "too contrasty and blue", with perpetual requests to lighten up the tone of the film. According to Hancock, however, his eventual firing was the result of a power struggle between co-producer Richard D. Zanuck and MCA chairman Sid Sheinberg, in particular Sheinberg's insistence that his wife Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody) have a bigger role in the film. Zanuck adamantly refused, and Hancock's wife and co-screenwriter Dorothy Tristan eventually submitted a screenplay that did not include Sheinberg's requested changes. Moreover, Hancock ran into problems on the film with an unnamed actress and had her fired; he did not know that the actress was the girlfriend of an MCA executive. With a month of filming in the can, and 18 months already spent on the production, Hancock and Tristan were both fired, halting production on the film and leading to the eventual hiring of Jeannot Szwarc as director. Two scenes from the "Hancock Cut" are still in the movie: the sharks fin rising above the surface after the party at the opening, and the "parasailing" scene where the shark almost kills an unnamed character bouncing in and out of the water.
The movie's tagline "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water . . . ", became one of the most famous and popular taglines in motion picture history. The blurb has frequently been spoofed and referenced in both social vernacular and in other movie promotions as well.
Marc Gilpin (Sean Brody) claims that when they were shooting one of the scenes on the makeshift raft of wrecked yachts, they were being circled by a real hammerhead shark. The actors were scared and began to scream and holler at the production crew, which was filming that particular scene from a distance. The crew was oblivious to the danger and assumed the actors were simply "in character" and gave them the thumbs up.
On the Brodys' front porch is a flower planter painted bright yellow. It is one of the barrels from the first Jaws (1975).
The name of the small rocky island with an electrical relay station on it was "Cable Junction" island. This was actually a set that caused numerous problems during filming. The island was made from plastic / fiberglass material and was set on two barges. The surface of it was so slippery it was difficult to traverse it or even grab hold of it. This resulted in numerous retakes having to be shot, with actors slipping and falling off it constantly. Due to not being anchored properly, it once drifted away into the ocean, and the production had to go out and tug it back. In The Making of 'Jaws 2' (2001) DVD documentary, director Jeannot Szwarc recounted the day when he was informed that his island set was "on its way to Cuba".
As in first film, footage of real sharks filmed by Australian divers Ron Taylor and Valerie Taylor were used for movement shots that could not be convincingly achieved using the mechanical sharks.