Big Shark is a 2023 American comedy-horrorfilm written, directed and produced by Tommy Wiseau,[2][3][4] and starring Wiseau, Isaiah LaBorde and Mark Valeriano[5][6] as three firefighters who must save New Orleans from a killer shark.[7]
Patrick, Tim, and Georgie are firefighters who live and work together. After saving two children from a fire, they are hailed as heroes of New Orleans.
While on a fishing trip with his girlfriend Sophia, Patrick claims to witness a 35-foot long shark. Although he repeatedly tries to warn his friends, they do not believe him and insist there are no sharks in the Mississippi River.
Eventually, Patrick is vindicated when shark attacks are reported on the local news. Amidst flood water, the shark roams the streets, eating people. Patrick and Tim set out across New Orleans to save the city from the shark, and scenes in which they alternately search for and flee from it are interspersed with scenes of arguments with their girlfriends and getting drinks at a bar.
Meanwhile, their boss, Captain Joe, procures scuba gear and implores them to help save the city. Tim receives a treasure map from an old man in the bar, marking where the shark sleeps, though Patrick expresses some confusion over whether or not sharks sleep.
While playing pool, Patrick and Tim conceive a plan to place a tracking device on the shark, follow it in their scuba gear, and feed it dynamite hidden inside a pig carcass.
After obtaining the bloody bait, they spear the shark with the tracking device, but the animal retaliates and eats Georgie. Tim and Patrick visit a shrine erected in Georgie's honor on the beach, and together mourn their friend's death by composing a song.
With the tracking device in place, Tim and Patrick pursue the shark into the bayou and kill it with their explosive bait. While it initially seems that Tim died in the explosion, he was in fact flung high in the air and survives. The heroes celebrate by dancing in the streets of New Orleans with a marching band.
Wiseau's frequent collaborator Greg Sestero, known for starring alongside Wiseau in The Room and Best F(r)iends, was originally slated to appear as one of the leads in the film alongside LaBorde and Wiseau.[13][14] In the 2019 teaser trailer, he appears as Georgie. However, by 2023 the role was recast, with Valeriano appearing in new promotional material[15] and Sestero does not appear in the final film.
The first trailer for the film was produced over two weeks in February under director of photography Matt S. Bell, from a total of two days of filming in Lafayette, Louisiana,[12] and screened in February 2019. Wiseau reportedly said he intended to film and release Big Shark that year[17] and Bell said he "looked forward to the feature-length project and bringing more work to the Louisiana film community."[12]
It was unclear how serious production was at the time, with reporter Germain Lussier claiming that the trailer was "mostly a joke"[17] and in a 2020 interview, Greg Sestero, who had appeared in the teaser as Georgie, indicated the film was not under development and they had just filmed the trailer for fun.[18]
The project had been revived by late 2021, with Wiseau announcing on Twitter that filming was ongoing in New Orleans on November 16, 2021.[19] In an interview for York Vision later in 2021, Wiseau also indicated his intention to shoot for the film in London, UK.[20] The following year, on July 28, 2022, Wiseau said filming was "in progress and working towards completion".[21]
Release
Originally announced and slated to premiere in 2019, the release of Big Shark was subject to a number of delays before it was released in 2023.
The film was originally teased at the Prince Charles Cinema, London during a screening of The Room in 2019 with Wiseau aiming to film it that year[22][23] and premiere it at the Prince Charles that September.[24][25]
However, the release was delayed.[26][27] On July 21, 2020, Wiseau said that the film would be released "soon",[28][29] before scheduling its release for 2021.[30] By November 8, 2021, the film was set for a theatrical release in 2022,[20] but this too was delayed.
After three years of delays from its original planned release, Big Shark would finally receive its UK premiere and a limited three day run at the Prince Charles Cinema in September 2023.[31]
While screenings of the film began in April 2023, editing of the film continued. Wiseau announced that the "final cut" would premiere at the Cinema 21 in Portland, Oregon, the same theater that hosted the film's world pre-premiere, on March 16, 2024.[32]
Reception
Critical consensus was generally poor, with criticism levied at the acting, editing, and production values, but with recognition that it was as a conscious attempt to produce a "so bad it's good" cult movie. There was debate over whether Big Shark managed to recapture the cult success of Wiseau's earlier 2003 movie, The Room.
Casey Epstein-Gross dismissed Big Shark as lacking the authenticity of The Room, writing for The New York Observer, "compared to Big Shark, The Room isn't the Citizen Kane of bad movies. It's straight-up Citizen Kane... despite being even more incoherent and baffling than its predecessor, it seems obvious that Big Shark has no reach beyond Wiseau's already devoted fanbase. It lacks the very thing that made The Room resonate: Wiseau's sincere belief in himself and his intentions."[33]
Jonathan Sim, writing for ComingSoon.net, described Big Shark as "a movie that is just as funny as The Room, if not more so". While he gave the film a 1/10 rating, criticising the editing errors as "too big to be accidental", the acting, and the writing, he characterised it as a self-aware "bad movie"[34] and overall he was positive about the film being entertaining, saying:
You'll break out into applause whenever the heroes vow to save New Orleans. You'll break out into song every time they sing their dumb national anthem. You'll laugh harmoniously with your fellow audience members... You need to watch this movie with as many friends as possible.[34]
Ariana Bindman writing for SFGATE related, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the audacity of Big Shark." noting "Big Shark was practically made for live audience interaction, piggybacking off the arthouse longevity of The Room screenings."[16]
Referring to Wiseau's previous cult film characterised as one of the worst films ever made, Sim said, "if The Room was Tommy Wiseau trying to make an Oscar-worthy drama about love, betrayal, and the futility of friendship, Big Shark is Tommy Wiseau trying to make a bad B-movie."[34]
Writing for The Quest, Sabrina Blasik also considered Big Shark as in conversation with The Room, writing:[35]
After the screening Wiseau held a Q&A, and I asked him what his creative vision was with Big Shark. He replied: "To make something different." Indeed, many of Big Shark's creative choices come off as direct reactions to criticism of The Room. The Room was shot on fake-looking sets, so Big Shark was shot on location. "It's not set [sic], ha ha", Wiseau remarked during the Q&A. "I'm laughing on media [sic]. I love media [sic], they're very nice people, but sometimes they're wrong". So in Big Shark, Wiseau sets out to prove the media wrong. The Room is a boring drama with no plot, so Big Shark aims for high-stakes action/horror. The Room has corny music and bad ADR, so Big Shark has no score and uses only live sound. Critics said The Room has a terrible, wooden script? Then most of the dialogue in Big Shark is improvised.[35]
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References
1 2 "Big Shark". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
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