The Deep

The Deep (1977)

Timing: 2:3 (123 min)

6.056/10
214

6.793/10
4930

6.3/10
15000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 11

Actors and characters

Release date

1977-06-17

Country

United Kingdom, United States

Production

Columbia Pictures, EMI Films, Casablanca Filmworks

Genre

Mystery, Thriller, Adventure

Budget

$9 000 000

Revenue

$47 346 365

Website

Director

Peter Yates

Actors

Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Louis Gossett Jr., Eli Wallach, Robert Tessier, Dick Anthony Williams, Bob Minor, Earl Maynard, Teddy Tucker
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Peter Guber

Operator

Christopher Challis

Composer

John Barry

Artist

Audition

Jane Feinberg, Mike Fenton

Editing

David Berlatsky
All team (19)

• At the beginning of the film, Gale, played by Jacqueline Bisset, is underwater and encounters a huge moray eel inside a sunken ship. During the filming of this scene, stuntwoman Jackie Kilbride dislocated her shoulder. Inside the hull of the sunken ship was a scuba diver who was instructed to pull on the glass she was holding in her hand. He pulled with all his might. The scene was filmed with multiple cameras and completed in one take.
• The sunken ship shown in the film is the merchant vessel Rhone, which went down in 1867 near the Virgin Islands. 125 crew members perished in the shipwreck, out of a total of 135, and the Rhone itself broke in half. The film shows the bow of the ship, which lies at a depth of approximately 22 meters.
• Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Robert Shaw (1927-1978), and director Peter Yates (1929-2011) all had to learn to scuba dive before filming began.
• Filming the shark feast required 720 dives and a total of 1,080 hours of underwater camera work. The scene was filmed on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It was claimed that this was the only place on the planet where such a scene could even be filmed.
• Initially, director Peter Yates did not believe Nick Nolte was suitable for the lead role. Nolte himself was not particularly eager to star in the film. Columbia Pictures also shared the opinion that someone else was needed for the lead role. Only producer Peter Guber insisted on Nick Nolte.
• At the time of filming and release, the project utilized the world's largest underwater filming stage. With the official consent of the local government, a pit measuring 10 by 36.5 meters was excavated on the island and filled with seawater, which was changed daily. A shark, a moray eel, and 300 various fish were placed in the water-filled pit.