Cast _* Story _* Interesting Facts

Directed by: Eric "Bibo" Bergeron (The Road to El Dorado) and Vicky Jenson (Shrek)
Written by: Michael J. Wilson (Ice Age)

Production Start Date: June 6, 2002
Release Date: October 1, 2004 (previously set for July 4, 2004 then November 5, 2004)
 
 

CAST
 

Oscar... Will Smith
Fin fatale Lola... Angelina Jolie
Heavenly angelfish Angie... Renée Zellweger
Don Lino, the "Soprano" of all sharks... Robert de Niro (replacing James Gandolfino)
Sykes, a puffer fish... Martin Scorsese
Lenny, a shark... Jack Black
Don Brizzi... Peter Falk
Frankie... Michael Imperioli
Willie...Vincent Pastore
Luca...Kevin Pollak
Bernie... Doug E. Doug
Ernie... Ziggy Marley
 
 

STORY

Short Synopsis
The undersea underworld is shaken up when the son of the shark mob boss is deep sixed, and an innocent young fish named Oscar is found at the scene of the crime. A bottom-feeding hustler, Oscar takes the credit for saving the reef and basks in the glory of playing the great Sharkslayer, but soon discovers that he is in way over his head. When Oscar's act threatens to sink him and the entire reef, he must face the truth and become the real Sharkslayer.
 

Full Storyline
The story starts with Oscar, the life of the party, engaging in banter with the fellow residents of his neighborhood. To bring home the clams, Oscar works at the "Whale Wash" alongside diminutive pilot fish. There, they scrub gigantic whales that pull up for a full-service wash like eighteen-wheelers. As the whales pull in, they press a huge eye up against the cashier's window, T-Rex style, where Renee Zellweger's gum-cracking, singing character Angie rings them up and sends them on. Then, to the tune of "Car Wash" (which is going to be updated for the movie), Oscar and his fellow employees dance about their customers, washing them clean of dirt and foam while contorting acrobatically.

Oscar lives in a truly stunning environment. New York has been plunged underwater and given an enthusiastic makeover from top to bottom. Skyscrapers emit enormous plumes of multicolored coral, bathed in sunlight and home to the rich. The city itself is vertical and socially stratified: as you go lower, past the brownstones and Time Square, you arrive downtown, which really is down--at the very bottom. There, it's the rough part of the city, with graffiti everywhere.

The population is as varied as it is in the real world. Throughout the underwater metropolis, cars are replaced with schools of fish, each of which has an obvious mission. Yellow checked fish are cabs, while fat tunas carrying briefcases are businessmen hurrying to work. This world also has criminals, namely the mob. Five different families rule the underworld, distinguished by their species (including Great Whites, Hammerheads and Killer Whales). Headquartered in a rusted ocean liner impaled at an obscene angle on a nearby reef (which makes for great atmospheric lighting), the Great Whites are led by their godfather, Don Lino (Robert de Niro), who is advised by a trusty consigliere octopus. All of these characters bring the city to vivid life.

In this world, Oscar dreams big -- he's a player. And this gets him into trouble with the owner of the Whale Wash--and criminal--Sykes (Martin Scorsese), who comes to collect on the money lent to him for reckless bets at the track. Though small and graying around the temples, Sykes is gruff, grouchy, and when infuriated, capable of quite a display, inflating his body and spines to room-filling proportions. Oscar sweet-talks him and his rasta jellyfish lackies, fobbing them off with a promise that today, at the races, he has a fantastic tip, a sure thing. That buys him some time.

Unfortunately, things don't turn out so well for Oscar. He loses his shirt, and gets roughed up in a remote part of town by Sykes's hench-jellies, who have stingers that hang like braids from beneath their rasta-cap bodies, frightening weapons that zap their victims into instant, head-nodding compliance. This entertaining scene, juxtaposing Oscar's frightened expressions with sadistic, zapping stings is interrupted when a Great White shark with something to prove -- timid, vegetarian Lenny (Jack Black), egged on by his more brutal brother (Michael Imperioli)--chases off the jellyfish and pretends to devour Oscar. The brother, seeing through the performance, goes in for the kill himself, only to get fatally beaned by a boat's anchor.

The rasta jellyfish return, and draw the wrong conclusion -- that Oscar is the sharkslayer. They blab the news, and Oscar is lifted up on the city's shoulders and celebrated for his courage with rewards and adoration. Unfortunately for him, he now has the duty of protecting the city from the sharks. To pull this off, he colludes with wimpy Lenny to preserve the illusion with a dramatic play-acted confrontation. By "killing" the gentle shark, Oscar hopes to free him of his loathsome duties and allow him to go into the Witness Protection Program (dressed as a dolphin).

Problem is, Oscar is also fond of Angie, the Whale Wash cashier--and she is not impressed by his scheme. If Oscar is to win her heart, he will need to act honorably. Complicating things, Lola, the gangster's moll (Angelina Jolie), is also interested in Oscar. A sexy cross between Rita Moreno's Anita in West Side Story and Jessica Rabbit, Lola doesn't just exude sex appeal -- she flaunts it. Her oversize, multicolored fins snap and sway like wind-whipped flags, drawing stares wherever she goes. Somewhat full of herself, Lola is initially drawn to Oscar when she sees him placing a considerable bet at the track, but dismissive when she learns the truth, at least for a while.
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

  This is the first movie out of DreamWorks' state-of-the-art CG pipeline in Glendale

  USA Today revealed on December 10, 2001 that DreamWorks' CGI follow-up to Shrek would be Sharkslayer. Described as an "underwater mob film", it is planned for 2004 and will feature the voices of Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and Renée Zellweger. Meanwhile, Disney and Pixar are working on their own computer-animated fish tale, Finding Nemo, for 2003. The studios previously had dueling CGI insect films in 1998, DreamWorks' Antz and Disney-Pixar's A Bug's Life.

  In late 1998, DreamWorks announced an animated feature Fish out of Water to be helmed by Lance Young.  Renamed The Tank in January 2000 with a rumoured 2003 release date, it is the story of a group of fish who escape a little girl's fish tank and must make it back to their original pond.  Surprisingly though, public relations at PDI stated that The Tank was just a promotional flick done by the PDI's special effects division. Could this be the same project as SharkSlayer?

  According to a December 2001 Dark Horizons article, "the writers of this Dreamworks CG animated project also did the latest Freddy vs. Jason draft which New Line is flipping for, and is adapting the Danger Girl comic."

  A rumour circulated in February 2002 that Michael J. Wilson (Ice Age) would pen the movie's script for Dreamworks, with Shrek co-director Vicky Jensen at the helm. The recording sessions were then already underway, with James Hegedus (Forrest Gump, Mars Attacks!) attached as a Production Designer. SharkSlayer is supposedly set for an unlikely July 4, 2004 release.

  The Hollywood Reporter confirmed in April 2002 that James Gandolfini had signed on to voice the "Soprano" of all sharks in DreamWorks Pictures' animated project. Director Martin Scorsese signed the following day to voice Sykes, a puffer fish, and Jack Black (Shallow Hal) is in negotiations to voice a shark named Lenny.  Animation helmers Eric "Bibo" Bergeron (The Road to El Dorado) and Vicky Jenson (Shrek) will be teaming for the first time to direct the CGI-animated project. Sharkslayer was already in pre-production at the time, with a 2004 release date planned. Pre-production was in full swing at the time, with recording sessions already underway in Los Angeles.

  November 2002 reports revealed that Robert De Niro had taken over the lead role of the shark mob boss, which James Gandolfini had originally been cast in. "Sharkslayer has become a pet project for Jeffrey Katzenberg. He's lined up an A-list cast for every speaking voice, many of which have already begun recording sessions. The movie is best described by Greg Dean Schmitz as a 'satire/parody to the gangster genre comparable to what Shrek did with fairy tales.' The script contains inside jokes, everything from The Godfather to The Sopranos. The early CGI work looks amazing. When it's all done this movie is going to substantially raise the bar for this type of filmmaking."

  DreamWorks, which originally aimed for a July, 2004 release before moving the film to November 19th (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving), has now settled on November 5, 2004 instead.

  Jeffrey Katzenberg commented in a January 2003 interview: "Imagine an underwater cityscape that is Chicago meets Las Vegas meets Miami. [Classic references include] everything from The Untouchables to Some Like It Hot to all three Godfather films." Director Martin Scorsese takes the vocal plunge as a territorial Moe Greene-type puffer fish that sports his trademark bushy brows and rapid-fire delivery. Says Katzenberg: "He talks so fast. For animation, that is just gold. He's a total ham."  As for Sharkslayer following Disney and partner Pixar's own 3-D fish tale, Finding Nemo (May 30), Katzenberg says any similarities are mere coincidence, much like his Antz and Disney-Pixar's A Bug's Life in 1998. "We've been open with the Pixar people so we don't step on each other's toes."

  Director Martin Scorsese, who voices the animated figure of Sykes, sings for the role.  When Jeffrey Katzenberg watched Scorsese's performance he reportedly laughed so hard he called in Steven Spielberg to watch Scorsese performing. "I though I'd never see this!" Katzenberg admitted.

  "All the characters talk in this one because it is a humanized, fishafied world," said Jeffrey Katzenberg in June 2003. "Will Smith plays this wheeler, dealer, schemer who dreams of hitting the big time in the sea mob world. A shark clan is planning a take-over of his reef. The godfather shark is about to eat Will when an anchor falls and kills the shark. Of course Will takes the credit and one big lies leads to another." Katzenberg was proud to announce that joining Smith in the voice cast are Robert DeNiro, Peter Falk, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger and Martin Scorsese. "The top people in all fields in the business want to be involved in these films because they are no longer trapped in the kiddie movie ghetto they once occupied."

  The movie will feature new songs by Will Smith, Missy Elliott, Floetry, a cover of Car Wash and more, plus for the first time ever, an updated hip-hop version of the classic Jaws theme (it helps that Steven Spielberg is the "S" in DreamWorks SKG)!

  DreamWorks' Sharkslayer may share an underwater theme with box office champ Finding Nemo, but "after watching an hour or so of animated storyboards, production art, and CGI tests in a visit [on July 15, 2003] to DreamWorks's Animation Studio in Glendale, it becomes pretty obvious that any useful comparison ends there," according to Counting Down. "This story is all 'street', from its urban reef setting of high-rises and tagged underpasses, to the improvisational, fin-pointing riffs of its main character, Oscar, played by Will Smith. The few glimpses we did get of the fully rendered characters were jaw-droppingly stunning. These fishies are music-box intricate, glittering with sharp colors and extraordinary detail. What is more, they have depth--you can see into them (bodies), and see through them (fins). Textures range from the silvery, glimmering iridescence of Angie or Oscar, to the rougher, matted leather-like skin of the Great Whites. No doubt about it, you can just see all that RAM in those render farms up there on the screen (thank you HP)."

  Co-director Vicky Jenson promises that the movie will do for the mafia--and fish--what her last film, Shrek, did for fairy tales and ogres. "We took fairy tales and messed with them and kind of turned them upside down to find the tone of Shrek and the kind of humor there. That's kind of what we want to do with the genre of mob comedies and those kinds of icons for Sharkslayer. Everyone thinks [Oscar]'s the new Eliot Ness on the reef. And he milks that for all it's worth, until eventually, he learns there's consequences to building a house of cards on a little white lie like that. And he'll come clean, and become the hero he's pretending to be. But we'll have a lot of fun with him in the meantime." As for comparisons with Finding Nemo, DreamWorks principal Jeffrey Katzenberg told a visiting audience, "We'll let this film talk for itself. We're big fans of that really brilliant film... But we think they couldn't be further apart."

  Angelina Jolie, who voices the seductive fish Lola, said in a July 2003 interview that "my own voice sounds so funny to me that just doing a voice didn't seem like enough," Jolie said during an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "I think my first day, my first half an hour, I was doing impressions of everybody from Mae West to Winston Churchill to try to figure out [a voice]. ... And finally, they kind of said, 'No, it's your voice. Just, you're fine [laughs].' I was just fascinated by animation, and I'd never done it. And to loan your voice to something and have them animate [it]... Now they can do these things where they're filming your head as you're talking, and animating. And they're going to spend months drawing and try to match your expressions. So I was fascinated by it." Jolie said that her young son, Maddox, will likely enjoy her work in the family film. "I am sure he is going to love it. But I'm the bad fish. And I don't know if he'll like that mommy's the bad fish [laughs]."

  On August 18, 2003, DreamWorks finally moved up the date of its underwater mob romp from November 5, 2004, the weekend Disney and Pixar will bow The Incredibles, to October 1, 2004. DreamWorks is also changing the title of the film. Given the heavy competition, it's no surprise that one of the pics is moving out of the November slot. But DreamWorks had the date first, claiming it last December and trumpeting it in a series of trade ads in January. In May, Disney and Pixar moved in on "slayer" territory, announcing its official date for The Incredibles with a teaser trailer attached to Finding Nemo. After DreamWorks expressed surprise, Disney simply said that nobody owns a date. DreamWorks has been looking for a new date ever since. "After looking long and hard at next year's holiday season, the unbelievably crowded marketplace in November of family films was not the best place for the movie," DreamWorks Marketing Head Terry Press said. Aside from The Incredibles in November, Warner Bros. is releasing Polar Express and Paramount will launch the big-screen debut of SpongeBob SquarePants. DreamWorks decided to avoid all the cartoon clutter and head to October. "We believe in the movie, and we believe it can play well and dominate October.  If you have the material, there's no specific season anymore for an event film."

  DreamWorks said that it hopes Sharkslayer could launch a franchise, as the studio is trying to do with Shrek, whose sequel also will bow in 2004.

  Vicky Jenson introduced the characters one by one during a press presentation: "Oscar [Will Smith], who is a little fish that works at a Whale Wash," Jensen said. "It's kind of a day spa meets car wash facility for whales and he has one of the worst jobs in the joint. Like in a car wash, the guy who vacuums underneath your seats, imagine that with the giant tongue of a whale and he's vacuuming and flossing between the giant teeth. He probably has to swim between the teeth. So, he has sights set on a different kind of lifestyle, one that's maybe a little more glamorous, decorated with a little more bling-bling. He tries everything he can to get there including betting on seahorse races. He's a little bit in debt to everybody. Then there's Don Lino, our godfather of the great white sharks. He's part of a large syndicate known as the Five Families that include other predators such as killer whales and hammerheads. Don Lino, though, he's got two sons. One is Frankie, a natural born killer. He's a true great white shark, played by Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos. But his brother Lenny is a little bit different. He has a deep hidden secret in that he can't eat meat. If you're a great white shark, this is a very bad thing. It's like being a hitman who can't pull the trigger. Nobody knows about this and he's trying to keep it hidden. [Lenny] is played by Jack Black. [Mr. Sykes, a puffer fish played by Martin Scorsese], runs the reef for the Five Families. He's also Oscar's boss because he has a legit business in that he owns the car wash, a money-laundering kind of thing. Angie is played by Renee Zellweger. She works at the Whale Wash, she's known Oscar forever and she's had a crush on him forever. He can't see it because like his other dreams, he thinks he's destined for something a little flashier, which takes the shape of Lola, who is played by Angelina Jolie. She's also working her way up the food chain in her own unique fashion. She's a little bit of a man-eater and when Oscar shows up a hero, she sets her radar on him, so that's fun."

  Co-director Vicky Jenson promises that the fishy characters of Sharkslayer, though sharing similar CGI processes, will look significantly different from the characters of films like Shrek. "Shrek required more human type of movement so that you'd buy a fairy tale in a real world. We want to go back and play with animation and do what it does best, which is the squash-and-stretch and the playfulness in the exaggerations you can do in animation. So, to do that in CG--which hasn't really been done before, not as a goal--these guys started playing with 2-D tests to make them really get pulled apart. This is also an experiment to see how much 'human' and how much 'fish' these characters needed to be."

  DreamWorks also announced on August 18, 2003 that it would change the movie's Sharkslayer title because the word "slayer" was considered too harsh, given the film's comedic elements. An Animated Movies spy reported on September 18, 2003 that the studio had set its mind on the less violent and more family-friendly Shark Tale. DreamWorks confirmed the new title on September 30.