Knife Shark (1991)

Knife Shark was an attempted horror movie made in the Knife Fight City Cinematic Universe. The film was originally released to theaters in 1988, but all proof of the film was lost until it was found in 1991 It is the only movie in the KFCCU that was produced and made by Universal Studios, and due to its poor performance at the box office, it is not acknowledged as existing by Universal. Much of the footage was later salvaged and used to make Jaws 4: The Revenge.

**Production**

The movie's idea came when the movie's executive producer, Cameron Diaz (not that one) was taking his family on vacation to Universal Studios theme park in California and had gotten on the Jaws ride with his son. While riding the tram, one of the patrons freaked out seeing the animatronic shark and jumped into the water to "save everyone", and proceeded to stab it with a pocket knife. While most on the tram were freaked out, Cameron got inspired. "Everyone loves a shark movie right? And Knife Fight City is a Darkhorse in the movie scene. So, I decided, why not combine the both?" To bring the movie into the KFCCU, the idea was to turn the shark's teeth into knives. Then the other producers got another great idea; turn the shark's fins into knives. Universal was not pleased with the idea, but relented, saying "Its not as ridiculess as the other movies in the Knife Fight City films."

In order to make the movie "more realistic", Cameron fought with Universal to get the original models of Bruce that were used in Spielberg's movie. It took weeks, but each of the shark's teeth were replaced with, what were thought to be, fake knives. However there was a mix up in shipping, and the crew received boxes of real steak knives. The crew only realized they were not props when testing the shark's jaws, and one of the mechanics got their arm caught in its mouth. The resulting amputation gave the new shark its nickname: Stumpy.

The yacht that was used by the cast was a repurposed Viking 46 foot vessel seized by Miami police. The former owner used a charter fishing business as a front to run cocaine from Cuba to Miami, and his boat was bought for pennies on the dollar. In fact, quite a bit of the film was financed by this purchase when one of the crew found money hidden in the walls of the engine room. It is unknown or never shared if coke was found, however the blood that was seen on the floor of the cabin when the shark first attacked the boat was real, likely a result of a gunfight as the set designers had to refiberglass and spackle over bullet holes.

To help with shooting on the water, the producers purchased a bunch of smaller boats for shooting. Due to a few of the cast members having a fear of water, many of the scenes had to be shot with the Viking dragged onto a shallow flat near the Florida Keys, to be able to get shots without land in the frame. These boats cost a large portion of the movie's shooting budget, as Cameron insisted the "best boats we can buy" be used, which meant buying new Hewes Skiffs off the lot, which each ran around 40 grand a piece. After shooting, these skiffs were left tied up in a backwater marina near Edgewater, Florida, and were in all likely hood destroyed with Hurricane Andrew hit.