Trivia / Piranha Part Two: The Spawning

• Creator Backlash: This was James Cameron's first credited directing gig, although it's not clear how much of the finished product Cameron really created, as he got the job after the original director was fired. It's alleged that at one point he even tried to break into the studio to either salvage or destroy the film. Eventually Cameron developed a sense of humor about it, having been quoted as saying it's "the finest flying-piranha movie ever made." He also credits the film for helping him hone the puppetry that would be needed for the Facehuggers in Aliens.
• Franchise Killer: Ovidio G. Assonitis was set to produce a third entry in the Piranha series in the early 1990s but it never materialized. The rights reverted back to Roger Corman, who made a made-for-TV remake of the first film.
• Production Posse:
  • Lance Henriksen would become a regular member of James Cameron's stock company, and Tricia O'Neil went on to appear in Titanic (1997). Screenwriter Charles H. Eglee would co-create the TV show Dark Angel with Cameron, and co-write the story for Terminator: Dark Fate.
  • The film shares the cinematographer (Roberto D'Ettore Piazzoli) and composer (Stelvio Cipriani) as Ovidio G. Assonitis' previous film Tentacles. Both film were produced to cash-in on Jaws.
• Prop Recycling: The "flying piranha" mechanics were later reused in Aliens as the moving facehuggers.
• Troubled Production: According to Lance Henriksen, making this movie was the most trying time in his life production-wise. Ovidio G. Assonitis wanted to spend only 300,000 dollars on the film (even though he had made a deal for 500,000), which meant that they had to cut cost wherever they could.
  • The original director of the film was Miller Drake, who had started his career in Roger Corman movies, but disagreements over the script caused him to be fired. Production was a mess, with replacement director James Cameron, who had been working as special effects artist for Corman, having to make a number of the flying piranha rubber models himself.
  • After the first week of shooting, the set harmony was disturbed by some discussions about the work between the director and the producers (Assonitis, asked to verify the day-to-day activities, arguing with most of Cameron's choices), so while Cameron was only responsible for the shooting, most of the decisions were under Assonitis' authority.
  • Due to budget limitations the crew was composed essentially of Italians, none of whom spoke English. Some however did have prior experience on horror/fantasy movies so they were, to some extent, able to satisfy Cameron's requirements.
  • Henriksen was told that they couldn't afford a uniform for his character and that he should play the role in his own plain clothes, to which Henriksen objected, insisting that a harbor patrolman couldn't do his job without a uniform as if he's some plain clothes undercover cop. The situation was resolved when Henriksen noticed a sharp dressed waiter the same size as him, and asked him to sell his uniform for 75 bucks of his own money. He also had to use whale-shaped pins as his police badge and epaulets that showed his rank. Additionally, Henriksen had to carve the wooden gun in his holster by himself.
  • As Cameron wanted an explosive finale, he added to the script that Henriksen's character jumps out of a helicopter to save his drowning family. The helicopter was a Jamaican police helicopter used to chase drug smugglers and was piloted by a professional pilot. However, at one point a boat snuck under the chopper, almost hitting Henriksen's legs, so the pilot had to raise the chopper quickly, and in the maneuver, Cameron accidentally dropped the shooting camera into the sea, which was never recovered. Both Cameron and Henriksen considered themselves lucky to still be alive after that. Additionally, during his scripted jump, Henriksen almost broke an arm and his boots immediately started filling up with water as soon as he landed, so he almost drowned.
  • To make matters worse, producer Assonitis didn't like the way that Cameron was shooting and fired him as well, taking over the directorial duties himself. Cameron was not allowed to see his footage and was not involved in editing. He broke into the editing room in Rome and cut his own version while the film's producers were at Cannes, but was caught and Assonitis recut it again. However, when he presented his version of the film to Warner Bros., they didn't like it and decided not to distribute the film. The movie was only released two years later by a smaller company that normally distributed pornographic films. Years later, a different distributor allowed Cameron to create his own cut.
• What Could Have Been:
  • An early version of the script centered on the return of Barbara Steele and Kevin McCarthy's characters from the first film (even though McCarthy died in the first film). McCarthy would've lived on an abandoned oil rig, and killed Steele by smashing her head through a fish tank. Neither Steele nor McCarthy were available, so the idea was scrapped.
  • Roger Corman turned down the chance to produce the film, as he was busy making his own underwater horror film, Humanoids from the Deep.

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