Mission Statement

Hey friend,

Like most of you visiting this site for the first time I too was inspired into a creative career endeavor of some sort. Filmmaking has been an interest of mine for quite some time. As a result I got fired up, but American Graffitti really started the engine...Jaws revved things up and finally Star Wars pushed it over the edge. Then there were all the other great and not so great (but entertaining) films of that period like POTA (classic), Willard and even the mundanely arcane Neptune Factor that kept me there.

So here I am a couple of short films later, a couple of near complete scripts under the arm (working on several now), lots of ideas (funny how some of them get used before you can see your own to fruition) and a passion to still make something worthwhile happen (if not a film). Currently I'm a freelance writer and reporter for several small publications 'including this one'.

Possibly seeing the Orca resurrected from whatever hell it hath wrought is another way of finding that 'something worthwhile' to make happen (until which time my filmmaking/media dreams are fully realized). In any case, I'm not sure if Universal knew it was the actual working Orca when they had it 'removed'....but either way, like you, I believe it needs to be found, restored and or displayed for people to see, enjoy, be inspired by, and accorded it's due respect for the piece of historical art that it is/was. I'm reminded of the Viking ship hulls that have been recovered and restored...or the other countless historical wrecks raised and refurbished.

Who's to say that the 'Orca' isnt as much a part of History and certainly popular culture? I suppose because it was derived from a fictional story it's not respected as such. But Warlock / Orca was and is a real boat and it served a real purpose in peoples lives as an icon of perseverance on and off the screen.

I believe this distended recovery effort falls somewhere into the field of film prop archeology, which has slowly evolved into an extended field of acceptable research by the academic community and certainly the collective Ebay generation. In the worst case scenario we will derive the 'definitive' resultant discovery as to when why, where and how the Orca was truly destroyed and disambiguated or at best know why and where the Orca is, if only as a pile of wood existing on the back lot or in some god forsaken junkyard.

While the Orca was still in psuedo Amity and I had the chance to board her, I was tempted to take some of the padded red vinyl galley seats or one of the chrome scoops on the stern (amazingly they were still there) but decided that since Universal surely was going to restore it at some point why should I make it more difficult for them...If I had only known they were going to remove/trash/destroy/hide it. And of course this site might not exist.

Our ongoing petition will hopefully help demonstrate a sincere interest in Orca to the powers that be at Universal. In this manner we will have a vehicle that will immediately communicate this plight to the masses. In the meantime, I'm planning several fact finding trips to the USH lot to follow-up on the whereabouts of Orca and to take photo evidence (if there is any left).

We know there are a few reference pieces floating about (like the wheel and fighting chair) so its a start. I believe USH owes this much to fin fans that helped make the film a blockbuster. As far as I’m concerned the fans have paid their dues to Uni in multi millions of $$$$. Probably enough to buy one little boat that was never big enough...

Fred