Even hanging from the ceiling, Bruce, an 8-metre-long shark, is still menacing. The dummy shark from the horror blockbuster "Jaws" has his own special spot at Los Angeles' Academy Museum of Motion Pictures - coming soon to viewers like you.
After several delays, the countdown until the museum's release is on: The film industry's prestige project will open in September 2021.
It is a long-cherished dream and long overdue that Los Angeles finally gets its first film museum, says museum director Bill Kramer.
It's been a labour of love for many people to say the least.
Plans for the ambitious building by Italian star architect Renzo Piano were announced back in 2012. Costs shot up to more than 480 million dollars, and the opening was delayed several times, most recently being postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
At the museum, the history of film is to be celebrated over an area of almost 28,000 square metres, spread over seven floors and a futuristic domed building. The collection features countless items, including screenplays, costumes, posters and production design.
Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro gives a foretaste of his fantasy creatures, which will have their own dedicated exhibition, while in a gallery named after director Steven Spielberg, scenes from more than 700 films from all over the world will be shown on 10 monitors.
Oscar-winner Spike Lee also has his say: A collection of beloved items that have shaped his work will be part of the museum. The director behind "BlacKkKlansman," among others, says he especially wants to get school children interested in the world of film.
Curator Jessica Niebel is in charge of the museum's opening exhibition on the work of Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki.
The 80-year-old is world famous for films such as "My Neighbour Totoro" and "Spirited Away." Niebel hopes that the celebrated director will pay a visit for the first retrospective of his work.
She is also optimistic about the latest opening dating in September and takes a positive view of the museum's delayed inauguration.
"We are living in a time when so much is changing in cultural and social discourse, and our museum now has the chance to respond to this," she tells dpa, referring to topics like diversity and racism.
In this way, the museum will also illuminate some of the "less proud" moments of film history. For example, the Academy Awards in 1940.
That's when Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to win an Oscar with her supporting role in the Southern epic "Gone with the Wind." At the awards, however, she was not allowed to sit at a table with the rest of the cast and crew because of her skin colour.
For Niebel, who worked at the German Film Museum in Frankfurt before moving to Los Angeles in 2016, one of the highlights is the round spaceship Aries 1B from Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey."
The rare prop from the filming of the 1968 sci-fi classic looks "simply magnificent" after restoration, she says delightedly.
Stars like Spielberg, Barbra Streisand and George Lucas, as well as film studios, foundations and companies, donated millions for the construction of the academy. One of the glass bridges that connects the elegant old building on Wilshire Boulevard with a bold, gigantic sphere of glass, steel and concrete is named after Streisand.
In the belly of the sphere is the David Geffen cinema, with 1,000 seats. Above it is a huge terrace from which one looks down on the famous Hollywood sign.
Niebel admires not only the millions donated, but also the time and energy that big stars put into the project. "Tom Hanks and Annette Bening, for example, were always ready [to help] when asked ... The Academy Museum is a real labour of love for them," she says.
With cultural institutions being shut down for a long period due to the coronavirus pandemic, Niebel expects the museum to receive a lot of visitors on its opening day. But, she adds, there's also a lot online for people abroad who might not be able to make it right away.
"The museum can expand internationally and reach people who can never come here," says Niebel.
