Plans for a 10-day summer festival in Aquinnah to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the blockbuster Jaws have deteriorated before they ever really materialized.

The Aquinnah select board announced in January that it had been months since they last heard from Michael Cochrane, a descendant of Universal Studios co-founder Philip Dakin Cochrane, who was organizing the events for June 15–25 this year.

“Something like this is going to have to have extensive planning and I don’t anticipate that there’s enough time left to do this,” said Tom Murphy, Aquinnah select board member.

Mr. Cochrane lives in Norwalk, Conn. and last year posed a plan to have the Boston Pops orchestra play music from the movie, which was largely filmed on the Island, at the Len Butler Memorial Park on the Aquinnah cliffs. Other plans included erecting the movie’s famed Amity Island sign for display in the town and hosting actor Richard Dreyfuss and composer John Williams, who won a Grammy for his Jaws score.

In an interview on Monday, Mr. Cochrane said it’s been a challenge to secure funding for the celebration, and while he’s still trying to arrange something, his original plans are off the table.

“It’s really distressing, I would say, to not be able to do something for this anniversary,” Mr. Cochrane said.

He said Universal Studios has not been responsive, which Mr. Cochrane said made it difficult for him to move forward. He was also working with consultants at Interluxe Group, but they backed out. 

“They have decided that they’re incredibly busy with a lot of their other projects, and so it became difficult for them to focus their attention on this project without the necessary capital,” he said.

A screening of the blockbuster at the Vineyard Film Society is still in the works, according to Mr. Cochrane. He and Richard Paradise, founder and director of the society, plan to show the film on the same night it was released in 1975.

“We haven’t talked in a while, but he’s been a real supporter of what we were hoping to do, and that’s definitely still a possibility,” Mr. Cochrane said.

Despite Mr. Cochrane’s ideas hitting the rocks, there are a number of events planned around the 50th anniversary of Jaws.

Production designer Joe Alves will be visiting the Vineyard, and Islanders who were part of the movie’s production will be doing meet-and-greets. Special features include a scaled-down replica of the “Amity Island Welcomes You” billboard and to-scale model of the Orca ship on display for the public.

The Martha’s Vineyard Museum will debut their first-ever comprehensive exhibition with photographs, oral histories and movie props from the film’s production.