The movie ‘Jaws’ is released

‘Jaws’ (1975), a film directed by Steven Spielberg that made countless viewers afraid to go into the water, opens in theatres around America on this day in 1975. The story of a great white shark that terrorised a New England resort town became an instant blockbuster and was the highest-grossing film in movie history until it was bested by 1977's ‘Star Wars’. ‘Jaws’ was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category and took home three Oscars for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. The film, a breakthrough for director Spielberg, then 27 years old, spawned three sequels. The film starred Roy Scheider as principled police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as a marine biologist named Matt Hooper and Robert Shaw as a grizzled fisherman called Quint. It was set in the fictional beach town of Amity, and was based on a best-selling novel, released in 1973, by Peter Benchley.

Subsequent water-themed Benchley bestsellers also made it to the big screen, including ‘The Deep’ (1977). With a budget of $12 million, Jaws was produced by the team of Richard Zanuck and David Brown, whose later credits include ‘The Verdict’ (1982), ‘Cocoon’ (1985) and ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ (1989). Filming, which took place at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, was plagued by delays and technical difficulties, including malfunctioning mechanical sharks. ‘Jaws’ put now-famed director Steven Spielberg on the Hollywood map. Spielberg, largely self-taught in filmmaking, made his feature-length directorial debut with ‘The Sugarland Express’ in 1974. The film was critically well-received but a box-office flop.

Following the success of ‘Jaws’, Spielberg went on to become one of the most influential, iconic people in the film world, with such epics as ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ (1977), ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (1981), ‘ET: the Extra-Terrestrial’ (1982), ‘Jurassic Park’ (1993), ‘Schindler's List’ (1993) and ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998). ‘E.T.’, ‘Jaws’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ rank among the 10 highest-grossing movies of all time. In 1994, Spielberg formed DreamWorks SKG, with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. The company has produced such hits as ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Gladiator’ (2001) and ‘Shrek’ (2001).