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Producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown optioned the film rights to the novel for $175,000 in a deal which also included a first-draft screenplay from author Peter Benchley. This draft, extremely faithful to the novel, would later be rejected by Steven Spielberg. The subsequent two drafts from Benchley would also be rejected.
Several decades after the film's release, Lee Fierro walked into a seafood restaurant and noticed an "Alex Kintner Sandwich" on the menu. She commented that she had played his mother many years ago. Jeffrey Voorhees, owner of the restaurant, ran out to meet her. He had played her son, and they hadn't seen each other since the original movie shoot.
According to director Steven Spielberg, the prop arm looked too fake in the scene where Chrissie's remains are discovered, so instead, they buried a female crew member in the sand with only her arm exposed.
When composer John Williams originally played the score for director Steven Spielberg, Spielberg laughed and said, "That's funny, John, really; but what did you really have in mind for the theme of Jaws?" Spielberg later stated that without Williams's score, the movie would only have been half as successful and according to Williams, it jump-started his career.
According to writer Carl Gottlieb, Roy Scheider ad-libbed the line "You're gonna need a bigger boat."
Over 67 million people in the U.S. went to see this film when it was initially released in 1975, making it the first summer "blockbuster."
Steven Spielberg: Voice on Quint's marine radio, when Mrs. Brody tries to contact her husband on the "Orca."