In the run up to the biggest shark movie of 2018, The Daily Jaws chummed the waters with some killer questions and was lucky enough to hook a big fish, The Meg author himself Steve Alten! Read on as Steve talks movies, screenwriting, Jason Staham and Jaws vs The Meg.....

This may not have been a boating accident, coral reef or boat propeller...unfortunately it turns out it was Provincetown’s own wannabe Jack The Ripper... With renewed global interest in the case and advances in forensics one can only hope that this is one Martha’s Vineyard mystery that won’t remain unsolved. However, we don’t seem to have anything more than circumstantial evidence of the ‘Lady of the Dunes’ fitting the description of a female extra forever frozen in time in Jaws.

The Megalodon has a blink and you’ll miss it cameo appearance in #Jaws when Chief Brody is flicking through shark books, it’s that iconic image we all know and love of two rows of Victorian men stood in its jaws. That’s both Scheider and Statham on its CV, not a bad record for this vicinity.

I was 5 the first time I saw Jaws and instead of being terrified I was fascinated. I'll never forget the first time I saw Hooper roll into Amity to look at the body and announce the bite radius was no dogfish or the famous necropsy on the dock. I knew that was who I wanted to be. Whenever we would take a family vacation to Universal studios Hollywood I remember riding the back lot tour and just in awe every time we'd go through the lake and that robotic shark would show. I was on cloud nine.          

So, being Shark Week - and our very own Bruce Week - we wanted to help celebrate sharks and Jaws by creating The Daily Jaws version of shark facts.

The originals are below but we want to hear your greatest or favourite shark fact, something that helps recognise how wonderful this species - many of them endangered - is.

1983 was a vintage year for sequels, we had the (then) conclusion to the Star Wars trilogy, with Return of the Jedi, we still believed a man could fly in Superman III and had not one, but two James Bond films - Octopussy and Never Say Never Again. And we also had the second Jaws sequel...and it was in 3D.

Visiting football fans should probably rule out a celebratory dip in the ocean when in Russia for the World Cup, if this next tale is anything to go by...

When you think of shark attacks, you probably think of the US, Australia or South Africa, but back in 2011 a series of brutal shark attacks hit the Eastern coast of Russia, in the Sea of Japan.

In a story that could have been taken from Jaws, it was the first time shark attacks had been recorded in that area of Russia, all of which makes it sound almost like a Russian version of Amity Island.

Sure, every film has its fans but it has always seemed that - unfairly - Jaws and its fan base has played second fiddle to the likes of Star Wars. (Great film, but it isn't Jaws).

So, in true Matt Hooper style, what behavioural traits should you be looking for to be diagnosed as a true Jaws fan? Jaws fan and Chief The Daily Jaws scribe, Dean Newman, investigates.

It may be the World Cup but we at The Daily Jaws Towers are too busy celebrating the 40th anniversary of Jaws 2, 35th of Jaws 3D and 43rd birthday of the original Jaws to get involved in all of that. Football, my ass! (Or soccer if you are from the states). We realise that footy and the World Cup is a big deal for lots of people - y’know a bit like Jaws is for us - so wanted in on some of that football action.

She was the first...and we explore that scene as our first ever behind the screams, charting how Jaws made it to our screens - something almost as legendary as the Steven Spielberg film itself Last weekend The Daily Jaws, along with lots - is that a shoal? - of other Jaws fans, got the chance to meet Susan Backlinie, who played first Jaws victim Chrissie Watkins

On June 20th 2018, The Daily Jaws was honored to host a world first... a live interview with legendary Jaws actor & screenwriter Carl Gottlieb. Carl joined us 43 years to the day Jaws was released and we invited you to submit questions for Carl. For an hour Carl discussed writing Jaws, working with Scheider, Shaw, Dreyfuss and Spielberg, his fondest memories of shooting Jaws and we even had a surprise visitor!

Jaws 2 isn’t Jaws, I get it, but it deserves more love than it gets - although there seems to be a fair bit of it from The Daily Jaws followers. As sequels go it can’t really be categorised as a case of diminishing returns and whilst not mentioned in the same breath as Aliens and The Godfather Part 2 in fine sequel conversations it’s certainly better than the muddled The Exorcist 2, the teenage-themed Damian: Omen II, Halloween 2 and Plain dull Poltergeist 2. The originals of which were standout in their genres.

Seeing Jaws live with an audience is almost like a religious experience of sorts, we all know the film inside out but collectively laugh at all the same places, the same was true with the Southend audience. Not quite as feverish as the fanatical RAH crowd - Jaws live Mecca if you will - there was no cheering and applause when Bruce exploded at the end.

Prior to Jaws in Concert in Southend-on-Sea, our Chief Writer, Dean Newman, had an exclusive The Daily Jaws interview with him giving a fascinating insight into bringing the music to Jaws and other Spielberg classics to life, chatting about everything from the live film conducting experience to his favourite death in Jaws.

Answer that last question and you could be in with a chance of winning a mini-Jaws in Concert poster signed by Ben.

And that film looks just as gorgeous today as it did over 40 years ago. Bill Butler - who celebrated his 97th birthday last weekend - plays a huge part in that, even more impressive as half of it was shot on or in the sea.

Self-confessed games nut Spielberg has melded those two worlds in his adaptation of Ready Player One, which features a huge hit of iconic pop and movie culture references in an escapist virtual reality world. Those that have seen the trailers will have glimpsed the likes of a DeLorean, The Iron Giant and so on, but no Bruce.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ museum is going to need a bigger building as it has announced that the fourth and final surviving shark taken from the original mold is set to be the largest item on display...25 feet, just not three tons of him - he's only made out of fibreglass after all.

Every so often Hollywood will make a hit film that will have such a cultural impact that it will radiate a slew of lesser quality cash ins and knock offs. We had years of it post Die Hard with Die Hard on a bus, plane, ship, train etc.

The same thing happened with Jaws as Hollywood discovered that nature just kept on fighting back...mostly badly. Even the posters, covering everything from Tentacles to Blood Beach feature a scantily clad young woman in distress (and little else) about to be enveloped by the corresponding film’s creature.

I found myself thinking of new plays on not only “Jaws” but even other “Jaws” knock offs that came out shortly after it and in the years that followed, movies like “Grizzly”, “Piranha”, “Alligator”, “Blades” and so forth.  But the main focus was “Jaws”, and I thought of ways to pay homage to all the great moments and characters in that movie, big and small.  Some are obvious, well know and quoted often, but others would only be caught by the hardcore “Jaws” fan.

Jaws, seems such an obvious title doesn’t it? That wasn’t always the case though, so you could have been reading this article on The Daily The Stillness in the Water or The Daily Leviathan Rising. Thankfully, some 125 titles later, we ended up with the Jaws title we know and love.