A screenplay is your blueprint. Your map. The seed that grows the tree, or, if you will, the Holiday roast that tempts an aquatic predator. Jaws is many things, but it harks back to a time when the Summer Blockbuster was in its infancy, and story was still the draw, rather than spectacle.

Often overlooked is Carl Gottlieb’s script—one of the most efficient and economical screenplays put to screen. It all starts with Peter Benchley’s novel. I first read Jaws all the way through around fifth grade. I was shocked at how different the book was from the film that I saw only a year or so before.

Want to write a great screenplay that connects with an audience and lives to tell the tale in decades to come. Then study JAWS. The answers are there. It is part of my screenwriting armour - and it can part of yours too!

Jaws screenwriter and author of The Jaws Log Carl Gottlieb talks to The Daily Jaws about how he feels about Jaws the script being lauded by screenwriters to this day as a go to script, a masterclass in writing, foreshadowing, tension, character and humour.