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Steven Spielberg 'truly regrets' making Jaws

Steven Spielberg 'truly regrets' making Jaws
Director Steven Spielberg.
PHOTO: Reuters

Steven Spielberg "truly regrets" making Jaws as he believes it drove a frenzy of shark killings.

The Schindler's List director, 76, who made his name with the 1975 fish horror about a bloodthirsty great white shark terrorising a US resort added he hates the idea it painted sharks as man-eaters.

He told Radio 4's Desert Island Discs he fears "sharks are somehow mad at me", and said: "I really truly regret that" about the spate of shark killings by fish hunters in the aftermath of Jaws' release.

He added the film was partly to blame for a "feeding frenzy of crazy fisherman which happened after 1975", saying: "I truly, and to this day, regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film."

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Jaws was based on a 1974 book of the same name written by Peter Benchley, who went on to become a shark conservationist.

Experts say the novel and Steven's film led to professional and amateur fishermen and game hunters swarming to target sharks as trophies.

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