Jaws... what a nightmare

'The shark didn't work, we were 100 days late and the boat sank... I thought this was going to end my career'

- Steven Spielberg

Even 50 years on, that eerie, two-note bass theme still fills movie fans with a sense of impending doom.

John Williams' brilliant music peaked the tension ahead of shark attacks in Jaws, leaving moviegoers traumatised - but making the film was famously traumatic for director Steven Spielberg, too.

Spielberg goes into detail about the hair-raising experience of spending millions making the movie with his nascent career on the line - amid malfunctioning mechanical sharks and sinking boats - in a new 90-minute documentary.

Now 78, Spielberg details his ordeal in Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, to air on Nat Geo and Disney+ next Friday.

The legendary director says his first contact with the story was when he saw a stack of papers in the office of producer Richard Zanuck and his partner David Brown.

Spielberg recalls: "I looked at the top sheet and it said Jaws, by Peter Benchley. And I had no idea what that meant, Jaws'. I mean, was it the history of dentistry?

"I read it and I was enthralled. It frightened me so much. I was so angry at being frightened that I wanted to frighten back. I'll make this movie and scare them all back."