 The 26-year-old had just directed his first theatrical film, "The Sugarland Express", for Zanuck and Brown.At the end of a meeting in their office, Spielberg noticed their copy of the still-unpublished Benchley novel, and after reading it was immediately captivated.He later observed that it was similar to his 1971 television film "Duel" in that both deal with "these leviathans targeting everymen".