James Cameron Nearly Directed Jurassic Park

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The Wooster

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Jul 15, 2008
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James Cameron Nearly Directed Jurassic Park


Cameron's take on Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park would have been "Aliens with dinosaurs."

Now that he's made two of the highest-grossing films in history, Avatar director, James Cameron, presumably gets his pick of movie concepts. But there was a time the Canadian director had to fight other directors for projects, and one title that slipped his grasp was Jurassic Park. As Cameron tells it, fellow blockbuster-merchant, Steven Spielberg, beat him to the movie rights for Michael Crichton's best-selling novel by a few hours.

"I tried to buy the book rights and he beat me to it by a few hours," Cameron told the Huffington Post at the recently opened Titanic Museum in Belfast. "But when I saw the film, I realized that I was not the right person to make the film, he was. Because he made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would have been Aliens with dinosaurs, and that wouldn't have been fair."

"Dinosaurs are for 8-year-olds," he continued. "We can all enjoy it, too, but kids get dinosaurs and they should not have been excluded for that. His sensibility was right for that film, I'd have gone further, nastier, much nastier."

Despite, or perhaps because of, all the severed limbs and ravenous prehistoric monsters, Jurassic Park went on to be a huge hit with kids. The film spawned all manner of merchandise, a number of theme park rides and over a dozen video games. It also popularized the Velociraptor, much to the chagrin of paleontologists who are forced to break hearts on a daily basis by explaining that the creatures were essentially dorky-looking chickens. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Velociraptor_dinoguy2.jpg]

Producer Frank Marshall recently confirmed that Jurassic park IV would be hitting screens within the next two years. The script was written by Mark (writer of The Cell, Thor and the upcoming Mass Effect film) and Jurassic Park 3 director, Joe Johnson is set to direct.

Source" The Huffington Post [http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/09/07/titanic-director-james-cameron-jurassic-park-steven-spielberg_n_1864996.html]



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Signa

Noisy Lurker
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Jul 16, 2008
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Nice read, but that last line was a shot to the balls. JP4?! Are they mad?
 

nodlimax

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Feb 8, 2012
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".....and Jurassic Park 3 director, Joe Johnson is set to direct."

Now that can't be good.

But I would love to see Camerons take on JP.
 

Korten12

Now I want ma...!
Aug 26, 2009
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Signa said:
Nice read, but that last line was a shot to the balls. JP4?! Are they mad?
Hey! The Third movie and the first movie are enjoyable. D: The third one may not be the smartest but it's got some awesome scenes. :D Good mindless flick. :)
 

Jorec

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Jul 7, 2010
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Oh JP4 is still in the works?

When was JP3 released? Early 2000s? And where would it even take place?

Is there some third island hidden in the Bermuda triangle or something?

.....

I hope not.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Jan 22, 2010
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nodlimax said:
".....and Jurassic Park 3 director, Joe Johnson is set to direct."

Now that can't be good.

But I would love to see Camerons take on JP.
dude, Joe Johnston isn't a bad director. I just want to kill whoever wrote the script for 3. Johnston has made some kickass movies, like The Rocketeer and Captain America.

And am I the only one here who liked the second movie? It was dumb, but it was still fun.
 

Triangulon

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Nov 20, 2009
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You underestimate children I think. I was seven when the film came out and I knew full well their (and Crichton's) depiction of Velociraptor was actually a combination of Deinonychus and the then newly discovered Utahraptor.

Soviet Heavy said:
And am I the only one here who liked the second movie? It was dumb, but it was still fun.
The book is a decent read. Better than the film (as if that needed to be said).
 

Ignatz_Zwakh

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Sep 3, 2010
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And then Corman went and had Carnosaur 2 made, which is LITERALLY Aliens blended together with Jurassic Park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkYAr_wyaZU
 

Andy of Comix Inc

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Apr 2, 2010
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So he would have made Jurassic Park 3?

Anyway, while I agree dinosaurs are one of the few very awesome things kids get that adults have to share (like Transformers), I hate kids and think one less dinosaur movie for them would have been just... just great. Seriously. Fuck you kids! I get the dinosaurs! What do YOU have??! MWAHAHA

...oh well. Hopefully there'll be no kids in Primal Carnage.
 

Metalrocks

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Jan 15, 2009
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JP4??!! are the serious. part 3 was awful. part 2 wasnt really better either but still better then part 3.
i still like JP. for that time, its still a great movie, and even when im not a kid anymore, i still enjoy it. the kitchen scene is still the best.

miss crichton. loved his books.
 

ChupathingyX

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Jun 8, 2010
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Jurassic Park is still one of my favourite films to date though I wouldn't mind seeing "Aliens with dinosaurs", just as long as there are no actual aliens.

Soviet Heavy said:
And am I the only one here who liked the second movie? It was dumb, but it was still fun.
No, you're not.

"Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming."
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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As if J Cameron has EVER came anything close to being as immersive as Aliens.
Therefore, i dont think he would have succeeded anyway.
 

Fasckira

Dice Tart
Oct 22, 2009
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loa said:
Jurassic park was for kids?
What.
To be fair, it was pretty much that level of humour and action. Sure, it had some "scary" bits in it but on the whole it was pretty laid back. Prime example is when the kid is hanging onto the electric fence and has to count down before he lets go but gets shocked off it before he can say "1".

I wouldn't say that all dinosaur films should be aimed at kids though, I think Cameron is a bit wrong there. If they released a proper gritty action film with dinosaurs it'd be great, make a nice change from the various comic book plundering films we've had recently.
 

The Human Torch

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Sep 12, 2010
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Producer Frank Marshall recently confirmed that Jurassic park IV would be hitting screens within the next two years. The script was written by Mark (writer of The Cell, Thor and the upcoming Mass Effect film) and Jurassic Park 3 director, Joe Johnson is set to direct.
Cell: crap movie, far too pretentious for it's own good.
Thor: not bad, but very simplistic (but how much can you get out of a comic book anyway)
Jurassic Park 3: absolutely horrible.

I HAVE NO FAITH IN PART 4.
 

DugMachine

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Apr 5, 2010
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Wait WHAT all I got out of this was Mass Effect film? Please for the love of jebus christ on a bun, do. not. do. this.
 

snekadid

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Mar 29, 2012
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doggie015 said:
Vault101 said:
upcoming Mass Effect film???

oh jesus NO.....
Look on the bright side. At least it'll have an actual ending on day 1!
Nope, the ending will be day 1 DLC.

Did anyone else read this as cameron saying he is too good to make movies for kids so its a good thing spielberg got it so he could debase himself? Screw you Carmeron, you're a hack who needed an outlandish CGI budget so you could remake pocahontas with all the characters replaced with the bastard love children of "Cats" and the blue man group.
 

ascorbius

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Nov 18, 2009
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Vault101 said:
upcoming Mass Effect film???

oh jesus NO.....
Dinosaurs, blah blah... Mass Effect?! Ears prick up.

If it's done right, it could be the *only* decent game to movie conversion... there's certainly enough material and there's an established look.. It could be awesome!

Just guard the production from Uwe Boll with snipers and to keep in on topic, a T-Rex.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1482455/