Jurassic World arrives today in theaters, and it’s got all the familiar elements: the theme-park setting, the classic dinosaurs, the kids in peril. But 10 years ago, Jurassic World was going to be different. Very different.
Contrary to popular belief, Jurassic Park III didn’t kill the franchise. The movie wasn’t the biggest hit in the franchise, but it still made quite a bit of money and Universal wanted a sequel. However, the studio and Spielberg both agreed the angle of running away from dinosaurs in the jungle felt played out after three movies. After three years of back and forth, debating whether to adapt more of Michael Crichton’s scenes from the books, Spielberg turned to a screenwriter he’d worked with before, John Sayles, to take the series in a completely new direction.
Sayles is legendary among film nerds for his sensitive indie movies, but he keeps the bills paid as a script doctor and genre movie writer. Sayles and Spielberg have a long working relationship, with Sayles swinging for the fences… and swing he did.
Sayles’ script has never officially been released, although it has leaked on the internet. His vision was… different, to say the least. It opens with a Little League game being attacked by pterosaurs, snatching up kids left and right, before revealing the UN has a dino-hunting task force. Which brings us to mercenary Nick Harris. He needs a job, and, in the process of hunting down Dennis Nedry’s shaving-cream can (remember that?) for John Hammond, finds himself in command of a squad of genetically engineered human/dinosaur hybrids. And then he’s sent after, among other things, a drug cartel.
It’s tempting to think this is a gag, but it isn’t: Sayles has confirmed as much. In fact, the production was actively looking for directors as Sayles was working on the script, and concept art has leaked over the years. For about a year, this movie was in active development, before being put on hold in 2005.
If you know where to look, more than a few of Sayles’ ideas turn up in the movie that actually came to theaters 10 years later. But, sadly, it appears the dinosaur commandos are a thing of the past. At least for now: After all, there’s always Jurassic Park V.
(Via web.archive, dorkly and ign)
