Culture news “I would have been much meaner” James Cameron wanted to direct this cult sci-fi film instead of Steven Spielberg
On an alternate Earth, a film that changed cinema forever could have been made by the director of Avatar, Terminator, Titanic and Aliens Return. James Cameron himself was in the running to obtain the film adaptation rights to a science fiction novel ultimately obtained by… Steven Spielberg.
More than thirty years ago, on June 11, 1993 in the United States and October 20, 1993 in France, the most famous T-Rex of the 7th Art glued spectators to their seats who dared to venture into the dark rooms. Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by the duo Michael Crichton and David Koepp based on the novel of the same nameJurassic Park atomizes the box office with its 1.057 billion dollars collected for an estimated budget of 63 million (excluding marketing costs), and forever transforms the way films are made.
Beyond the perfectly orchestrated staging, the performances of the actors and actresses and the music of John Williams, Jurassic Park stands out for its revolutionary visuals – a fusion of animatronics and computer-generated images – which even today have not aged a bit. On RottenTomatoes, Steven Spielberg’s film sports a roaring score of 91% (Press) and quickly acquired the deserved status of masterpiece, proving that entertainment intended for the general public can be quality.
Jurassic Park by James Cameron
Steven Spielberg and Universal Pictures still had to fight to obtain the rights to adapt the novel Jurassic Park written in 1990 by Michael Crichton. Other great directors, among the most famous at the time, wanted to bring this Jurassic tale to the big screen including Tim Burton, Joe Dante (the Gremlins saga), Richard Donner (Superman, The Goonies, the Lethal Weapon quadrilogy) and finally… James Cameron. At the beginning of the 90s, the latter was crowned with the success of Terminator (1984), Aliens Return (1986), Abyss (1989) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
During an interview given in 2012 to our British colleagues from Huffington Post, the Canadian director admitted to having tried to acquire the rights to Jurassic Park. Unfortunately for him, Steven Spielberg beat him to it by a few hours… These few hours changed cinema forever. According to his own words, James Cameron would have made a much darker film and in no way intended for children:
When I saw the film, I realized I wasn’t the right person to do it, he was. Because he had made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would have had aliens with dinosaurs, and that wouldn’t have been right.
Dinosaurs are for 8 year olds. We can all appreciate them. Children have the right to dinosaurs and they should not be excluded. His sensibility was suited to this film. I would have gone further, nastier, much nastier. -James Cameron
See Aliens, the return on Disney+
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