20 facts you might not know about 'Jurassic Park'

Michael Crichton was a very successful novelist (as well as a TV and movie writer), and Jurassic Park drew plenty of attention. The novel came out in 1990, three years before the film. However, the rights to the film were bought even before the book hit the shelves.

Given how much buzz it was getting with studios, Crichton could play hardball. He was able to see a $1.5 million fee for the rights to the book, and he wanted a chunk of the box office as well. Four studio and director combos put in their bids for the film. Joe Dante, Richard Donner, and Tim Burton were in the running, but Universal and Steven Spielberg won out.

In addition to writing the novel, Crichton was given a chance to write the screenplay for the adaptation. He had his pass at the script but didn’t write the final draft. That was done by David Koepp, who wrote or co-wrote movies such as Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, and War of the Worlds. Both writers got credit in the end.

After he finished Hook, Spielberg had a project he wanted to work on: the serious Holocaust drama Schindler’s List. Universal President Sid Sheinberg made the director an offer. If Spielberg would make Jurassic Park next, he would greenlight Schindler’s List for him. Spielberg agreed, and both films came out in 1993. What a year.

One of the inspirations that Spielberg cited for his film is Godzilla, King of the Monsters! However, he also had an inspiration that was close to home. The director said that with Jurassic Park, he was trying to make “Jaws on land.”

Spielberg could have reunited with Harrison Ford if he wanted the part of Alan Grant, though that did not happen. William Hurt was offered the role, but he passed. Sam Neill ended up getting the part, but it was a mere few weeks before filming began. Neill said he had never even heard of the book when he got the role, much less read it.

It’s impossible to imagine anybody else but Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm. Casting director Janet Hirshenson seemed to agree, as she pictured Goldblum in the role after reading the novel. That doesn’t mean only Goldblum auditioned for the role. A pre-fame Jim Carrey tried out for Dr. Malcolm.

Knight is a bit of a scene-stealer in his role as the weasely Dennis Nedry, the closest thing to a human villain in the film. These days, Knight is best remembered as Newman on Seinfeld, but that didn’t play a role in him getting this role. Spielberg cast him based on his performance in Basic Instinct. Spielberg was so impressed with Knight in that film he said that he waited for the end credits to catch Knight’s name and to write it down for future reference.

Joseph Mazzello auditioned for Hook, but Spielberg said he was too young for the film. However, he said he would work with Mazzello in the future. This wasn’t merely an empty Hollywood promise. Spielberg cast the kid as Tim in Jurassic Park.

Richard Kiley originated the role of Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha on Broadway, where he won his second Tony. He also won three Emmys and two Golden Globes in his career. The famed actor had a sonorous voice, and he made use of it in Jurassic Park. Kiley provides the voice as the car’s tour guide.

We’re so used to hearing about CGI these days. Every blockbuster movie makes significant use of it. In the early ‘90s, though, it was still new. Spielberg decided to make substantial use of CGI for Jurassic Park when no other option they tried really worked, and it ended up being the first defining CGI film. They also used animatronic dinosaurs.

Initially, the humans would beat the raptors by having Dr. Grant lift a raptor with a machine into the jaws of the T. Rex skeleton. However, by Spielberg’s own admission, the living T. Rex was the “star” of the film, so he changed the ending to bring it back. Thus, we get the end we know where the T. Rex returns to take down the raptors.

Jurassic Park is a killer title for a movie and theme park. Of course, it’s also a specific period, and the park and the film did not stick to it for the dinosaurs we see. Only the Brachiosaurus and the Dilophosaurus actually lived in the Jurassic period. The rest of the dinosaurs were from the Cretaceous period.

So yeah, Jurassic Park plays it fast and loose with the dinosaur facts. We know these days that Velociraptors were much smaller and probably covered in feathers. Some stuff was made up at the time. For example, Dilophosaurus did not have a neck frill or spit venom. By the way, that “venom” was made with methylcellulose and K-Y Jelly.

The novel and the film versions of Jurassic Park have the same characters and are both about a theme park that brings dinosaurs back to life, but beyond that, there are a lot of differences. The book is more violent, for starters. John Hammond is a greedy businessman instead of a misguided idealist with a big plan. The ages and personalities of Lex and Tim were also swapped, partly so that Spielberg could cast Mazzello. Oh, and Dr. Malcolm spends most of the book slowly dying and ranting while on morphine.

Spielberg did post-production work on Jurassic Park in Poland. Why such an unusual location? Because that’s where he was filming Schindler’s List. Yes, Spielberg was technically working simultaneously on Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List. He called it a “bipolar experience,” which is understandable.

It cost $63 million to make Jurassic Park, and Universal also spent $65 million on marketing. It all paid off, though. When Jurassic Park ended its original run, it was the highest-grossing movie of all time. The movie has a worldwide box office of $1.034 billion thanks to re-releases.

Jurassic Park was a technical feat, and the Academy Awards noticed that. It won three Oscars: Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Visual Effects. By the way, what won Best Picture that year? Schindler’s List, for which Spielberg also took home Best Director.

When you release the highest-grossing movie ever, you are not going to rest on your laurels. A sequel, The Lost World, was quickly greenlit, followed by Jurassic Park III . Since then, the series has been rebooted with Chris Pratt in a key role. Jurassic World has been followed by a sequel, and another film, Jurassic World: Dominion, came out in 2022.

When the T. Rex is chasing down the gang, Ian Malcolm declares, “Must go faster.” A few years later, Goldblum played a similar role to Dr. Malcolm in Independence Day. In that film, Goldblum also says, “Must go faster.” This time, he’s being chased by aliens.