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JURASSIC PARK was released 32 years ago today. One of the most successful blockbusters ever made and a landmark in digital effects, the production of the film was as huge and spectacular as the T. Rex…

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Jurassic Park is based on a novel written by Michael Crichton. Crichton’s concept was deemed so strong by Hollywood that studios were bidding on the rights to the book before it was even published.

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Crichton’s first idea was about a Pterodactyl being cloned and befriending a child. He changed it to be about a college student who accidentally creates a dinosaur. He rewrote it again to be like his own movie Westworld – a theme park where everything goes wrong.

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Warner Bros wanted Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Batman) to direct the movie. Columbia wanted it for Richard Donner (Superman, Lethal Weapon), and 20th Century Fox were keen on buying the rights and hiring Joe Dante (Gremlins, Inner Space).

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James Cameron tried to buy the rights and said his version, “would’ve been like Aliens with dinosaurs.” Cameron wanted Charlton Heston as Hammond, Bill Paxton as Malcolm, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Grant.

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Universal won the bidding war and wanted Steven Spielberg, who created the blockbuster in 1975, to direct. At the time, Spielberg was in pre-production on a movie version of ER. Sid Sheinberg at Universal made an offer: “Make Jurassic Park and we’ll do Schindler’s List.”

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The first person Spielberg hired as writer was Malia Scotch Marmo, who had written Hook. Her draft was very different to the movie. It had the T. Rex in the opening sequence and left Ian Malcolm out of the film altogether.

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Spielberg wasn’t impressed so brought Crichton in to adapt his own book. Spielberg liked Crichton’s version but a Spielberg custom is that he hires a second writer to look over his scripts. In this case, the person he brought in to do that was David Koepp.

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Koepp changed a fair bit. He trimmed character backstories because he thought they were, “boring and unnecessary”. And it was he who introduced Malcolm flirting with Ellie and Dr Grant’s arc of becoming a father-figure to Lex and Tim.

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Filming took place on Hawaiian island Kauai. 3 weeks in the island was hit by hurricane Iniki. Producer Kathleen Kennedy flew to Honolulu on a Salvation Army plane to a pay phone and arranged the return of the crew back to LA and arranged for $20k to be sent to Kauai.

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When the storm hit, Spielberg and DP Dean Cundy went to film the hurricane. Some of those shots made it into the movie. Where we see huge waves crashing against Isla Nublar, that’s Hurricane Iniki.

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The cast and crew were moved to their hotel ballroom to shelter from the hurricane in but Richard Attenborough didn’t go. He just stayed in bed. When Spielberg asked him how he could do that, Attenborough said: “My dear boy, I survived the blitz!”

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When filming wrapped, Spielberg went straight into production on Schindler’s List. He was working on both films at the same time - filming Schindler’s List during the day, and editing Jurassic Park at night. He called it “the hardest time of my filmmaking life.”

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It was worth it, though. Jurassic Park was the highest grossing film of all time and Schindler’s List won Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars.

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Spielberg was filming Schindler’s List in Poland so, to keep communication open with the Jurassic Park team in LA, he rented two satellite channels through Polish television and kept them open at all times. The satellites cost $1.5m per week.

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One of the most famous shots is the glass of water vibrating to the T. Rex’s footsteps. Spielberg got the idea when listening to Earth, Wind and Fire and his car mirror vibrated. They put guitar strings in the car and when the right note was plucked, the water vibrated.

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The protagonist is Dr. Alan Grant. Many actors were in the frame for the role of Grant during casting: Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Mel Gibson, and Robin Williams were all considered by Spielberg.

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William Hurt turned the role of Grant down because, “I’m not keen on the dinosaur angle.” Kurt Russell turned it down when he and Spielberg couldn’t agree a salary. And the role of Grant was turned down by Harrison Ford. He said it was too close to Indiana Jones.

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Spielberg turned to Sam Neill to play Grant. Spielberg wanted him to put on a US accent, but Neill struggled with it. So Spielberg said “talk in your normal voice.” Neill did, talking in his native Kiwi accent but then Spielberg said “can you give me halfway between them?”

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The character of Grant was modelled on two real-life palaeontologists called Jack Horner and Robert Bakker. They both worked as consultants on Jurassic Park, and Bakker gets mentioned in the film by Hammond’s grandson, Tim, at one point.

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There were other names up for the part of Dr Ellie Sattler before Laura Dern. Sandra Bullock, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Liz Hurley auditioned. Spielberg cast Laura Dern after seeing her in Rambling Rose, for which she was Oscar-nominated.

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Other names were up for Dr. Ian Malcolm too. Michael Keaton, Johnny Depp and Michael J. Fox were screen tested before Jeff Goldblum was cast.

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Michael Crichton said that Malcolm represents his own views on genetic engineering, and what he thinks is mostly expressed when Malcolm says “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

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Crichton described the Park owner John Hammond as “a dark Walt Disney.” Spielberg considered Clint Eastwood and Marlon Brando as Hammond. Sean Connery was offered the role and said no before Richard Attenborough was cast.

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In Crichton’s book, he mentions that the voiceover for the audio tour is provided by Richard Kiley – a famous broadway performer in America – so Spielberg hired Kiley to do the voiceover for the tour in the film as well.

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Villainous computer programmer Dennis Nedry is played by Wayne Knight. Spielberg cast Knight after seeing him in Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct. Spielberg said “I waited for the credits to roll and wrote his name down”.

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Ariana Richards played Hammond’s 13 year old granddaughter, Lex. She her audition consisted of yelling into a camera: “Steven watched a few girls on tape and I was the only one who woke his wife up. She came running through to see if the kids were all right.”

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After filming wrapped, Spielberg gave all of the cast a signed velociraptor model. And, apparently, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello have those models displayed in their homes to this day.

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The triceratops was animatronic, made by the Stan Winston Studio and shot on location in Hawaii. There were 8 puppeteers below the triceratops and 4 inside it. When first built, it was a variety of bright colours but Winston said “this looks ridiculous, make it brown.”

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The CGI work by ILM in Jurassic Park was groundbreaking. Originally though, Spielberg wanted to use GoMotion to create the animations and effects expert Phil Tippett was hired to do it. This is a demo he created.

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Animators Mark Dippe and Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams were keen on using CGI but ILM Creative Director Dennis Muren, told them no. Spaz Williams created an animation behind Muren’s back and on the day Kathleen Kennedy visited, made sure she saw it.

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Kennedy reported what she’d seen to Spielberg and said it was mind-blowing. On seeing Spaz Williams’ demo, Phil Tippett said to Spielberg “I think we’re extinct” - That line was then given to Jeff Goldblum’s character, Malcolm.

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Also, when Tippett saw a CGI demo of the bracchiosaur for the first time he said to Spielberg, “You did it, you crazy son of a bitch.” Another line given to Malcolm.

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The T. Rex was a groundbreaking blend of CGI and animatronics. The remote-controlled animatronic model by the Stan Winston Studio was 25ft high and weighed 7 tons. They had to raise the studio roof to make room for it.

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Kathleen Kennedy said they had to have flashing lights on set alerting people when the T. Rex was about to be turned on because if it moved its head and hit somebody it might kill them. And sometimes, it would move by itself…

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The finished T. Rex scene stands up to this day as one of the greatest blockbuster action sequences ever filmed…

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The original ending was that the T. Rex skeleton that’s in the entrance was hooked up to pulleys, and Grant used it to crush the raptors. Spielberg thought the audience would hate him if we didn’t see the T. Rex one last time so had the ending changed.

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On a budget of $63m, the film grossed $913m at the box office to become the highest ever. With stakes in the profits, Spielberg made $250 million from Jurassic Park - the largest sum one person has made from a movie. David Koepp tells a story about the film’s release:

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JURASSIC PARK was released 32 years ago today. One of the most successful blockbusters ever made and a landmark in digital effects, the production of the film was as huge and spectacular as the T. Rex…

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