James Cameron is one of the unquestioned kings of blockbuster filmmaking. Between the Avatar franchise and Titanic, three of the four biggest movies of all time were made by him. He’s also made some of the greatest sequels of all time in Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. So it’s natural to wonder what might have been if he had directed Jurassic Park instead of Steven Spielberg. In short, it would have been radically different.
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In the latest issue of Empire Magazine (via Bloody Disgusting), Cameron explained that his take on Jurassic Park would have been far more terrifying, turning Michael Crichton’s novel into an R-rated affair, more akin to Aliens. By his own admission, in hindsight, this wouldn’t have been the right way to go about it. Here’s what he had to say:
“[Spielberg] was the right guy to make it. Not me, because I would have made it too terrifying and R-rated. It would have been Aliens with dinosaurs.”
On the one hand, Aliens with dinosaurs sounds pretty dang cool. Especially when we consider Cameron behind the camera. On the other hand, the man has a point. Jurassic Park, as it exists, is a masterwork of blockbuster filmmaking that literally went on to become the biggest movie of all time up to that point. It also spawned a franchise that is still going today, with Jurassic World Rebirth becoming one of the biggest movies of the year.
It’s tough to imagine it any other way but it very easily could have gone any number of ways. There was a fierce bidding war over Crichton’s novel before it was even published, with other directors such as Tim Burton (Beetlejuice) also in the mix on behalf of various studios.
“I tried to buy the book rights and he beat me to it by a few hours,” Cameron previously said to the Huffington Post in 2012. Indeed, Crichton favored Universal and Spielberg, which proved to be a good choice. Cameron further explained at the time that, in his view, dinosaurs are for kids and his version decidedly would not have been for kids.
“Dinosaurs are for 8-year-olds. 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.”
It’s a fascinating bit of “What if?” alternate Hollywood history to consider, even if Cameron’s version wouldn’t have been for as broad of an audience. But he went on to make True Lies, Titanic and Avatar instead. It’d be difficult for anyone to argue that things didn’t work out for all involved.
For more, check out our review of Jurassic World Evolution 3.
