Answering reader questions in the latest issue of Empire, James Cameron spoke about his version of Jurassic Park that almost was. “[Steven Spielberg] was the right guy to make it,” Cameron said. “Not me, because I would have made it too terrifying and R-rated. It would have been Aliens with dinosaurs.” While it’s impossible to deny […]
Answering reader questions in the latest issue of Empire, James Cameron spoke about his version of Jurassic Park that almost was.
“[Steven Spielberg] was the right guy to make it,” Cameron said. “Not me, because I would have made it too terrifying and R-rated. It would have been Aliens with dinosaurs.”
While it’s impossible to deny the impact of Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, it’s fun to imagine Cameron — fresh off of Terminator 2: Judgment Day — making an R-rated adaptation of Michael Crichton‘s novel.
Cameron previously discussed his take on Jurassic Park with Huffington Post back in 2012. “I tried to buy the book rights and [Spielberg] beat me to it by a few hours,” he explained.
“But when I saw the film, I realized that I was not the right person to make the film, he was. Because he made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would have been Aliens with dinosaurs, and that wouldn’t have been fair.”
Cameron added, “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.”
Released in 1993, Jurassic Park earned over $978 million worldwide and won three Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing.
