Had things gone a little differently in life, James Cameron could have directed "Jurassic Park" instead of Steven Spielberg.
The "Avatar" director let that bomb drop during a conversation with Huffington Post at an event at the recently-opened Titanic Museum in Belfast. Apparently Spielberg had purchased the rights to "Jurassic Park" only hours before Cameron tried to, meaning he had the daunting task of bringing Michael Crichton's novel to the big screen.
The rest, as they say, is history, but we couldn't resist listing off some of the ways Cameron's take on the story would have made the movie very, very different.
It Would Have Been A Monster Movie
Had Cameron nabbed the rights to "Jurassic Park" before Spielberg, he planned to approach the project a bit differently. In fact, his adaptation would have been "'Aliens' with dinosaurs" and, as he noted, "that wouldn't have been fair." "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," Cameron said.
Those Kids Probably Would Have Died
Cameron made it very clear in his HuffPo interview that he would not have made a movie for kids, which means the two grandchildren of John Hammond (the creator of Jurassic Park) probably wouldn't have gotten as much time in the spotlight. Even if they had a role in the movie, our guess is that one of them would have eaten it -- or been eaten.
It Would Have Been More Violent
In Cameron's own words, he would have "gone further, nastier, much nastier" with "Jurassic Park." Know what that means? More violence and gore. We thought some parts of Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" were pretty rough anyways, so we can only imagine how much farther Cameron would have liked to go. A man getting bit in half by a Tyrannosaurus rex while going to the bathroom is pretty brutal as is. In all likelihood, Cameron would have stuck closer to some of the more violent parts of Crichton's novel.
It Wouldn't Have Had John Williams
When we think "Jurassic Park," we think John Williams' score. The beloved composer already had a great working relationship with Spielberg by the time he made "Jurassic Park," having already scored "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Last Crusade" and "Hook." Had Cameron sat in the director's chair, there's a small likelihood Williams would have been tasked with bringing "Jurassic Park's" triumphant theme into existence, and that would have been a real shame.
It Would Have Starred Arnold Schwarzenegger
Okay, we pulled that out of nowhere. But considering the success they had just had from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," why wouldn't Cameron think about reteaming with Arnold Schwarzenegger? Even if Cameron didn't cast the Governator has his lead, he could have considered having him stand in for the T. rex.
Would you have wanted to see a "Jurassic Park" movie directed by Cameron? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!
