Steven Spielberg’s critically acclaimed Jurassic Park turned 25 on June 11, but people will have the chance to see it in theaters Wednesday. At 7 p.m., the Athena Grand is hosting a special screening for $12.50. In celebration, here are some interesting facts about the film that fans may not have known about:
It was a book before it was a movie.
The Jurassic Park film, which was released in 1993, is based on a book of the same title, published in 1990. The book’s author, Michael Crichton, also worked on the screenplay adaptation with fellow writer David Koepp.
Universal bought the film rights before the book was published.
While working with Crichton on the script for the television series ER, Spielberg asked the author what else he was working on. When Crichton told Spielberg his idea for Jurassic Park, Spielberg was so excited by it. He called Universal immediately and asked them to buy the film rights. Spielberg began storyboarding scenes from the book before the screenplay was even written.
Dinosaurs are in the film for only 15 minutes.
Despite all of the time and money spent on the animatronics and CGI that went into making them, shots with dinosaurs in them make up just 15 minutes of the film’s 127-minute run time.
The T-rex had a mind of its own.
The film’s famous animatronic T-rex tended to malfunction on set, turning on on its own and frightening the cast and crew.
Jeff Goldblum’s character was originally supposed to be a coward.
In the scene where the T-rex has the film’s characters cornered in the rain, it was originally written for Jeff Goldblum’s character to run away from the dinosaur in an attempt to save himself. After Goldblum suggested to Spielberg that the character should be a little more heroic, the director made a last-minute change to the script in which Goldblum’s character distracted the T-rex to help save the kids.
A hurricane struck the set during production.
A real-world disaster stuck the set of the film about a fictional one when Hurricane Iniki hit during the films production on location in the Kauai Island of Hawaii. Iniki is the most powerful hurricane to hit Hawaii in recorded history.
Only one robotic dinosaur made it to location.
Only the sick robotic Triceratops was used on location in Hawaii. All other animatronic dinosaurs were used on sets in Hollywood.
Spielberg let George Lucas take control of some of the film’s post-production.
After Spielberg and the rest of the Jurassic Park crew wrapped filming 12 days early, he had to quickly shift his focus to the production of his next film, Schindler’s List. Because of this, Spielberg was not able to oversee all of the post-production for Jurassic Park, so he let his fellow director, friend and creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, take over a portion of the film’s post production.
