On paper, there’s no way that the Jurassic Park franchise can fail. How can you not love genetically created dinosaurs chasing after a bunch of dumb humans and causing havoc in the process?
When Jurassic World was released in 2015, though, not many people were convinced that the magic would still be there.
It was the third sequel to the classic movie helmed by Steven Spielberg in 1993, but Spielberg wouldn’t be behind the camera once again.
Plus, it would serve as a soft reboot to the popular franchise. Jurassic World director, Colin Trevorrow, confirmed to Independentthat Spielberg still played a crucial role in the franchise as an executive producer.
“He obviously cares about all of his films, and I know Indiana Jones is important. But Indiana Jones was also George Lucas. That was his character. This was [Spielberg’s] franchise and it is very personal to him. He loves dinosaurs!” he said.
Pulling in over $1.6 billion at the global box office, and with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom already sitting pretty with over $400 million before its official release in the U.S., the winning combination of dinosaur vs man seems to be set to continue for many years to come.
In celebration, we’ll be looking back at Jurassic World and all the behind-the-scenes secrets and drama that you might not know about.
Unfortunately, we still don’t know what is Blue’s favorite movie or video game, but we promise to continue searching for the answers there.
With that said, here are the 20 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets Only True Fans Know About Jurassic World.
Chris Pratt Predicted That He’d Star In It
Back in 2008, Chris Pratt wasn’t the mega-star that he is now. Back then, he was still on Parks and Recreation and trying to make it in the biz.
In a behind-the-scenes insert, though, Pratt actually predicted his role in Jurassic World.
He said, “I just got a text message from Steven Spielberg. Sorry Steven, I was asked by Parks and Recreation/NBC to do ‘behind the scenes’..Which is to say, everyone else was asked and said no. But I have no shame, as you know by the endless gift baskets. I’ll have to get back to you later about Jurassic Park 4.”
Pratt went on to portray the Velociraptor whisperer Owen Grady in the movie.
Irrfan Khan Couldn’t Afford A Ticket To Watch Jurassic Park
Veteran actor Irrfan Khan played the rich park owner Simon Masrani in Jurassic World, but things were different for the thespian when Jurassic Park was first released in 1993.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Khan discussed his role in the movie and made another startling revelation.
“I’m playing the park owner, a very flamboyant person. When the first Jurassic Park came out, I barely had the money to see it, and now I’m playing a part,” he said.
He continued: “He’s trying to entertain the world with good intentions, but sometimes being flamboyant doesn’t mean having much wisdom.”
Hopefully, Universal didn’t make Khan pay to see Jurassic World, even if he probably has enough money to pay for a few tickets now.
Josh Brolin Was Almost Owen Grady
It must be tough being Josh Brolin, because every time a big role is mentioned, your name is immediately attached to it.
In 2013, Variety published a piece that stated Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, and Brolin were all attached to the project.
Well, Variety got three of the four names right, as Brolin ended up not being a part of the party. It’s suggested that Brolin was being eyed for the role of Owen Grady, which went to Chris Pratt.
In fairness, it does seem like Pratt was born to play the role and Brolin didn’t end lose out on much, as he secured the parts of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Cable in Deadpool 2.
Director Colin Trevorrow Voiced Mr. DNA
One of the best spots in Jurassic Park was Mr. DNA. Everyone loved the mascot, as he explained to us how the dinosaurs were recreated. Naturally, everyone wanted him to make a comeback in Jurassic World.
Unfortunately, actor Greg Burson, who voiced the character in Jurassic Park, passed away in 2008, so it was up to someone else to provide the pipes for Mr. DNA.
Pulling a double shift, Jurassic World’s director, Colin Trevorrow, lent his voice to Mr. DNA.
However, there were some effects applied to Trevorrow’s voice to make it sound similar to Burson’s.
Now, we aren’t going to get into a debate over which voice is better, so we’ll just say we’re happy that Mr. DNA made his comeback.
The Gyrospheres Are Real
In an era when everything is CGI, it’s hard to differentiate what’s real and what isn’t in movies nowadays. In Jurassic World, we saw some nifty gyrospheres.
As it turns out, these were actually built and fully functional.
They were loaded onto a track and rolled around, while a crew member controlled the movements with a remote control.
Speaking to Yahoo, Colin Trevorrow confirmed that they were real. “My son got to ride in it. He was able to ride it forward and in reverse. If only I had had that when I was a child,” he said.
Reportedly, the general public might get the opportunity to test them out at the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida.
Joss Whedon Criticized It Before It Was Released
Joss Whedon, the director who used the falling-into-a-woman’s-bosom gag twice in his movies, threw some shade at Jurassic World when promotional clips made it onto the internet.
Responding to a tweet by The Mary Sue, which read: “We’re too busy fanning ourselves to talk more about Chris Pratt in this #JurassicWorld clip,” Whedon replied: “and I’m too busy wishing this clip wasn’t ’70s-era sexist. She’s a stiff, he’s a life-force – really? Still?”
Whedon has since deleted his tweet. Maybe he remembered that he shouldn’t judge a movie before it’s actually released and should at least give it a chance.
Alternatively, he might have realized that he’s also a hypocrite, considering his treatment of female characters in the MCU and DCEU.
A Gross Scene Was Cut
When Jurassic World was released, there was a rumor that a disgusting scene, which featured Claire and Owen covered in dinosaur feces, got cut.
Bryce Dallas Howard confirmed to Collider the existence of the scene.
About it’s elimination, Howard said, “Because this movie is action-packed and it’s exactly 2 hours, and it was more of a scene where it was funny and there were a lot of moments of humor in terms of behavior and our characters’ personalities really came out, but there’s not a lot of tension and this movie is so suspenseful and so tense, and so it’s a bit of a balancing act where you need to just figure out like, ‘Okay, given all these plates that we’re spinning, what’s gonna keep the tension moving along?’”
Six Flags Was Used For Its Setting
If you thought that Jurassic World’s setting looked oddly familiar, there’s a good reason for it.
Six Flags New Orleans played host to the movie, acting as a skeleton for the more populated sections.
Originally called Jazzland, this hot spot hit financial trouble in 2002 before Six Flags stepped in and purchased it.
However, Hurricane Katrina hit a few years later and shut it down for good. The movie industry, though, found a use for this abandoned theme park and flocked to it since then.
Carroll Morton, who is manager for Entertainment Industry Development in the New Orleans mayor’s office, told Wired: “It’s not something that the city had thought of or marketed. The productions came to us.”
There Was A Tribute To Visual Effects Creator Stan Winston
Stan Winston will be remembered for his sensational special make-up effects work. He broke the mold with the Terminator series and then revolutionized Hollywood with the incredible animatronic dinosaurs featured in the Jurassic Park franchise.
In fact, if it weren’t for Winston’s work, it’s safe to say that the movie wouldn’t have had the impact it did.
Sadly, Winston passed away in 2008 after suffering from multiple myeloma for seven years. His work and legacy haven’t been forgotten, though, and he received a tribute in Jurassic World.
In the movie, Winston’s Steakhouse appears briefly in one of the shots. It was a small but kind gesture to the man who was crucial in making Jurassic Park the powerhouse franchise that it is today.
Bryce Dallas Howard’s Son Was In The Movie
While there are many surprises hidden within Jurassic World, one of the most obvious was hiding in plain sight for eagle-eyed viewers.
Bryce Dallas Howard and Seth Gabel’s then-eight-year-old son, Theodore, made a special guest appearance in the movie.
Before the theme park was plunged into chaos and the humans ran for their lives, there’s a scene where children linger around a baby dinosaur petting zoo.
A little boy, wearing a blue cap, throws his arms around a baby Brachiosaurus and hugs it. That sweet child was Howard’s son.
Theodore has a little sister named Beatrice who was born in 2012. Maybe there’s a chance that she’ll appear in a future Jurassic World movie as well.
The Stampede Scenes In Jurassic Park & World Were Filmed In The Same Place
Jurassic Park featured a mouth-watering stampede scene that forced Dr. Alan Grant and the children to hide under a log from the oncoming dinosaurs.
The scene was shot at the 4,000-acre Kualoa Ranch on Oahu’s Windward Side, which is still an operational cattle ranch that offers experience tours for movie fans.
Kualoa Ranch made another appearance in Jurassic World, serving as the same setting for the fourth movie’s stampede scene.
Naturally, this makes sense since Jurassic World is meant to be an upgraded version of Jurassic Park – even if it all takes place on Isla Nublar.
Unfortunately, Kualoa Ranch doesn’t harbor any real dinosaurs, but there are some cows that could serve as the next antagonists for a Kung Pow sequel.
Bryce Dallas Howard Was In Negotiations For Two Years
Everyone knows that Jurassic World was in the making for many years. It’s a movie that received numerous drafts and had a plethora of stars and directors attached to it.
However, Bryce Dallas Howard confirmed with Collider that she’d been chatting to the filmmakers for a while before she accepted the part.
“As someone who kind of knew that the movie was happening, and this was back in March of 2013, I remember I talked with my friends and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m gonna get to speak with the director who directed Safety Not Guaranteed and he’s awesome and he’s directing Jurassic World. Ugh, man, I just hope they don’t screw this up because it’s my childhood,’ and I was really nervous,” she said.
Colin Trevorrow’s First Cut Is Pretty Much What We Got In Theatres
We’re living in a time when people go mad over directors’ cuts. Fans are curious to see what the director’s original vision was before the studio sunk their teeth into the reel.
Colin Trevorrow proclaims that Jurassic World’s final cut was his director’s cut, with not much removed from his first stab.
“My first cut was two hours and 10 minutes and the movie right now is two hours or 1:57 and then the credits. So there is no three-hour cut of Jurassic World,” he said,
“This is the script we wrote and it was always very much what you see. I am in the rare position of a filmmaker being able to release what I consider my director’s cut all around the world,” he told Collider.
Steven Spielberg Had Final Cut
Considering that Steven Spielberg is the godfather of the Jurassic Park franchise, it should come as no surprise that he had final cut as the executive producer of Jurassic World.
Colin Trevorrow had no issues with it, however, citing how it was a rewarding creative process.
“I’m not sure if I can recall a single studio note that I got on this whole movie. And part of it was because Steven has final cut. And I answer directly to him,” he told Slash Film.
“And he and I had a creative relationship on this film that was extremely positive and one that resulted in a movie that I think takes certain creative risks that may or may not have been possible if that wasn’t the dynamic,” he said.
Jurassic Park 4’s Script Leaked
As soon as Jurassic Park III ended filming, there were already talks about Jurassic Park IV. William Monahan took a shot at an early version of the script before John Sayles took over as the screenwriter in 2004.
With Steve Spielberg so heavily involved in the franchise, he’d receive the scripts to look over and provide input.
In 2005, however, Spielberg’s email was hacked and the script leaked onto the net.
In the subsequent years after the hack, work on the script slowed down due to the writers’ strike. Eventually, more writers boarded the project and it evolved into Jurassic World after Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly signed up.
Even to this day, fans can read Sayles’ early version of the storyline, which featured engineered dinosaurs, online.
Joe Johnston Almost Directed It
Many people consider the Joe Johnston-directed Jurassic Park III to be the lowest point of the franchise. Even so, Johnston remained attached to direct Jurassic Park IV for at least a decade.
Speaking to Screen Rant back in 2011, Johnston confirmed that he was still onboard for the fourth entry.
“We are in discussions about Jurassic Park IV. The most important thing I can tell you is that it starts a new trilogy that will go off in a different direction – a completely different direction that is very exciting, and different from anything we’ve seen,” he said.
“It starts with the history of the first trilogy, but it spins it off in a completely different direction. That’s all I can tell you,” he stated.
Steven Spielberg Suggested The Mosasaurus’ Grand Finale
Colin Trevorrow paid tribute to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws with the Mosasaurus eating a shark in one scene.
Spielberg was a fan of the original idea that was supposed to conclude with the behemoth splashing the audience, but he encouraged Trevorrow to take it even further.
“He said, ‘No, what would be really cool is, after it eats the shark, the bleachers sink down so the crowd can watch her finish it off underwater and you can see all the blood’,” Trevorrow said to Yahoo. “And I was like, ‘Jesus! Okay, that sounds great!’”
It turns out that Spielberg did work hard for that executive producer credit after all. Did we expect anything less from the legendary filmmaker?
Director Brad Bird Had A Secret Role
Brad Bird served as a mentor for Colin Trevorrow, so the Jurassic World director invited him to provide the monorail PA system’s voice that tells the audience the history of the park.
“[Brad has] been a great mentor and friend. And he actually invited me to the set of Tomorrowland. And allowed me just to kind of watch him for a couple days.” Trevorrow told Slash Film.
“And he gave me great confidence that I at least understood what a day-to-day experience on a giant blockbuster movie is for a director and we both mixed up at Skywalker Ranch. And he was up there ahead of me and they were doing some pre-dubbing stuff. And I asked if he would be the guy,” he said.
Writer Colin Trevorrow Lost A Screenplay Credit Battle
Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly did a significant amount of rewriting on the Jurassic World script. So much so, in fact, that Universal Pictures put them for the sole screenplay credit.
The Writers Guild of America decided that the earlier draft by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver also deserved screenplay credit, and an arbitration also decided that Jaffa and Silver got the coveted “story by” credit.
“Derek Connolly and I did not appeal the decision by the Writers Guild East. We strongly disagreed, and waited to read the arbiters’ statements to see if we had grounds to appeal under Guild rules. We did not. We accepted the ruling this past Tuesday morning, and the matter was settled,” Trevorrow said to Deadline.
It Used The Same T-Rex From Jurassic Park
While Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum might claim to be the stars of Jurassic Park, the true MVP was the Tyrannosaurus rex.
After causing so much havoc to the park and chomping down on a scummy lawyer, the King of Lizards saved the stupid humans by taking on the Velociraptors in the movie’s finale.
After all of the nonsense of the past few movies, the T-Rex is still around and going strong, as evident in Jurassic World. Yes, the mighty dinosaur that appears in the movie’s climax is the same T-Rex we first saw in Jurassic Park.
If you look carefully, you can actually see the scars from the raptor battle are still visible on the T-Rex’s side. Poor thing.
Do you know any other behind-the-scenes secrets about Jurassic World? Let us know in the comments!
