What Sounds Were Used to Create Dinosaur Roars?
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Truthfully, we have no idea what dinosaurs actually sounded like. We can only assume or guess as to what their aggressive roars would resemble. Seeing as if there’s no audio of a dinosaur present, those working on Jurassic Park had to get really creative.
A mixture of sounds were mashed together in order to procure menacing sounds. Which animals did creators use, by chance? Well, many of the sounds given to these dinosaurs came from walruses, hawks, dolphins, rattlesnakes, penguins, tigers, elephants, dogs, swans and alligators. The T-Rex in particular was a combination of all of these animals.
How Suspense is Built
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In the first movie, there were times where you’d slowly feel the hairs rise on the back of your neck. The filmmakers associated with this project didn’t hit you over the head with constant dinosaur chases or scenes in which they’d terrorize people. On the contrary — they were quite careful when unleashing them on screen. Jurassic Park is 127 minutes long (just past the two-hour mark). During that time, dinosaurs appeared on screen for only 15 minutes. The rest of the time, their ‘presence’ was left to the viewer’s imagination through off-screen roars, footprints, and the carnage left behind.
How Did The Water Scene Come to Be?
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Remember when we first witnessed the T-Rex in Jurassic Park? The actors and audience both got a preview of the mammoth predator when the vibrations of the dinosaur’s steps caused a rippling in a glass of water sitting on the dashboard of the jeep. In real life, Steven Spielberg came across this iconic idea by happenstance. He was also enjoying a glass of water while reportedly listening to Earth, Wind, & Fire. The vibrations from the music caused a ripple in his own glass of water — hence paving the path for this to be instituted into the film.
The Movie Was in High Demand
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Even before the novel written by Michael Crichton came out, production studios were swarming over the prospect of making it into a film. Crichton sold the rights to the movie for a reported $1.5 million. In the process, multiple studios (with attached directors) wanted to make this movie. It came down to the quartet of Tim Burton, Richard Donner, Joe Dante, and Steven Spielberg. Of course, Spielberg was the one winning out in the end.
Nixing The Baby Triceratops Scene
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In Jurassic World, there was a sweet scene in the beginning where children were at a version of a petting zoo. Only in this case, they were riding baby triceratops. Reportedly, this scene was supposed to be in the original Jurassic Park film. Engineers crafted animatronic baby triceratops with the hopes of making this scene come to life. After some problems with the mechanical side of things, Spielberg reportedly got frustrated and nixed the whole thing over worries that it would throw the pacing of the film off.
Paying Homage to a Legend
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The late Richard Attenborough portrayed Dr. John Hammond — the idealist mastermind behind the entire dino project. In the original film, he’s shown wearing a rather stylish all-white outfit with a straw hat. As a means to pay homage to both the actor and the role itself, Bryce Dallas Howard also opted to wear an all-white get-up for her role in Jurassic World. Her character was also a director of the park (like Hammond was).
A Fun Cameo
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David Koepp is a very established screenwriter. Aside from writing Jurassic Park and Lost World: Jurassic Park, Koepp is also known for penning the likes of War of the Worlds, Zathura, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, and Carlito’s Way (among other projects). In Lost World, Koepp makes a very famous cameo. He’s the guy running for his life in San Diego when being chased by the T-Rex. Ultimately, he tries running into a store before being gulped down as a snack by the film’s major antagonistic dinosaur.
Flipping The Script
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In Crichton’s novel, John Hammond was pegged as somewhat of an unlikable guy. Spielberg’s penchant for childlike joy in many of his films led to him changing Hammond’s tone. He instead was more likable in the film. Funnily enough, Hammond’s character was killed in the novel by a pack of Compies (those little green dinosaurs). Wanting to stay somewhat true to the script, Spielberg had Dieter (played by Peter Stromare) killed by the Compies in Lost World instead.
Paying Tribute to Other Films
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In Jurassic World, we saw a ‘feeding’ scene that was straight out of Sea World. The dangerous water-based Mosasaurus was fed with a shark. Director Colin Trevorrow did this to pay homage to Jaws (directed also by Spielberg). In Lost World, a group of Japanese tourists were running away from the T-Rex. This was aimed at paying homage to the old Godzilla films.
Building Fear
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There are many tricks filmmakers use in order to build drama and suspense within their project. After all, the goal is to conjure up emotion from the audience. When the initial film first came out, Spielberg wanted to make the premier a little different. Moviegoers didn’t flock to a comfy cinema. Instead, Spielberg had them watch the movie on a big screen from their cars. This was intentionally done to build even more drama (which was excellently crafted via the film’s scenes with jeeps/being attacked by a T-Rex).
What Could Have Been
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Spielberg — who worked on the Indiana Jones films — wanted to reunite with Harrison Ford. Ford was the first choice to play Dr. Alan Grant. However, Ford ended up turning the job down with only weeks before the film was set to start shooting. Needing to scramble for a replacement, New Zealand actor Sam Neill ended up getting the job. As the reports go, Neill had never read the novel — nor had he even heard of it before being cast. Speaking of Neill…
An Accident On Set
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We all know the scene where Neill’s character aims to distract the T-Rex with a flare as a means to try and save the two children. When filming this scene, there was somewhat of a serious mishap, according to Neill:
“[The flare] dropped some burning phosphorous on me and got under my watch and took a chunk out of my arm out.”
Needless to say, we’d imagine having a minor burn was a fair trade-off compared to the potential of being chomped in half by a T-Rex.
Fans Get What They Want
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In Lost World, we saw Julianne Moore’s character photographing a herd of stegosaurus. This dinosaur is one of the more recognizable ones. From childhood, we seemingly all know what a T-Rex looks like — along with a triceratops, a pterodactyl, and a stegosaurus. Interestingly, Spielberg opted to not have any stegosaurus in Jurassic Park. A number of fans wrote him fan mail asking for the stegosaurus to be put into the franchise, and he relented with the addition of them in the second film.
It Took Some Convincing
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Ahead of Jurassic World Dominion, Trevorrow met separately with both Laura Dern and Sam Neill over rejoining the franchise for this (rumored to be) final film of the franchise. Dern was enthusiastic from the jump, though Neill was rumored to be a bit skeptical. However, Trevorrow washed away those concerns — and Neill reportedly even compared Trevorrow to Spielberg (who had directed them in the first film). This film is the first time since 1993 in which Neill, Dern, and Jeff Goldblum will all be on screen together.
Impact of the Films
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There are various industries which have a habit of blowing up notoriety wise based upon media — or even film. In this case, the franchise spurred on a gigantic increase in the interest of paleontology. According to some metrics, a record-number of students ended up going into paleontology following the films coming out into theaters. With that said, there’s no word on whether dinosaurs will suddenly make their way back into the world akin to what we saw in Jurassic Park.
How is Poop Made?
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As a means to make things easier on the cast and crew during filming, dinosaur dung was often made from edible products. In Jurassic Park III, the Spinosaurus dropped what many would say as a massive poop. However in all actuality, the poop was reportedly made from oatmeal with cinnamon. In Jurassic Park, the triceratops poop was made from clay, straw, and mud. Honey and papayas were reportedly placed on it so that flies would naturally commence over the dung (thus giving off the appearance that it smelled).
Humans Playing Velociraptors
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One of the more chilling scenes from the first movie involved velociraptors hunting Lex and Tim in the kitchen. The raptors were menacing, terrifying, and utterly smart. Their movements were also quite impressive. We know animatronic dinosaurs wouldn’t move that fluidly. Duly, CGI wouldn’t have done it justice (as Spielberg preferred puppets and non-CGI animals). As such, humans actually were inside of rubber velociraptor costumes as they filmed those iconic scenes.
Jim Carrey as Dr. Malcolm?
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Jeff Goldblum has had a very illustrious acting career. We’ve seen him star in a number of prominent roles. With that said, his playing of Dr. Ian Malcolm is legendary. Most know him for this role (particularly the younger generations). The main casting director for Jurassic Park had him in mind after reading the novel. However, the production crew did audition a number of actors for the gig. Among them was Jim Carrey (before his spots in The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective).
The Return of a Character…With a Twist
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In Jurassic Park Dominion, we’re going to see the return of character Dodgson. Remember the seedy guy towards the beginning of Jurassic Park who gives Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) the dinosaur embryos in a shaving cream can? Well, that character is rumored to be the primary villain for this latest installment. However, the actors are changing. The original Dodgson (Cameron Thor) was replaced by Campbell Scott. The original Dodgson (Thor) reportedly served a lengthy jail sentence for a sexual assault charge of a minor.
Fulfilling a Promise
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Joseph Mazzello played the role of Tim in the original film. He’s since enjoyed a successful career featuring in a plethora of big-time movies (Simon Birch, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Social Network). As a young boy, he auditioned for Spielberg’s big-budget movie Hook. Spielberg reportedly thought Mazzello was too young for the movie — though promised to cast him in a later project. Two years later, he was used for Jurassic Park. Spielberg liked Mazzello so much, in fact, that he wrote the young actor a letter of recommendation for when Mazzello was applying to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Some Inaccuracies
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We hate to be overly technical, but we must stick to accuracy when speaking about the dinosaurs used in this film. Though it’s billed as Jurassic Park, only two of the dinosaurs (Dilophosaurus, Brachiosaurus) were actually living creatures during the Jurassic period. All other dinosaurs were said to hail from the Cretaceous period. Additionally, the dinosaur that (spoiler!) killed Dennis Nedry (with the spitting black venom) actually did not possess that trait in real life. Additionally, most dinosaurs — including raptors — were said to have feathers (though none in the films did).
Multitasking On Two Massive Projects
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Spielberg was in charge of both Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List. Both happened to come out around the same time (which is quite the feat for any director). Aside from the insane acclaim and success brought on by both movies, Spielberg had to juggle working on both of them. As Jurassic Park was being wrapped up, Spielberg left Hawaii and headed for Poland (where chunks of Schindler’s List was being filmed). Simultaneously, he was also in Europe working on postproduction of Jurassic Park. Talk about two utterly different types of projects.
A Huge Compliment
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English actor Pete Postlethwaite portrayed lead hunter Roland in Lost World. Despite having an insatiable appetite for hunting a T-Rex, Roland was somewhat of a well-liked character by the fanbase of the franchise. Speaking of popularity, Spielberg absolutely loved Postlethwaite. So much, in fact, that he reportedly called him “the best actor in the world.” Postlethwaite sadly passed way in 2011 due to pancreatic cancer. He was only 64 years of age.
Vince Vaughn Was A Shoe-In For Lost World
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The film Swingers ultimately put Vince Vaughn on the map. His performance was revered by practically everyone who has seen it. Within the movie, the crew opted to use the Jaws theme song for a certain scene. Spielberg — who directed Jaws — happened to go watch Swingers in the aftermath of the film gaining permission from him to use the theme. He was reportedly captivated by Vaughn’s performance. He then reportedly cast Vaughn in Lost World without even making him audition or do a screen test.
Different Motivations For Accepting Roles
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In some of the sequels, Spielberg was able to get two critically-acclaimed actors (Julianne Moore, William H. Macy) to sign up for roles. It’s not always easy to get actors of their ilk to join a sequel after the fact. However, both Moore and Macy had different motivations for why they joined the franchise. As the report goes, Moore did Lost World simply because she was going through a divorce at the time — and needed money to pay off the settlement (she also wanted to work with Spielberg). Macy was reportedly quoted as saying that the role in Jurassic Park III called to him because he’s “50 years old and wanted to fight a dinosaur.”
