Before ‘Jurassic World‘, there was ‘Jurassic Park 4‘ that was planned, scrapped, re-planned, mutated, and then left for dead for 14 years. The road to ‘Jurassic World‘ was long, weird, and packed with creative chaos, abandoned scripts, and wild ideas.
After ‘Jurassic Park III’ dropped in 2001, Steven Spielberg wanted more. In 2002, he decided to make the fourth installment with a great idea. But, things went downhill, and fans never got to see that movie.
Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jurassic Park 4’ Dream Turned Into A Nightmare
When Steven Speilberg wanted to go ahead with ‘Jurassic Park 4,’ Joe Johnston, who directed the third film, was attached to the project. The first writer brought on was William Monahan. His script reportedly featured the return of Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), with a plot about dinosaurs spreading beyond the islands. But that changed fast.
Producer Kathleen Kennedy later confirmed that the story didn’t even take place in Costa Rica. Instead, fewer island jungles, more genetic shenanigans, and even an evolutionary link between dinosaurs and humans. Paleontologist Jack Horner, the real-life dino expert behind the franchise, even teased that Monahan’s draft was leading toward dino-human hybrids.
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By 2004, Monahan left to work with Ridley Scott, and Spielberg handed the reins to John Sayles. Now, Sayles was known for ‘Piranha’ and prestige dramas. But when his ‘Jurassic Park 4‘ script leaked online, fans lost their collective minds.
The ‘Jurassic Park 4‘ script had John Hammond bringing in an ex-Navy SEAL named Nick Harris to retrieve the stolen DNA from ‘Jurassic Park.’ Harris ended up captured by a Swiss company in a medieval castle in the Alps. There, he discovered a literal dino lab creating hybrid monsters by mixing raptor, human, and dog DNA.
These dino-dogs were smart, obedient, feral when needed, and just docile enough to train for military missions. They were injected with adrenaline and serotonin, controlled via radio waves, and wore armor. Sayles’ version had these creatures being trained to rescue hostages and eliminate criminals.
Why ‘Jurassic Park’ Franchise Flatlined
Despite the absolute chaos of John Sayles’ script, Steven Spielberg initially called it the “mother of all ideas.” But soon he began to lose faith. As script after script failed to hit the right tone, Spielberg reportedly stalled the project. Special effects legend Stan Winston later admitted that Spielberg “didn’t think the story was strong enough,” and by 2006, progress had nearly ground to a halt. Joe Johnston even tried his hand at revising the story, but again nothing stuck.
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Then came the 2007–08 Writer’s Guild strike, which delayed the project even further. Richard Attenborough’s declining health meant he could never reprise his role as John Hammond, and the death of the original author Michael Crichton in 2008 felt like the final blow. Kathleen Kennedy even suggested that maybe it was time to close the book on the franchise for good.
By 2010, producer Frank Marshall expressed doubt that a sequel would ever happen. Yet Joe Johnston said that he and Spielberg still had plans to revisit the idea by 2011. But that never materialized either, especially after Johnston shifted focus to direct ‘Captain America: The First Avenger.’
How ‘Jurassic World’ Finally Rose From The Ashes
The turning point came in 2012 when Steven Spielberg hired screenwriting duo Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, the brains behind the modern ‘Planet of the Apes’ revival. Their compelling take on the franchise finally put the project back on track. That script was handed over to ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ director Colin Trevorrow, who along with his writing partner Derek Connolly, reworked it into what we now know as ‘Jurassic World’.
Trevorrow admitted that Spielberg gave him three key ideas he wanted to see in the next film: a fully functional dinosaur theme park, raptors trained by a human, and a new dinosaur that breaks loose and causes havoc. All three made it into ‘Jurassic World.’
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Owen Grady, played by Chris Pratt, is a military vet who trains velociraptors, a much tamer version of Harris from Sayles’ ‘Jurassic Park 4‘ outline. The Indominus Rex was a genetically engineered dino hybrid. Vincent D’Onofrio’s character, Hoskins, even suggests using raptors for military purposes. And, the rescue of kids trapped in a dino-ravaged theme park is still a classic Jurassic trope that hit the mark.
In hindsight, ‘Jurassic World’ became a box office juggernaut, raking in over $1.6 billion and launching a whole new trilogy. But it’s fascinating to see just how close we came to getting a very different kind of Jurassic sequel—one with Swiss castles, dinosaur mercenaries, hybrid monsters, and a storyline that felt more like ‘Resident Evil’ than ‘Jurassic Park’.
Trevorrow himself has referred to ‘Jurassic World: Dominion‘ as the true ‘Jurassic Park 4‘, suggesting that many of these abandoned ideas could still find their way back into the franchise.
