James Cameron's Jurassic Park Movie Pitch Could Have Been A Disaster

Before he passed away in 2008, Michael Crichton's novels were a rich source of material for Hollywood movies, and "Jurassic Park" was destined for the screen before it even hit bookstores. Despite the author's reluctance to engage in a bidding war, several major studios were battling it out for the film rights, each with a particular director in mind to helm the massive project. Warner Bros. had Tim Burton lined up; Columbia viewed it as a potential Richard Donner action movie; and 20th Century Fox wanted Joe Dante for the job. The frontrunner and eventual winner was Universal Pictures and Crichton's pick, Steven Spielberg, who was interested in making the film as a homage to the old stop-motion Ray Harryhausen creature features he loved as a kid. Also in the frame was James Cameron, and his pitch for "Jurassic Park" could have been disastrous.

While visiting the Titanic Museum in Belfast in 2012 (via HuffPost), Cameron revealed that he was also hunting down the rights to Crichton's sci-fi novel with a view to directing the picture himself. He also said that his vision would've stayed truer to the darker and more cynical tone of the book, like an R-rated "Aliens" with dinosaurs. But Universal and Spielberg scuppered his plans when they beat him to the punch by just a few hours. Although Cameron isn't always best known for humility, however, he conceded he wasn't the best person for the job:

"Dinosaurs are for eight-year-olds. We can all enjoy it, too, but kids get dinosaurs, and they should not have been excluded for that. His sensibility was right for that film, I'd have gone further, nastier, much nastier."

A gory action-packed James Cameron version of "Jurassic Park" is a tantalizing idea, but he was totally right in hindsight.

When "Jurassic Park" was first released, experts warned parents that the PG-13 certificate shouldn't be taken lightly, and certain scenes might be too scary for younger children. I certainly covered my kids' eyes for Samuel L. Jackson's severed arm, and the show-stopping T-Rex attack is pretty intense even for adults. But the crucial factor is Spielberg's ability to balance scares with his trademark warmth and sense of wonder, something the film could've lacked if Cameron had gone for a hard R-rated action-horror vibe.

Aside from how the movie might have turned out, a James Cameron "Jurassic Park" may have changed '90s Hollywood cinema itself. Firstly, an R-rating would have likely limited the film's commercial potential, as Spielberg's more family-friendly version made over $1 billion at the box office. Not only that, it might have had a knock-on effect on "Schindler's List." 

It was a long and winding road to the big screen after Universal bought the rights to Thomas Keneally's book in the '80s. Once Spielberg felt that he was mature enough to make the film, agreeing to direct "Jurassic Park" helped secure the green light for his "Schindler's List" adaptation. From Spielberg's perspective, it had to be done in that order, because he knew he would be unable to make a monster movie after tackling the Holocaust. Consequently, 1993 was perhaps Spielberg's best year commercially and critically, with his two films cleaning up at the box office and sweeping the Oscars with 10 awards (seven for "Schindler's List," including Best Picture and his first Best Director prize, and three for "Jurassic Park"). So, Cameron missing out on Crichton's novel is one of those great Hollywood sliding doors moments, and it probably turned out for the best.