Movies - TV
Jaws Scared Steven Spielberg Into Cutting A Wet And Wild Jurassic Park Scene
By DEVIN MEENAN
Steven Spielberg’s biggest challenges while making “Jaws” stemmed from the star special effect: “Bruce,” the mechanical shark. According to Joseph McBride’s “Steven Spielberg: A Biography,” the director’s goal with “Jurassic Park” was “to make a good sequel to ‘Jaws.’ On land,” but with unpleasant memories from the “Jaws” shoot, Spielberg chose to scrap the planned swimming T. Rex scene.
Michael Crichton’s original novel features a scene where a T-Rex dives into a river while chasing after the raft carrying Dr. Grant, Lex, and Tim. David Koepp, co-writer of “Jurassic Park,” recalled a moment from reviewing the film’s storyboard, “[Spielberg] like thumbed past [the river] and went, ‘Nah,’ we’re not gonna do this one.’ So it was cut very early on.”
“Jurassic Park” already featured untested, groundbreaking CGI, so adding water scenes would’ve created unnecessary complications and the possibility of wasted resources if the footage was unusable. The scene may also have caused the T-Rex to appear less threatening compared to other moments of the film.