Jurassic Park screenwriter on film’s original opening scene – and why Steven Spielberg needed it changed

David Koepp, screenwriter of Jurassic Park, has said the blockbuster 90s movie almost had a very different opening scene.

Imagine!

David adapted the screenplay from Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel of the same name, and made many changes.

Speaking on stage at a London screening on Wednesday, he said of working on the Steven Spielberg-directed film: ‘The problem I encountered, and I still encounter today when I work with Steven, is his movies are so influential, you have a tendency to create something you think he’ll like.

‘I kind of wanted to just type for him. You have to let that go. He doesn’t need acolytes, he needs collaborators. The opening scene in my first draft was at a hospital in Costa Rica where somebody’s flown in on a helicopter and said it’s a terrible construction accident.

‘I wrote a really good scene where this ER doctor looks at this guy, a person’s who’s been ripped to shreds and says “this is not a construction accident…”

‘He said “I love your opening – I can’t do it though, because I feel like I already did it.” I said “what? When?” He said “yeah, it’s in Jaws…” I said “Oh yeah, right! I love that!”’

‘That’s a peril. You’ve got to write stuff you think is great, then he brings his stuff to it, rather than you trying to think ahead and write what you think he would want.’

David recently released his debut novel: a sci-fi story called Cold Storage. It is to be made into a movie by Paramount.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk before the screening, David also praised the creators of Jurassic World films for moving the story off the island.

‘I think it opened up a lot of possibilities for them – a lot of creative opportunities,’ he said.

‘That was really clever. And it lives up to the promise of their title, which I thought was wonderful: Jurassic World. You don’t realise it at the time, but it’s obviously leading you somewhere big.’