Upcoming fanfilm Jurassic Park:Origins

[IanC]

Hey everyone,

My name is Ian Cresswell, I'm heading up a fanfilm project in the works called Jurassic Park: Origins. It's going to be set as a prequel to the first JP film and will tell the backstory of the characters, science, and struggles behind the creation of the dinosaurs. Here's a quick overview of what we will be going for with the short film...

Time frame is park beginnings. According to my research (much of which includes timelines from the "trespasser" Hammond storyline), this is going to be 1982-1989. What I really want to focus on is what I felt was so strongly emphasized in the books but only lightly touched on in the movies... the science (and of course the "chaos theory" intertwined with it). The first Jurassic Park does a pretty good job of briefly covering the basics: using mosquito's found in amber to extract dino DNA, standing on the shoulders of giants to achieve scientific goals (the dinos), "life will find a way", etc. But the line that I really want to explore is when Ian Malcolm says "But your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could... they didn't stop to think if they should." The storyline will follow the building of the Jurassic Park team/staff by Hammond. Nedry, Wu, Arnold, etc. And the scientific, ethical, and moral obstacles that they deal with to achieve the goal of bringing dinosaurs back to life. It will explore the parts of "The Lost World" that intrigued me so much and were totally lost in the movie version. The trials and toils of "site B". They came SO close to developing this plot in JP3 when they stumble into the lab and we hear the lines "This is how you make dinosaurs?" ... "No, this is how you play God". THAT is the plotline I find so very compelling in the Jurassic Park novels (and that got lost in garbage monster mayhem in JP3). The brashness and lack of respect for the scientific power that's being "wielded like a kid who just found his dad's gun".

I want the audience to SEE the science, struggles, and discoveries of Jurassic Park being developed from the beginning. Hammond's relentless pursuit of profit (the "dark side of Walt Disney" as Crichton envisioned), Nedry's computer expertise (using the power of 3 Cray-XMP super computers to sequence the genetic code) and struggle with finanaces, Wu's scientific brilliance and remarkable genetic engineering. And of course, all of the characters dealing with the ethical and practical consequences of their actions. When THAT storyline is developed along side what will obviously be thrilling dinosaurs scenes (baby dinosaurs being created, the unknown of how they will adapt and react, the inevitable choatic uncontrollability of creatures brought back after milliions of years) I think we will have a VERY strong film. As a fan of Crichton's brilliant writing, I think it will give the fans a deeper look at a part of the story that I feel captivates so many. It would be easy to do a monster movie. Something goes wrong, dinosaurs escape and eat people. That's pretty blah. But if we feel invested in the story of Jurassic Park's creation, the characters, and the challenges and triumphs along the way, any ensuing dinosaur appearances and catastrophe will seem organic and inevitable instead of forced for the sake of creating action out of thin air.

Let me put it this way, let's ask this question... "What caused Jurassic Park to fail?" The surface answer would be "Dennis Nedry cut off the power and security systems". But I think if you asked Michael Crichton that same question "What caused Jurassic Park to fail"? the answer would be something like "Scientific hubris and the illusion of control".

This will be a not-for-profit fanfilm, and we're going to be "crowdsourcing" the funding, using a platform like "kickstarter.com". So we're not going to have a huge budget, but we're going to do what it takes to make sure that we have the highest quality with what we have available. Our CGI lead (and co-director) Julien has got some absolutely astounding 3D dinosaur models. Take a look at our facebook page here and scroll through to see some of the awesome test renders and animations he is working on. Also, he'll have a new 3D demo reel out in the next couple weeks that we'll be putting up to showcase his amazing models.

I've been in contact with a few individuals here on the forum about different props and whatnot. However, I wanted to create this thread to let the RPF community know that, once our project is funded on kickstarter.com, we would love to get as much involvement as possible from the modeling/prop-building/costuming community. This is going to be a short film where attention to detail in every aspect is really what is going to help draw the viewers into the film.

So, right now of course we don't know everything that we're going to need for the film in terms of props. But I wanted to go ahead and make people aware of this project because when the time comes, we would absolutely love to have the involvement of the community. I'm sure there are plenty of Jurassic Park lovers on this board, and we're going to need your help to make this short film the absolute best that it can be ! So if you would, please spread the word about Jurassic Park: Origins with others, we would be greatly appreciative.

Thanks!
-Ian

 

[IanC]

Hey everyone. Julien's new 3D model demo reel is out today. Please check it out at the following reddit link, and please be sure to "upvote" it if you like it. We'd love to hit the front page ! Dinosaur 3D model demo reel by Julien Romeo, CGI-lead for fanfilm JP:Origins. : videos .

 

[Apollo]

Sounds good

Looking forward to this

 

[Rusty85]

So this would pretty much be about the R and D aspect of Jurassic Park? Sounds like an interesting idea since it hardly showed any of it in the films. Is it safe to say we wouldn't have any Dino attacks then?

 

[aeonpulse]

Is it safe to say we wouldn't have any Dino attacks then?

Eh, I wouldn't say that. I see plenty of opportunities for dino attacks, perhaps while transporting them. (Like the very beginning of JP1)


Also, Mr. DNA has to make a cameo. He just HAS to.

 

[Boogeyman13]

I'm very excited to see this, and I hope it reaches completion.

 

[Crank729]

I love seeing Jurassic park getting some love. The books provided so much awesome character and storyline development that was barely touched on in the films. Looking forward to this.

 

[Hfuy]

Won't the locations be a bit tricky? It really does need to be in a tropical locality; where is the production based?

 

[corytrevor]

What an awesome idea for a fanfilm. I cant wait to see more.

 

[SciFiMuseum]

That is a great idea. I don't think I have ever heard of a JP fan film. good luck with it and I will take a peek when it is finished and up.

 

[IanC]

To help spread the word about JP:Origins, I decided to get a vehicle wrap for my 2007 Prius. Thought you all might like to see how it turned out ...

 

[Wes R]

Not a Prius fan but that is sharp looking.

 

[Crank729]

That's nice!

Spared no expense!

 

[MooCriket]

Like the look of the car all JP'd out.

 

[NormanF]

That car could be a C & D letter waiting to happen. Which would suck because it came out pretty good.
Did I miss the link to the funding site?

 

[IanC]

That car could be a C & D letter waiting to happen. Which would suck because it came out pretty good.
Did I miss the link to the funding site?

We hope not. There's so many other replica cars out there (of ALL kinds, not just JP), including an entire site devoted to replicas of the Jurassic Park Jeep. It'd be sad if this car was singled out for a C&D letter. We're trying to tread carefully while still getting enough visibility to get the budget to do some fun stuff. We're not looking to make any money at all. But of course, we do understand that Universal and Amblin have the right to tell us to stop and we would of course comply immediately and fully. Ya know, I was thinking about it. JP:Origins might be a cool way to help renew interest in seeing the original JP in 3D when it comes out middle of next year. Perhaps they'll let us continue the project if simply to help hype the re-release. That would be great.

Link to the funding site is here... JPOrigins.com or specifically the backing page is HERE. Thanks for the interest. Feel free to leave any comments or questions, we really want to make sure we're getting fan input to make this as good as possible.

 

[EyeofSauron]

this is gonna be great. if you need any help editing etc, i would love to help.

 

[Flyboone]

Hey Ian,
So cool. I'm a huge fan of Jurassic Park and was driving home yesterday and saw your Prius! I work in Brentwood, TN so you must live around here. That prompted me to google search Jurassic Park Origins to see what it was about. So excited you are doing this. If you need any aerial video or photography done let me know. I have a hexacopter and can get some cool shots that you can't get with booms or jibs. I'd be happy to discuss it with you if you are interested.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[IanC]

Here's a video to show another quick look at the project:

JURASSIC PARK: ORIGINS PROJECT - YouTube

-Ian