If James Cameron directed Jurassic Park, it’d be ‘much nastier’

What would happen if Steven Spielberg's movie version of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park were directed by another individual, say James Cameron. If it weren't for a couple hours difference, this could've been a thing. Although Cameron has two of the most financially successful movies of all time — Avatar and Titanic — Jurassic Park has alluded the acclaimed director.

According to Cameron, in an interview with the Huffington Post, both he and Steven Spielberg were both after the book's film rights around the same time. "[Spielberg] beat me to it by a few hours," Cameron said.

So how would Cameron's Jurassic Park have differed? For starters, it would've "much nastier".

"He made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would have been Aliens with dinosaurs, and that wouldn't have been fair," he explained. "Dinosaurs are for 8-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."

While Spielberg's movie of Jurassic Park is considerably way less horrific than the book, I'd still argue it isn't for 8-year-olds. Sure, it has a few lighthearted elements, but I'd hardly say its a movie for children. Rather, it's a film that both adults and children can enjoy in their own way. I don't think children will necessarily understand the undertones of Malcom's water experiment of unpredictability (or Chaos Theory as I learned later on in life). Their probably more intrigued with actually seeing the T-Rex for the first time.

Regardless of who the target audience for Spielberg's Jurassic Park is, it still makes me wonder how my life would've been different had Cameron directed it. Who knows, with all of the reboots we're getting on many of my childhood favorites maybe I'll live to see Cameron direct a Jurassic Park.