Every successful modern Hollywood movie franchiseowes a debt to theJurassic Parkseriesof films. Starting with 1993’sJurassic Park, the series became the blueprint for how the film industry would adapt existing novels/IP for the big screen, use state-of-the-art CGI and animatronics, and market the movie not just to American audiences but the entire world.
TheJurassic Parkseries also showed the importance of a strong directorial voice helming a big-budget blockbuster, which in this case, was Steven Spielberg. But Spielberg only directed the first twoJurassic Parkmovies and declined to return to direct the third part of the trilogy. Let us take a look at the various factors that contributed to the filmmaker’s decision to not directJurassic Park III.
Spielberg Made the Decision Early On
When a director makes a successful movie in Hollywood, it is expected that they would want to return for the sequels for a big paycheck. As one ofHollywood’s most successful directorsas well as producers, Steven Spielberg was able to make decisions in his career based on creative impulse rather than purely economics. Even while he was making the secondJurassic Parkmovie, Spielberg knew this might be it for him in terms of directing the films in the budding franchise.
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“It was something I was saving for a thirdLost Worldmovie,” Spielberg explained in an interview withTimeabout an action scene involving a T. rex in the secondJurassic Parkfilm. “When I realized that I would probably leave that directing job to someone else, I selfishly wanted to see the action of a T. rex stomping down a suburban street chomping homeowners.” Spielberg putting the scene he intended for the third movie in the second movie itself was an early indication that he was ready to wrap up his involvement in the franchise from a creative standpoint.
Spielberg Promised a Friend
There is a lot of competition in Hollywood. But there is a lot of camaraderie as well. In the 1980s and ’90s, Steven Spielberg was Hollywood’s hottest director. But he still maintained a warm equation with other directors, even those whose movies had been struggling at the box office. One such filmmaker was Joe Johnston, a movie special effects technician-turned-director whose 1991 movieThe Rocketeerhad been less than warmly received by general audiences, but has since come to be regarded as a cult classic.
Two years after the release ofThe Rocketeer, Johnston was coming out of a screening of the originalJurassic Park. There he ran into Spielberg and had an interaction that would take on special significance later on. “I saw Steven [Spielberg] at a screening and said, hey, I liked your movie,” Johnston revealed during an interview withIGN. “If you decide not to do the sequel, keep me in mind.” Sure enough, Johnston would eventually take over for Spielberg as director of the thirdJurassic Parkmovie.
Jurassic Park Is a Difficult Feat of Moviemaking
The first twoJurassic Parkmovies were based on two novels written by Michael Crichton. The novels and the movies explore a sci-fi scenario where a group of scientists uses fossilized dinosaur DNA to create a theme park filled with various species of dinosaurs.Jurassic Parkand its sequels made groundbreakinguse of huge animatronicsto bring the dinosaurs to life convincingly.
While using practical special effects gives the films much more weight and realism than simply creating CGI dinosaurs would have done, it was also an exhausting and dangerous way to work. That was when Spielberg remembered his previous conversation with Joe Johnston, whose expertise with special effects would make him the ideal replacement for directingJurassic Park III. “[Steven Spielberg] called me up.” Johnston explained to theChicago Tribune. “And said, ‘You know, these movies are hard. I have too many kids now. So if you want to do a Jurassic Park movie, how about No. 3?'” Johnston accepted the offer and came on boardJurassic Park IIIas the director.
Spielberg Was Still Involved as a Producer
Many fans of the original twoJurassic Parkmovies were naturally disappointed to learn that Steven Spielberg would no longer be directing the third film in the series. But that did not mean Spielberg had entirely washed his hands of the blockbuster franchise that he helped create. He continued to be attached to the project as an executive producer and would visit the sets ofJurassic Park IIIto see how filming was progressing.
Related:Jurassic Park: The Best Visual Effects in the Franchise, Ranked
But just because he was back on set did not mean Spielberg was suddenly filled with regret over passing on directing the movie. “Steven stopped by the first time we did a shot for our first big [special-effects] sequence,” director Joe Jonhston explained to theChicago Tribune. “And he left saying, ‘Boy, I’m glad I don’t have to do this,'” It was a sentiment that Johnston himself would come to agree with, as he later described the process ofmaking the movie as “a living hell” due to production issuesthat plagued the entire project from start to finish.
Spielberg Helped With a Scene
Generally speaking,Jurassic Park IIIis considered an inferior productin comparison to the first two moviesin the franchise. A lot of factors were responsible for this end result, including the many issuesJurassic Park IIIsuffered from during production, and sky-high expectations from fans. Those same fans pinpointed Steven Spielberg’s absence from the director’s chair as a major reason whyJurassic Park IIIended up the way it did.
But Spielberg was still closely involved with makingJurassic Park IIIas an executive producer, and he would even visit the sets of the movie to see how the project was progressing. In fact, during one such visit, Spielberg actually helped direct a scene in the movie that was giving the crew some trouble. In a 2020 interview withJurassic Outpost,Jurassic Park IIIcinematographer Shelly Johnson described the scene where a character is supposed to be searching for an item in a closet with a flashlight.
“The camera was on one side of this box [the actress] was searching,” Johnson recalled. “And she was on the other side of the box, and [Spielberg] had this idea: Well, if she ducks down, and we see the beam of the flashlight come up first, and then she rises, so we see the flashlight kind of like a lighthouse, and then we see her, which was kind of a very Spielbergian vocabulary.”
The suggestion from Spielberg was rapidly accepted by the crew, and although the actress was initially confused about how to hold the flashlight, Johnston showed her how to carry out the movement, and the end result would up being in the final cut of the movie.
