20 facts you might not know about 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park'

Crichton wrote the novel Jurassic Park, which was turned into the hit film. It bolstered his popularity as an author, and also of that novel. Fans wanted a sequel, but Crichton was reluctant. Once the idea of a sequel movie came into play, though, Crichton decided he would indeed write a sequel to his novel. The Lost World came out as a book in 1995, and served to loosely inspire the movie.

Spielberg was signed on as a producer for The Lost World, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to direct. He was in the process of creating his own movie studio, DreamWorks, and didn’t know if he wanted to do it. Eventually, though, Spielberg did indeed decide to direct the sequel.

When Spielberg was on the fence about directing The Lost World, Joe Johnston’s name came up as a possible director. In the end, he didn’t get the gig, but Johnston would bounce back. He ended up directing Jurassic Park III.

David Koepp is the credited screenwriter on The Lost World, and he and Spielberg conceived a lot of the movie together. Some things from Crichton’s novel are in the film, but it doesn’t seem like it was the movie’s primary influence. According to Koepp, Spielberg was way more insistent that he watch the 1925 film The Lost World than he was about him reading Crichton’s book.

A few weeks before he began shooting, Spielberg decided to add the one thing that really separated his sequel from the original: A dinosaur making it to the mainland. Spielberg had a Tyrannosaurus Rex make it to San Diego because, in his words, “It’s too fun not to.” Originally he thought he would save it for a third movie, but then started to get the feeling this would be the last Jurassic Park movie he’d direct, which proved true.

You may remember Lewis Dodgson from Jurassic Park, if only because of Dennis Nedry’s calling him out by name. Dodgson has a sizable role in Crichton’s sequel book as well. However, Spielberg decided to not include the character in his sequel film.

Vaughn’s breakout came in the movie Swingers, which was written by and costarred his friend Jon Favreau. They wanted to use the theme to Jaws in Swingers, and to get permission they went to Spielberg, who then saw the movie. He apparently was so taken with Vaughn’s performance, he cast him in The Lost World without a screen test.

Vaughn wasn’t the only one cast because Spielberg liked their work in a previous film. He cast Julianne Moore after seeing her in The Fugitive, and cast Pete Postlethwaite after seeing him in In the Name of the Father.

Ian Malcolm gets a daughter in this movie, played by Vanessa Lee Chester. Spielberg met the child actor at the premiere of A Little Princess, which Chester was in. The director told her that he would cast her in a movie someday. The next year, Spielberg met with Chester about The Lost World.

Jurassic Park shot on Kauai, a Hawaiian Island, but Spielberg wanted a change of scenery for the new movie. Originally, it was announced that The Lost World would shoot in New Zealand, but that proved too costly. Instead, the movie shot in the exotic locale of…Humboldt County, California.

Spielberg was hoping his actors would live in the moment with their performances. He did not schedule rehearsals for the actors — and actively discouraged them. The director wanted the “magic” you can only get on the “first or second take.”

In addition to being the screenwriter, Koepp was working as the second-unit director. A second-unit director will traditionally handle things likes establishing shots, secondary-location shoots, and other stuff the primary director isn’t really needed for. However, there was a week when Spielberg had a family obligation in New York and couldn’t be on set. Koepp took over the first unit, but he had supervision. Spielberg had satellite video so he could monitor shooting from a distance.

Jurassic Park had one Tyrannosaurus Rex, but obviously, the sequel needed to take things up a notch. Three T. Rexes are in the movie — one infant and two adults. The animatronic models for the two T. Rexes were massive and expensive, weighing nine tons each and costing $1 million apiece. As such, the sets were actually built around them, as opposed to moving these giant models around.

Williams is perhaps the most iconic film composer in history, and his score for Jurassic Park is one of his most famous. He did not merely rest on his laurels, though. Williams created a new score for The Lost World, one that is more action-oriented and intense. In fact, his famed “Theme from ‘Jurassic Park’" isn’t heard until the very end of the movie.

Obviously, a lot of marketing work and promotional tie-ins were done for The Lost World. They had a promotional deal with Burger King, among others. In fact, General Mills even introduced a limited-edition Jurassic Park Crunch Cereal for the movie.

In 1997, the internet was still not being used by a lot of people, but the idea of a website for a movie was starting to become a reality. The Lost World had its own website, which led to a problem Jurassic Park didn’t have. The website was hacked, and the name of the movie was changed to “The Duck World: Jurassic Pond,” with a duck replacing the T. Rex on the website.

The director has a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo seen in the reflection of the TV screen broadcasting the CNN story about dinosaurs. He’s sitting next to Ian Malcolm. It’s more likely that saw Koepp’s cameo. He plays the guy eaten by the T. Rex in San Diego next to the video store. 

Upon its release, The Lost World broke several records. That included single-day box office, the highest-grossing Memorial Day weekend, and the fastest film to $100 million. It ended up making $618.6 million, a huge amount of money. Alas, it was destined to be the second-highest-grossing movie of 1997, because Titanic came out that year as well.

Jurassic Park wasn’t just a hit with moviegoers. Critics also enjoyed it. The Lost World was less well received. It has a 53 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert, who gave Jurassic Park three stars, only gave this movie two stars. In fact, The Lost World received three Razzie nominations, compared to only one from the Oscars and the MTV Movie Awards.

Spielberg moved on to running DreamWorks, and making movies for them, but Jurassic Park didn’t go anywhere. Johnston directed the third film in the series, which then went dormant before returning with Jurassic World. It has become one of the most-lucrative film series of all time, even if Spielberg’s involvement largely ended with The Lost World.