At the moment, it is a pretty good time to be a Jurassic Park fan. The franchise has been totally reinvigorated with Jurassic World, which brought in a staggering $1.6 billion worldwide and had one of the most impressive opening weekends of all time. Jurassic World 2 is currently in development and as great as that may be, there is another Jurassic Park project we will never get to see and some new details about it have supposedly surfaced.
Many die hard Jurassic Park fans know that there were plans for an animated series in 1993, though it never totally got off the ground. However, people were hired to bring it to life and they actually got reasonably far in the process, and the fan site Jurassic Outpost claims to have some serious new details about what would have been. The site claims to have gotten hold of the story bible for the show, which they haven’t yet fully released, but have teased a bit.
According to Jurassic Outpost, the show would have been titled Escape From Jurassic Park, which we hadn’t known until now. In addition, the site released what looks to be the introductory page of the bible, which gives a good idea of what the feeling and tone of the show would have been. The introduction made some pretty lofty claims about the series and was very confidently written, which is enough to make the hair stand up on any Jurassic Park fans neck.
“The made for television series that will follow the release of the motion picture Jurassic Park will be the most distinctive and elaborately animated series ever produced for the medium of television. The series is being designed by William Stout, one of the original concept artists who designed the [Jurassic Park] feature, and who, as an acclaimed dinosaur artist and author in his own right, was one of Michael Crichton’s inspirations in the writing of the original novel. The look will be consistent with the film and will feature extensive three dimensional/multi-plane animation.”
At least part of that statement isn’t a complete surprise, as a few months ago William Stout released a bunch of the unused concept art for the series. It was also revealed that Stout has a copy of a trailer that was made for the series, but it is very unlikely we will see that any time soon, if ever. The introduction for the alleged show bible continued on, with some more details that help give a better idea of what fans might have been able to expect if Escape From Jurassic Park had come to be.
“The Jurassic Park series will build from the film and book into continuing stories told in multiple-episode story arcs. Each individual episode will tell a complete story – but will form part of a greater tapestry which will play out over the course of the series. Philosophically, the series will be consistent with the story-telling integrity of the motion picture and the novel. While new characters and dinosaurs will be added to the mix, the essential cast from the film will be featured in the series, and the tone and temper of the storytelling will be the same as in the motion picture.”
The series would have been a high budget, primetime series from the now defunct Universal Cartoon Studios. It also was said by Stout that the series would have not exactly been a kids show, though kids would have been able to enjoy it. It appeared that they were going for a much more wide audience. Jurassic Outpost is claiming that throughout the month of June, in honor of #JurassicJune, they will be releasing more from the show bible, such as a breakdown of the planned episodes. The site claims that they they got the document from an “anonymous” contributor, so all of this should be taken with a relative grain of salt. In any case the news should be equal parts exciting and frustrating for Jurassic Park fans. Stay tuned this month as we will be sure to keep you posted when more details surface.