The Screenwriter of ‘Jurassic World’ Had Never Seen ‘Jurassic Park’ When He Was Hired to Write ‘Jurassic World’

Empire Magazine has a new and extremely detailed oral history of Jurassic World. This movie’s not even out in theaters yet! Remember when oral histories were things that happened 10 or 20 years after a movie came out? Not anymore.

Anyway, the article features a lot of interesting tidbits about the film’s development, production, and editing. You find out what Chris Pratt’s character did with his trained raptors in previous drafts of the Jurassic World script (hunt down drug lords!) and learn who Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard compared their characters to (Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen). But by far, the most interesting tidbit about the film comes from Derek Connolly, director Colin Trevorrow’s writing partner. He admits that <GASP!> he had never actually watched a Jurassic Park movie before he was hired to write a Jurassic Park movie. Not even the first one! He explains:

I’m not sure if I should reveal this, but I had never seen a Jurassic Park film until the day Colin called me. I watched all three that afternoon for the first time in my life. The first one is amazing: It’s funny and the characters are great. The sequels, not so much.

Oh snap! The Lost World dissbomb!

He’s not wrong, of course. And given how much Trevorrow has talked about his own Jurassic Park fandom, he probably provided more than enough knowledge of the material in the screenplay writing process. Still, it’s kind of shocking to meet anyone around Connolly’s age (he’s in his late 30s) who hadn’t seen at least the first Jurassic Park. Is that even allowed? I thought it was one of those movies you had to watch or they don’t let you graduate from high school.

Jurassic World opens in theaters this Friday.