Where to watch The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Trivia & production notes

• David Koepp incorporated a suggestion from a child fan letter to add a Stegosaurus to the script, and kept the letter as a reminder while writing.
• Koepp wrote the screenplay while simultaneously working in post-production on his directorial debut film, completing the first draft in January 1996.
• The character of Robert Burke was based on paleontologist Robert Bakker, whose theory that T. rex was an active predator conflicted with rival paleontologist Jack Horner's view that it was protective and not inherently aggressive.
• The 1962 film Hatari, about African animals being captured for zoos, had a major influence on the script's concept of humans as hunters trying to capture dinosaurs.
• Michael Crichton did not see a copy of the screenplay until he declined to approve certain merchandising rights, and Spielberg and Koepp had already been developing film ideas for more than a year before Crichton finished his novel.
• Spielberg was more insistent that screenwriter Koepp watch the 1925 film The Lost World than that he read Crichton's novel.
• The characters Roland and Nick were named after references to Warren Zevon's song Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, with Roland the mercenary in the song inspiring the hunter-for-hire character's name.
• Kelly was combined from two separate child characters in the novel, and Spielberg and Koepp decided to make her Malcolm's adopted black daughter despite initial uncertainty about the casting choice.
• Spielberg decided to add the San Diego rampage sequence only two months before filming began, requiring Koepp to rewrite the ending and reducing the InGen village set by 75 percent that had already been under construction.
• Koepp wrote nine drafts of the script, and an early version featured characters escaping raptors by hang-gliding off a cliff only to encounter Pteranodons.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Lost World: Jurassic Park, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.