4. Jurassic Park – Dr. Ian Malcom Supposed To Die From Dinosaur Injuries
One of the many highlights of the first Jurassic Park (and one of the few in The Lost World) was Jeff Goldblum‘s charismatic turn as Dr. Ian Malcom. Whilst Malcolm manages to survive a few dinosaur wounds in the film, earlier drafts of the script had a different fate in store for Malcolm.
Like in the final version of the film, the original plan involved Malcolm getting injured. But instead of having the character survive in the end, Malcolm follows his novel counterpart’s fate and actually dies in the end when he succumbs to his injuries. That was until Spielberg cast Goldblum in the role and everyone couldn’t help but be impressed by the guy. Since Crichton wrote the novel and was also the screenwriter for the film, Malcolm’s death was quickly changed so that everyone could experience some more Jeff Goldblum calendar pin-up poses.
Goldblum made a big enough impression that Crichton decided to make Malcolm the central character for the sequel novel. In fact, the Lost World drops a cheeky reference to Malcolm’s reconnected fate by having the character declare that reports of his death were “greatly exaggerated.”
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