WI: John Landis and Steven Spielberg, Criminals

In 1982, actor Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese child actors were killed while filming the Twilight Zone movie. A pyrotechnic explosion damaged a helicopter and it crashed on top of them killing all 3 instantly.

Eventually John Landis and Steven Spielberg were charged with involuntary manslaughter. Landis (and others but not I think, Spielberg who was a producer) were put on trial and IOTL, acquitted in 1986-1987.

Involuntary manslaughter in this case basically means that despite knowing it was dangerous or unreasonable, they broke the law but without intending anyone to get hurt.

Now trials are funny things and who knows what happened, but assume for the purposes of alternate history that both Landis and Spielberg were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in 1987. They might or might not go to jail. Probably no more than 5-8 years I'd say if that. But how does this effect their various careers?
 
either james cameron or tim burton directs jurassic park (your choice depending on personal preference; and this WAS actually a historical possibility)
 
It'll severely scar Spielberg's career needless to say. There's also a kinda kid friendly thing about him which will get totally destroyed. What happens to Animaniacs is anyone's guess.

either james cameron or tim burton directs jurassic park (your choice depending on personal preference; and this WAS actually a historical possibility)
On the one hand, you have the likelihood it'll be even more of a rip off of Land of the Lost with overtones of American imperialism, and the raptors might get a tree of life or something. On the other, the entire score will be done by Danny Elfman and Johnny Depp will play Ian Malcolm.
 
On the one hand, you have the likelihood it'll be even more of a rip off of Land of the Lost with overtones of American imperialism, and the raptors might get a tree of life or something. On the other, the entire score will be done by Danny Elfman and Johnny Depp will play Ian Malcolm.
how is jurassic park in any way a ripoff of land of the lost?

on a JP forum i frequent, it was brought up that maybe the film would be closer to the novel if burton had directed because of the dark qualities he gives to films (so slightly more graphic and maybe a bit more stylized)
 
how is jurassic park in any way a ripoff of land of the lost?
Humans travel to a primordial land of prehistoric creatures in a secret location to have adventures. Not extreme ripoff, but I think there was some heavy influences.

on a JP forum i frequent, it was brought up that maybe the film would be closer to the novel if burton had directed because of the dark qualities he gives to films (so slightly more graphic and maybe a bit more stylized)
I don't know if he'd stick with the intellectualism though, which was in the novel. On top of the violence, the novel was also about chaos theory, inability to achieve perfection, and the short comings and corruptions of modern science.
 
Humans travel to a primordial land of prehistoric creatures in a secret location to have adventures. Not extreme ripoff, but I think there was some heavy influences.
that being the case, then its not land of teh lost that JP is at least in part based on, but doyle's lost world.

but thats beside the point; i just wanted to clear that up because i had honestly never heard of any comparison between land of the lost and jurassic park


yknow, now that i think of it, spielberg isnt one to re-release films with deleted scenes (apparently he hates those), so maybe if cameron had directed it (assuming the script and actors remain the same), we could maybe have gotten some of the deleted scenes that werent in the final release, including another philosophical talk between malcolm and the other characters as they walked down the steps of the visitor center to the tour cars. maybe the relationship of roland and ajay in the lost world would have been consistently present and not just in the occasional television airings of the film (it really helps to clarify on who roland and ajay are in the second film and why they go to sorna: ajay had already agreed, and he was able to convince roland that there was something challenging taht roland hadnt hunted yet: a goddamn dinosaur)
 

MacCaulay

Banned
On the one hand, you have the likelihood it'll be even more of a rip off of Land of the Lost with overtones of American imperialism, and the raptors might get a tree of life or something. On the other, the entire score will be done by Danny Elfman and Johnny Depp will play Ian Malcolm.

I've got to admit: in my opinion, no one could play Malcolm better than Jeff Goldblum. Jeff Goldblum is a gift to humanity sent down from the Lord above to treat us with amazing acts of superhuman cinematic excellence.

Having said that, Johnny Depp is probably the first name I've ever heard that could ever approach him for that role. And I only say that because he's very chameleonlike.

Though folks do forget that Tim Burton had another golden boy: Michael Keaton. Perhaps there could've been a place for him in this alt.Jurassic Park, as either Grant or even as Malcolm? (I could actually see him as Malcolm, too)

on a JP forum i frequent, it was brought up that maybe the film would be closer to the novel if burton had directed because of the dark qualities he gives to films (so slightly more graphic and maybe a bit more stylized)

Oh, to see Wu get it from the raptors and Hammond's end with the compys...though I think if they stuck with the original plot (like putting in that openning scene from JP3 at the beginning of JP1) then the movie would probably clock in at like three and a half hours.
 
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