Original 'Jurassic World' Script Featured A Raptor Helicopter Jump, Totally Different Characters

Movies can look completely different from their inception and the final product on the big screen, especially since every movie goes through several script changes. This certainly applies to Jurassic World.

Director Colin Trevorrow joined the project after a script had already been written by by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, bringing along his own changes and writing partner Derek Connolly. So exactly what changed between Jaffa and Silver's original Jurassic World script and Trevorrow's final product? Quite a lot, actually.

Chatter over a fourth Jurassic Park film began all the way back in 2001, when Steven Spielberg and Jurassic Park III director Joe Johnston were both still heavily involved. The project passed through many hands and many script changes before Jaffa and Silver were finally hired in 2012 to script what was then called Jurassic Park 4. It was only a year later that Trevorrow was tapped to direct — before Jaffa and Silver's script was even completed. But after reading their draft, Trevorrow insisted on bringing Connolly on to help him rewrite it.

In an interview with with the Bryce Dallas Howard Community's new magazine, Trevorrow revealed what Jaffa and Silver's script originally entailed (via CinemaBlend):

I only read Rick and Amanda's script once, so I don't remember all the details of it. The lead character was a guy called Vance, who ultimately became Owen in our story. The Film opened with Vance jumping out of a helicopter with a pack of raptors on a military raid of a drug dealer's compound in Colombia. It was a different approach. But there was a character who had one or two scenes, the manager for the corporate side of the park. I think her name was Whitney. She was an antagonist to the hero, putting up red tape.

A raptor helicopter jump-turned military raid? Now that is wildly different (and kind of awesome). But you can see the blueprints for Jurassic World in this script, especially in the original antagonist, Whitney. She would become the foundation for Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing, who Trevorrow reworked into a softer, more sympathetic character. He added:

I remember reading that one scene and feeling like this character had the most room to grow out of anyone I'd read so far. She wasn't awed by dinosaurs, she saw them as widgets in a business. To take a character who had lost her compass like that and bring her back to the wonder and respect for these creatures felt like a real journey. We thought her love of dinosaurs would likely have driven her to this job in the first place–she just had to find it again.