Yeah, there are bits and pieces of Crichton's Jurassic Park in every movie. Personally, I'd love to see someone like Matthew Vaughn helm a page by page adaptation of the book --perhaps minus the Malcolm chaos theory rants.

A full-on adaptation of the source material? Sounds great!

Wait, what? You mean toss out the entire thesis of the novel?

I was dying to see the book come to life, thinking how violent and Rated R it would have turned out. Hell, if anyone would do a faithful adaptation, I won't even mind the chaos theory mumbo jumbo.

Another great part of the book was the demise of Nedry and how graphic Crichton wrote that. I guess the movie version was okay, but dammit how cool would have that been seeing him cradle his intestines in his hands while running away.

No, I just remember parts of the book being like full on action and then coming to an abrupt stop everytime they went back to Malcolm laying in bed. Definitely keep the thesis of the novel in it and some of the Malcolm stuff, just need to pace it better.

I don't remember that. I remember that happening to Wu, but not Nedry.

Well, that's your opinion. Ironically, your comment is the one that's incredibly childish and immature.

To explain it in simple terms you can understand, I won't support a product and pay good money for something sub-par just because a movie company is dictating that consumers have to pay for something they don't want. These types of packages are very often calculated by the company to make more money off of classic material by packaging it with other things they know the public won't buy individually. The Batman box was another example.

The fact that Spielberg just "wanted to play with dinosaurs and make a monster movie in which he was free to do as he pleased, not beholden to a novel" only further illustrates my point. Jurassic Park was a novel years before Spielberg decided to make the movie. If he wanted to make a major departure from the source material in the second movie and "do as he pleased," he should've gotten the rights to Godzilla and re-made that movie instead.

The movie was awful, and the book (while being totally different from the movie) was terrible too. Like I said in my previous comments, it was like Crichton had completely checked out. I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn years from now that Crichton created the outline and let a ghost writer actually write the book. If you've read all of Crichton's books, you know that The Lost World sticks out like a sore thumb. It's nowhere near as good as the rest of his work.

I really liked the way the novel of JP1 started out with the compy's reaching the mainland of Costa Rico. I expected The Lost World to pick up this storyline but sadly it never did. A movie of dinosaurs hiding in the forests of a developed country and slowly terrorizing and taking over would've be much more suspenseful and interesting than a T-rex running around like a retarded Godzilla through downtown San Diego.

Absolutely! That would be amazing. I've always thought of the first novel as more like Jaws than the movie Spielberg chose to make.

You gotta hand it to the guy though. He sure made money hand over fist with JP. He was right on with what the public wanted.

Waiting longer and paying more money to buy the individuals strikes me as more immature than refusing to buy a box set when you are interested in 2/3 of the content. No way you'd be able to buy individuals of the Jurassic Parks for less than $19.99 and more likely $24.99. Since the box set would probably be $49.99, it makes no sense to avoid the box just to avoid The Lost World.

Bringing the original into this comment doesn't make sense, since the quote in question is only in regards to the sequel. He follows the original about as closely as any Hollywood adaptation does.

I wasn't baiting you.

(sigh) Alright, let's go through this. You appear to be of the mind that these kinds of releases designed to make studios money by putting their product on shelves is underhanded and conniving, and that only the blind little sheep would possibly be stupid enough to support these things. The truth us, you're not striking a blow for informed, critical-minded individuals here. You're griping about a package of commercialized entertainment sold by the legal owner of the content in question. You're not living the 21st Century civil rights movement here.

I sing the praises of writers loudly and often, so you'll get no argument from me that using the rights to a story just to create something entirely new is bothersome. That said, we must be mindful of the fact that what works on the page doesn't always work on the screen. When it comes to sequels this is even more pronounced, because once there's a movie version of the property there's a template for what works well.

Think of the James Bond movies. The first three are mostly faithful to Ian Fleming's novels (though no attempt was ever made to adapt them in their publication sequence, sadly). I won't go into Thunderball here, but after that film they were largely just cherry picking character names and scenes that interested them. This approach largely worked for that series. Yes, some movies were disappointing at the time and others haven't held up well over the years.

But before anyone goes rolling their eyes at the Roger Moore era it's important to remember that one of the most successful and popular in the series is The Spy Who Loved Me--and they were only legally allowed contractually to use its title, as Ian Fleming was self-conscious about the story and hated the idea of it ever being made into a movie. Had they not committed themselves to what worked on screen and been slaves to what worked in print, who knows? Maybe the last James Bond movie comes out in 1977 and is a dismal failure, and we now talk about 007 movies the way we talk about Captain Marvel serials.

I've read precisely two Crichton works and I think you can guess which two they were. I can't place The Lost World in the context of his writing. I only know that I liked it better than the film version, but not as well as I liked the first book or film.

Welfare.

No. Spielberg knew of the novel before it was even published, and there were bidding wars starting in 1989. Universal bought the film rights for Spielberg before the novel even came out. And of course there's the fact that Crichton wrote the screenplay.

Agreed. It was clearly a big paycheck deal. What confuses me is that the movie didn't even bother to follow it. The novel itself just seemed like a screenplay written for the upcoming film.

I think the first JP as a film stands on it's own quite well. Of course it's disappointing compared to the novel...though less so at the time of release because at that point we were all amazed just seeing convincing dinosaurs on screen.

Too bad we won't ever get a Crichton commentary. He mentioned it several years ago on his website it was his intention to do one for all the movies he was involved in, whether he directed it and/or wrote it. His commentary to The Great Train Robbery was rather good, if a little sparse.

At least we got a commentary for Looker.

I, for one, really enjoyed The Lost World book, but not so much the movie. I thought it brought in some fresh ideas and in some ways was better at that than the first book, but not completely. The first book was better, but I still thought The Lost World was still good. I read several of Chrichton's books (as I became a big fan of his at the time), but I still thought those two were the best. I didn't read all of them, and I'm sure there are people who like the books I didn't for particular reasons. Everyone has their own opinion. But I think we can all agree that Spielberg dropped the ball with The Lost World. The changes that were made for the first movie I can live with, but the second movie just took the big scene of the trailer on the cliff and that was it. The rest had nothing to do with the movie and, to me, once they capture the T-rex, the movie ends. The whole San Francisco thing is a joke. They also made the velociraptors look dumb after setting them up to be so intelligent in the first movie. Maybe those velociraptors didn't make it to the other island because their DNA got messed up and they ended up dumb.

As for the book, though, I think the only problem I had with it was that they used Malcolm as the main character. The first book was pretty obvious that he didn't make it. He wasn't on the helicopters with them, and even Muldoon (who lived in the book) shook his head when they asked about him. For Crichton to use him then come up with some crazy story that he really wasn't dead was ridiculous and just pandered to the movie people who wanted to bring him back for the movie because Jeff Goldblum was becoming a bit of a hot item for sci-fi movies at the time (being a popular character in the first JP and hot off of Independence Day).

I could complain that the first book teased about raptors being in the jungles and we knew that other dinosaurs had gotten off the island (especially compys), so I thought that was the next logical step. But I didn't mind them doing what they did, as long as there would eventually be a story that expanded on that. But, of course, they didn't really bring that up in the movies, so they probably never will.

And that is where the problem lies. The changes they made to the first movie changed where they storyline could go. Characters that were killed off in the book weren't in the movie and vice versa. I think Crichton was constrained by those changes for further books, in a way, plus the demands of the filmmakers. But now that there aren't any more books, and the movies have their own mythology/arc, I still see some potential. The dinosaurs hiding in the jungle idea was pretty good (not the Yosemite National Park that was brought up as a potential Jurassic Park movie years ago). I also liked the character of Muldoon and hated that they killed him off, but they never really showed it. And since they didn't destroy the island in the movie (like they did in the book), I always wanted to see a team go back to that island where they would find Muldoon scarred both physically and emotionally after being left on the island for all those years, but also a bada** dinosaur hunter. Being that it's been almost 20 years, though, it would probably be a stretch, now, but may still work. Who says they couldn't place the timeframe differently?

It was definitely Nedry. It happened while he was trying to escape with the embryos. Pretty much the way it did in the movie, but it was described in the book. He wasn't in the vehicle, though. The dilophosaur blinded him then ripped open his belly. He couldn't see anything, but he reached down and felt his intestines falling out. Later the others found him being eaten by compys. I couldn't remember the Wu character, so I looked him up. In the movie he just left on the boat, but in the book he did have his intestines ripped out of him, as well, by a raptor.

ONE OF THE MOST THRILLING & GROUNDBREAKING MOTION-PICTURE TRILOGIES OF ALL TIME ROARS ONTO BLU-RAY™ WITH BREATHTAKING NEW HIGH-DEFINITION PICTURE & PERFECT SOUND

JURASSIC PARK

ALL THREE EPIC ADVENTURES FROM FILMMAKER STEVEN SPIELBERG PLUS MORE THAN TWO HOURS OF ALL-NEW BONUS FEATURES AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY™ FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON OCTOBER 25, 2011
“You won’t believe your eyes!”—Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“A triumph of special effects artistry!”—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Universal City, California, June 27, 2011 – The wait is finally over to experience one of the most anticipated motion-picture trilogies of all time like never before when Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III debut as a trilogy set on Blu-ray™ October 25, 2011 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s award-winning cinematic franchise, based on the best-selling book by Michael Crichton, generated nearly $2 billion combined at the worldwide box office and featured groundbreaking visual effects that changed the art of movie-making forever. Now, all three epic films have been digitally restored and remastered in flawless high definition for the ultimate viewing experience. Additionally, the films’ visceral sound effects and the unforgettable music from legendary composer John Williams can now be heard in pristine 7.1 surround sound. Arriving in stores just in time for holiday gift giving, this collectible three-movie set also features hours of bonus features, including an all-new, six-part documentary and digital copies of all three films that can be viewed on an array of electronic and portable devices anytime, anywhere. The Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy is also available in a spectacular Limited Edition Gift Set and on DVD.
“From the moment T-Rex first towered over worldwide movie audiences, the Jurassic Park Trilogy has electrified fans with its heart-pounding action and awe-inspiring technological innovations,” says Craig Kornblau, President of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. “With this newly remastered and digitally restored edition, we continue the franchise’s legacy by delivering to home viewers spectacular picture and sound that keeps the films as fresh and visceral now as they were when audiences first experienced them.”
The Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy features an all-star cast including Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Attenborough, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mozzello, Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn, William H. Macy and Tea Leoni. In addition to the talented cast of actors, the Trilogy features stars of a different magnitude—from the huge Tyrannosaurus rex to the vicious Velociraptor, the Jurassic Park films showcase an extraordinary level of realism and technical innovation brought to life by a talented design team which include: Stan Winston, Live Action Dinosaurs; ILM's Dennis Muren, Full Motion Dinosaurs; Phil Tippett, Dinosaur Supervisor; Michael Lantieri, Special Dinosaur Effects and Special Visual Effects by Industrial Light & Magic.

ALL-NEW BONUS FEATURES ON BLU-RAY™ & DVD
• “Return to Jurassic Park” – this six-part documentary features all-new interviews with the many of the cast members from all three films, the filmmakers and Steven Spielberg.
o Dawn of a New Era
o Making Pre-history
o The Next Step in Evolution
o Finding The Lost World
o Something Survived
o The Third Adventure

ADDITIONAL FEATURES EXCLUSIVE TO BLU-RAY™
• BD-LIVE™ - Access the BD-Live™ Center through your Internet-connected player to watch exclusive content, the latest trailers, and more!
• MY SCENES: Bookmark your favorite scenes from the film.
• pocket BLU™: The groundbreaking pocket BLU™ app uses iPad®, iPhone®, iPod® touch, Android™, PC and Mac® to work seamlessly with a network-connected Blu-ray™ player. Plus iPad® owners can enjoy a new, enhanced edition of pocket BLU™ made especially to take advantage of the tablet's larger screen and high resolution display. Consumers will be able to browse through a library of Blu-ray™ content and watch entertaining extras on-the-go in a way that’s bigger and better than ever before. pocket BLU™ offers advanced features such as:
o ADVANCED REMOTE CONTROL: A sleek, elegant new way to operate your Blu-ray™ player. Users can navigate through menus, playback and BD-Live™ functions with ease.
o VIDEO TIMELINE: Users can easily bring up the video timeline, allowing them to instantly access any point in the film.
o MOBILE-TO-GO: Users can unlock a selection of bonus content with their Blu-ray™ discs to save to their device or to stream from anywhere there is a Wi-Fi network, enabling them to enjoy content on the go, anytime, anywhere.
o BROWSE TITLES: Users will have access to a complete list of pocket BLU™-enabled titles available and coming to Blu-ray™. They can view free previews and see what additional content is available to unlock on their device.
o KEYBOARD: Entering data is fast and easy with your device’s intuitive keyboard.

The following bonus features also appear on the both the Blu-ray™ and DVD:
• The Making of Jurassic Park
• The Making of The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• The Making of Jurassic Park III
• Steven Spielberg Directs Jurassic Park
• Early Pre-Production Meetings
• The World of Jurassic Park
• The Magic of Industrial Light & Magic
• Location Scouting
• Phil Tippett Animatics: Raptors In The Kitchen
• The Jurassic Park Phenomenon: A Discussion with Author Michael Crichton
• Industrial Light & Magic and Jurassic Park: Before and After The Visual Effects
• Industrial Light & Magic and The Lost World: Jurassic Park Before & After
• The Industrial Light & Magic Press Reel
• A Visit to Industrial Light & Magic
• Hurricane in Kauai Featurette
• Dinosaur Turntables
• The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park III
• Montana: Finding New Dinosaurs
• Animatics: T-Rex Attack
• The Special Effects of Jurassic Park III
• The Sounds of Jurassic Park III
• The Art of Jurassic Park III
• Tour of Stan Winston Studio
• Feature Commentary with Special Effects Team
• Production Archives: Storyboards, Models, Photographs, Design Sketches and Conceptual Drawings
• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailers
• And MORE!

SYNOPSIS
From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg, the Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy is one of the most successful film franchises in worldwide box-office history. On a remote tropical island, an amazing living theme park becomes a game of survival for humans foolhardy enough to set foot on it. Meticulously recreated dinosaurs spring to astonishing life as the film’s breathtaking special effects and thrilling action sequences keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Each chapter of the history-making saga delivers even more action and spectacular visual effects than its predecessor, as nature’s ultimate killing machines once again rule the earth. Almost 20 years after its inception, the Jurassic Park Trilogy remains an unmatched cinematic experience.

Jurassic Park
A multimillionaire (Richard Attenborough) unveils a new theme park where visitors can observe dinosaurs cloned using advanced DNA technology. But when an employee tampers with the security system, the dinosaurs escape, forcing the visitors to fight for their survival. Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern star in this thrilling, action-packed blockbuster from acclaimed director Steven Spielberg and based on the novel by Michael Crichton.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Four years after Jurassic Park's genetically bred dinosaurs ran amok, multimillionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) shocks chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) by revealing that Hammond has been breeding more beasties at a secret location. Malcolm, his paleontologist ladylove (Julianne Moore) and a wildlife videographer (Vince Vaughn) join an expedition to document the lethal lizards' natural behavior in this action-packed thriller.

Jurassic Park III
In need of funds for research, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) accepts a large sum of money to accompany Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) on an aerial tour of the infamous Isla Sorna. It isn't long before all hell breaks loose and the stranded wayfarers must fight for survival as a host of new -- and even more deadly -- dinosaurs try to make snacks of them. Laura Dern, Michael Jeter, Alessandro Nivola and Trevor Morgan co-star.

http://www.jurassicpark.com
Join the conversation on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jurassicpark

TECHNICAL INFORMATION BLU-RAY™:
Street Date: October 25, 2011
Copyright: 2011 Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Selection Number:
Layers: BD-50
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen, 1.85:1
Rating: PG-13
Languages/Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles
Sound: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French 2.0, English SDH, Spanish Subtitles
Run Time: Jurassic Park – 2 hours, 7 minutes
The Lost World: Jurassic Park – 2 hours, 9 minutes
Jurassic Park III – 1 hour, 33 minutes


TECHNICAL INFORMATION DVD
Street Date: October 25, 2011
Copyright: 2011 Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Selection Number: 61114696
Layers: Dual
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Rating: PG-13
Languages/Subtitles: English SDH, French & Spanish
Sound: English, French & Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Run Time: Jurassic Park – 2 hours, 7 minutes
The Lost World: Jurassic Park – 2 hours, 9 minutes
Jurassic Park III – 1 hour, 33 minutes

Jurassic Park
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Produced By: Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen
Screenplay By: Michael Crichton and David Koepp
Based on the Novel By: Michael Crichton
Director of Photography: Dean Cundey
Production Designer: Rick Carter
Film Edited By: Michael Kahn, ACE
Music By: John Williams
Live Action Dinosaurs: Stan Winston
Full Motion Dinosaurs By: Dennis Muren, ASC
Special Dinosaur Effects: Michael Lantieri
Dinosaur Supervisor: Phil Tippett
Special Visual Effects: Industrial Light & Magic
Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, B.D. Wong, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Produced By: Gerald R. Molen and Colin Wilson
Screenplay By: David Koepp
Based on the Novel “The Lost World” By: Michael Crichton
Executive Producer: Kathleen Kennedy
Director of Photography: Janusz Kaminski, ASC
Production Designer: Rick Carter
Film Editor: Michael Kahn, ACE
Music By: John Williams
Live Action Dinosaurs: Stan Winston
Full Motion Dinosaurs By: Dennis Muren, ASC
Special Dinosaur Effects: Michael Lantieri
Special Visual Effects: Industrial Light & Magic
Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard

Jurassic Park III
Directed By: Joe Johnston
Produced By: Kathleen Kennedy, Larry Franco
Written By: Peter Buchman and Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor
Based on Characters Created By: Michael Crichton
Executive Producer: Steven Spielberg
Director of Photography: Shelly Johnson, ASC
Production Designer: Ed Verreaux
Editor: Robert Dalva
New Music By: Don Davis
Original Themes By: John Williams
Live Action Dinosaurs: Stan Winston Studio
Animation and Special Visual Effects By: Industrial Light & Magic
Cast: Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter

Hell yea

Well it's about god damn time!!!!!

+1

The press release says 7.1 audio and the specs say 5.1

I'd be happy either way , but I'm hoping for 7.1

I wasn't planning on getting this, but since it's the "Ultimate" version I've completely lost all my previous willpower...

Always planned on getting this one immediately upon release

Wow, Universal! That box actually looks good, unlike the DVD artwork. And it appears all the bonus content from the DVDs--including the bonus fourth disc in the Trilogy box set--is being ported over, so I'm thrilled about that. The Making of "Jurassic Park" was one of the first behind-the-scenes VHS tapes I ever owned, and one of the earliest that I bought for myself. Along with From "Star Wars" to "Jedi": The Making of a Saga and Star Trek: 25th Anniversary Special, it was a key reason for my passionate curiosity about film-making. Glad to see it's included in the Blu-ray release.

Money-wise, I can't say how much of a priority it will be since there's an awful lot vying for our few discretionary dollars this year, but I'm stoked about eventually getting hold of this release. Fortunately, a local theater is screening the first film on 30 July and if I can make it to that, that ought to tide me over.

Yeah...all I cared about was JP1 honestly...but...all this special features...can't resist.