Jurassic Park's Original T-Rex: The Tim Lawrence Files

[@brycevo]

This history is so amazing. Sad Tim wasn't able to complete his work on Jurassic, but Stan would do such an amazing job after

[@tapinewoods3937]

Imagine if we got a more frog-like Trex in the franchise as well as the rest of the dinosaurs. Thank you, Tim Lawrence, for everything and helping Steven with the dinosaur designs. This channel is the best and deserves to be seen by many Jurassic fans.

[@michaelanderson9140]

nah, that rex sucked.

[@tapinewoods3937]

@@michaelanderson9140 At least we have to give credit for the original Trex design.

[@Tarbtano]

This channel easily deserves 100 * the focus. It is probably the single best documentation on the production cycle of this franchise's earlier installments.

[@JurassicTime]

Thank you so much!

[@jessehutchings]

Professional artists like Tim Lawrence keep civilization alive

[@conkle7955]

I really like the frog-like features in the original Rex design, and the poses that Tim gave the Rex through his sculpts. This video was a great watch and a good look through cinema history.

[@GingyPreston]

I wish this was released earlier, as I just wrote an essay on how Jurassic park was gonna use stop motion clay puppets

[@JeremySmith-fo3cj]

So Jurassic Park was going to actually be trash at first? Lol

[@GingyPreston]

@@JeremySmith-fo3cj pretty much, but it woulda been cool to see them as stop motion

[@Levinewak]

Wonder what Tim Lawrence’s designs for Allosaurus and Baryonyx would look like

[@ia5662]

Wonder if he ever worked with Phil Tippet, since he was doing stop motion to start on JP until the CGI renders came through. A shame Tim wasn't there on the team to see the film through.

[@foreverkent2225]

Amazing piece of history! And I’m glad that Tim’s story and contribution are out there. However I do far prefer the final design for the T. rex and I’m glad Spielberg nixed the frog idea. While interesting in theory a big point of the movie was for the dinosaurs to be portrayed as real animals and not monsters. And the frog idea is just a little too mad scientist. Yes, I get that’s literally what they were doing in the story of Jurassic park, but if you watch any making of Jurassic footage you’ll know it was important to all the filmmakers that they didn’t portray the dinosaurs as mutants or mad science, but instead as real animals

[@scotsmith2391]

That was really well done documentary. Thank you for sharing that.

[@JurassicCollectables]

Brilliant. Excellently made Derrick. Really enjoyed this beginning to end. Great to witness Tim's involvement in the early stages of Jurassic Park. Keep up the great work

[@JurassicTime]

Thank you, that means a lot! Definitely had a lot of passion in making this one. Just glad his story is finally out there!

[@BonecrusherT800]

A very talented artist and kind man to boot, who did amazing work on some great films that defined my childhood and are endearing favorites to this day. While no doubt the right decision was made to go with the Stan Winston/Mark McCreery design that everyone knows and loves and was the right choice to go with for the more realistic and (at the time) scientifically accurate look, this is still a neat alternate version to see. It's good that this little-known bit of information is getting more widespread recognition. This is still a neat design in it's own right that deserves to be featured in another dinosaur-oriented project of sorts. Thanks for sharing this. R.I.P. to both Tim Lawrence and Stan Winston. Two titans of special effects and imagination.

[@asa-punkatsouthvinland7145]

Tim definitely sounded like he was holding back tears in loosing out on JP.

[@velociraptor4you3291]

Oh WOW (🤩)! *_FOREVER_* rest in peace, Tim Lawrence (✌️)! I’ve heard of this pre-production stage for the T-Rex (🦖) in particular before, but this presents the _whole_ story. Part of me _kinda_ wants to see Tim’s T-Rex design canonized as like, a ‘prototype’ INGEN Rex in some form or another.

[@JurassicTime]

Yeah, or at least in SOME movie!

[@velociraptor4you3291]

@@JurassicTime I know, right? ‘Retrosaurs’ may be outdated, but I still love ‘em!

[@saidi7975]

Absolutely ! Retrosaurs deserve to be fondly remembered.

[@velociraptor4you3291]

@@saidi7975 😊

[@TheSirvladimr]

That is a beautiful documentary that makes me believe that dreams can be born from the most hidden places of the heart. The old Tyrannosaurus, although inaccurate, was quite consistent with something realistic made by a simple artist in the early 90's who had no knowledge of paleontology. It really is a beautiful specimen but please tell me what is the name of the music that plays in it 14:16 since it makes you dream in that part of the video

[@JurassicTime]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! That music track you speak of is "Nublar Fantasia" by Bernard A. Kyer from his soundtrack to the fan game 'Jurassic Explorer.' You can hear it in full in his album at Bandcamp. In fact, all of the music used in this video was by him for that game. I SERIOUSLY recommend listening to all 3 albums from it! bardmediamusic.bandcamp.com/track/nublar-fantasia

[@byzantineroman2407]

Bro, you just straight up became a pro! I swear, each video is getting higher and higher quality

[@JurassicTime]

Thank you very much! This is honestly one of my favorite videos I have ever done.

[@byzantineroman2407]

Eventually, you're just gonna get so good you make your own Jurassic Park franchise

[@JurassicTime]

Hahaha well THAT would be amazing. For now I am just trying to get my original novel published, hehe. If you haven't heard about it, you can see details here: derrickdavismedia.com

[@byzantineroman2407]

@@JurassicTime Sounds good! Thank you for your hard work!

[@paolodebonis781]

Beautiful video. Thank you Tim for this story

[@saidi7975]

I love this Rexy design and I think it would fit animation rather than live action... Also the novel Rex did not have frog DnA, the raptors, procompys, maiasaura and othnielia had it.

[@anonymouscontributor2376]

Amazing! Yet again, another masterfully crafted video by Jurassic Time. These events and stories would be lost to time if you didn’t save them for their historical significance. Thanks again and I look forward to revisiting this feature again and again down the road!

[@kalevipoeg6916]

Part of me is amazed that anyone thought that monster froggosaurus was a good idea for the film - but that's all in retrospect. See, the OTHER part of me *remembers* - even though I was very young - a small child in fact, but very knowledgeable about paleontology even then (I was basically a real-life Tim Murphy- about the same age as him, too) - that in the years running up to Jurassic Park, NOBODY had ever seen anything like the final result we got in the film. Dinosaurs in the late 80s were only JUST beginning to be understood in a more modern light, as warm-blooded, agile, dynamic animals - REAL animals, not movie monsters. The T. rex being given an erect stance initially, while clearly impossible if you understand how the animal is built, is also not surprising, given that BEFORE Jurassic Park, most of the public still ONLY had that image of T. rex as this upright, tail-dragging, godzilla-like thing. Jim appears to have based this decision on a very old mount from the early 20th century - which was later revised. So, had they GONE that way, the general public would have not known any better, and would have accepted it as yet another monster movie. Still, it's surprising to see HOW MUCH the sculpt departs from the actual shape of the skull or the dentition of a real .T. rex, given they had a 3D cast in hand to work off of. I guess it boils down to Spielberg's VISION changing, and I highly suspect TWO things changed during the downtime that lead to going another way: 1. Jack Horner was brought on as consultant - and I've met Jack. He would not hesitate to TELL them it didn't look like a real dinosaur, and that the stance was all wrong, and 2. Michael Crichton's book goes to lengths to make it clear that these are ANIMALS, and they very much look and move in ways not in line with the public perception of cold-blooded, tail-dragging dinosaurs at that time. I think Spielberg at some point, perhaps between talks with Crichton and Horner, came to realize that these animals could only work AS animals, not as movie monsters. From then on, the goal was realism, as far as the science of the early 90s would allow for, at least. And when Williams made it clear that CGI could work...the whole game plan changed. This was going to be a film where the dinosaurs felt TRULY alive, in a way no film had ever even approached before.

[@bad_day_films]

15 mins 45 seconds into the video, that's Adam Jones, now the awesome guitarist of the rock band Tool.

[@grendel8342]

really would have loved a more mutant look for the dinosaurs considering they were not pure line.

[@parkerpshebnisky1051]

I loved his work!🦖👍👍

[@DianaHamann]

You're missing one essential name on the photo of the T-Rex head trial: that's Pete Livingston, Tim's business partner on this project. You might want to interview him about his memories of the T-Rex head creation (if he's up for it)!

[@JurassicTime]

Thank you! I tried to get all the names I could with the help of some people who were also in the photo that I did have contact with, but the results were the best I could do. So thank you! :) I am assuming you knew Tim as well? I hope this video was a proper telling of his story!

[@DianaHamann]

I knew Tim from our days in Jacksonville and working in L.A. - longtime friends. It's weird to see a pal's work presented by someone other than him - but that's what happens after someone passes & I'll get ymused to it! Tim (like me) was a control freak & would definitely have had notes! ;) I'm *always* happy to see a friend's great work get more attention. I assume you've talked to Catherine about Tim's files at Univ of Fla.? If not, inquire at their library about Tim's stuff. Seems like you'd enjoy them!

[@JurassicTime]

@DianaHamann I would love to chat more via e-mail if possible! Please send me a message via my site' contact form if you'd like. :) form.jotform.com/jurassictimememoir/contact

[@Dinoslay]

Thanks for sharing. This iteration of the animal has some resemblance to the design that Roger Corman ended using for his version of the T.rex in the infamous film adaptation of Carnosaur.

[@phytosurusgiganteus3461]

woo incredible information, I had not seen it before, interesting the history of the production of the film.

[@princewithoutakingdom9716]

So in The book the thing that stands out is these aren't real dinosaurs they're a mad genetically rendered fantasy of what a dinosaur could have been...I'll never forget watching this film in a cinema as a small child it was a dream come true. this is a great film thank you!

[@dexterjones2201]

Almost looks like the Rex was designed by Tim Burton if he directed the film his own way.

[@RyleyStorm]

Some of those concept sketches are so much better anatomically then the final film...

[@JeremyBrubacher]

There is some of this that is not true. All you have to do is see the Jurassic Park behind the scenes and you will see before they did any CGI tests they had the look for the T-Rex decided as stop motion models for the T-Rex look like the one in the final movie so there is no way this guy saw the earlier CGI model.

[@jee911]

Great story. New subscriber

[@reginaldturner1669]

I’m from Jacksonville. I wish I met him.

[@reginaldturner1669]

I’m sad to hear he’s lost his life in 2019

[@Levinewak]

11:15 Funny enough Brontosaurus was replaced by Apatosaurus in the lost world

[@blendcreator]

Why do the videos for the interviews look like AI?

[@JurassicTime]

They were enhanced with upscaling due to the low definition sources. One of them I obtained from Archive.org, the other was from an Instagram post of a video from 2009, with a squished aspect ratio that I also corrected.

[@blendcreator]

@@JurassicTime Alright, i was wondering😅. I think you should include this in your video´s descipting before Sora is released and people think it´s fake

[@JurassicTime]

Updated! This presentation includes clips from the following videos, with upscaling applied to the first two due to low quality sources: instagram.com/reel/C0Abez4PA0u web.archive.org/web/20190406190656/www.conservationarts.net/index.html kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJyzko2fbZyMoMk

[@Nerfherder-oo7iv]

Amazing. Kathleen Kennedy has come so far. She’s already destroyed several franchises since her start ! What a girl boss

[@BB-gd5pk]

White men are amazing. Such great work on this film.

[@CheifShitWeasel]

Beautiful story and great piece of cinema history. Obviously a fantastic artist, but thank God they went with Stan Winston on this one. It was obvious that this early in preproduction they hadn’t even consulted a paleontologist. Beautiful sculpture, but it was as outdated as they come. Amazing in some other adventure movie but not for Jurassic Park. It just looked to fantasy-ish. What ended up being used in the film, looked like a living, breathing animal, especially for the time. So it all ended well in the end. But great video nonetheless…

[@JurassicTime]

Thank you! And that is a fair criticism, although interesting that Spielberg initially did want to go the route of something more character orientated and "fantasy-like," since that's what he apparently asked of Tim. It's possible Spielberg was convinced to go a more realistic route, hence Tim being replaced by Stan Winston? Although you'd think they would have also offered him the chance to redo the design himself, especially after going out of his way to get the cast of the T-Rex skull (which I believe Winston's team did use for reference as well). But we'll probably never know all of the reasons. I was tempted to go into more analysis of his story, but I really just wanted it to be Tim's. Also, I do wish his design could have been used in some other dinosaur movie! Would have fit in something like Peter Jackson's King Kong.

[@CheifShitWeasel]

@@JurassicTime Most probably they were way too early. I think you mentioned in the video that Spielberg went off to film Hook. So these must have been some preliminary meetings just to see what could work and what could not. Keep in mind, even after they decided to use Winston’s designs, but before ILM came into the picture, Spielberg wanted Phill Tippet’s raptors to flicker their tongues just like a lizard, and immediately Jack Horner unloaded on them for it! 🤣 Anyways, I still love retro designs to this day. Perfect for a Lost World type movie, or a King Kong. But what they ended up using was just something else. Even now, 30 years on, when we know a lot more about dinosaurs, and some JP designs are outdated; for realism on the whole, they still haven’t been topped. The same goes for The Lost World which surpasses the first one in practical and CGI effects. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@william3100]

​@CheifShitWeasel honestly, I don't see anything wrong with the old designs, and I think they would work just as well as what we got. These "fantasy-ish" designs were obviously falling more in line with the designs of the dinosaurs from the novel. They are genetically engineered creatures with frog DNA in them, so it makes sense to have them be different from their real-life counterparts. The realism kinda falls apart when you realize that they weren't making real dinosaurs. They were trying to, but obviously, they never could, which was much more emphasized in the novel.

[@JeremySmith-fo3cj]

Yeeeah this would have killed the franchise if they went with the low Budget movie Rex like in those cheesy old dino movies from the 50's. I definitely would have never seen Jurassic Park if this shit happened 🤣