When it was released in 1993, Steven Spielberg’s adventure film Jurassic Park swiftly became a monster hit, big enough to give rise to all manner of spinoffs, including three sequels, a series of video games, and a sea of tie-in merchandise. However, one idea that never came to fruition was that of a Jurassic Park animated series, which failed to get beyond development stage.
Now, though, early concept art for the abandoned series is being auctioned off by illustrator William Stout, giving a sense of what it might have looked like.
Writing on his blog, Stout also divulges details about the evolution of the Jurassic Park series, as well as its premature demise.
Stout, who specialises in paleontological art, describes the vision for the show as being “a mature primetime series with top writers and state-of-the-art television animation augmented with quite a bit of CG animation. Universal Cartoon Studios wanted a “graphic-novel look” to the series. I came in, showed my portfolio and was hired.”
“We made a trailer to communicate the look and feel of the series, also showing how we would combine computer animation with traditional animation. All we needed was Spielberg’s approval.”
But that approval never arrived. “I heard through the grapevine that he never bothered to watch what we had done, Stout says. “By that time, the word was out that he was burnt out on Jurassic Park merchandising and all of the film’s commercial exploitation. So, it never got made.”
