Summary

• Michael Crichton’s collaboration with Steven Spielberg resulted in critical success, starting with
  Jurassic Park
  .
• Crichton’s foresight into science fiction themes led to lucrative adaptations in film and television.
• Crichton went from being an unsuccessful filmmaker to a goldmine revered for his futuristic storytelling.

Directors like Steven Spielberg have long sought literary inspiration to adapt great science fiction works into feature films. Even a generational director like Spielberg needed an author who could explain the fantastic events in a science fiction film using real scientific findings. Fortunately, Spielberg met just such an author at the start of his career as a television director. Michael Crichton.

Crichton wrote the original novels and screenplay drafts for some of the most successful franchises in film and television, including Jurassic Parkthe film from 1973 Westworldthe hit of 1996 Twistersand the 15 season long medical series HE. Crichton had an impressive academic streak. He had graduated from Harvard Medical School and had an insight into science and medicine that most Hollywood writers lacked. He was also an incredibly gifted storyteller who could make you believe that technological advances that were advanced then were still possible today.

Crichton discovered his passion for writing while studying medicine

Crichton grew up in the idyllic town of Roslyn on Long Island and after an impressive high school career in which he published articles in The New York Times As a teenager, Crichton was accepted into Harvard University. While traveling in Europe on an academic scholarship, Crichton began writing novels, often incorporating new computer science and technology he learned about as an academic. Crichton wrote under the pseudonym John Lange, fearing that his passion for writing might one day lead to a conflict of interest if he became a doctor.

In the third year of his medical studies at Harvard Crichton realized that he would never be happy as a doctor and that he should instead devote himself entirely to writing. His first novel under his own name, Andromeda – Deadly dust from spacebecame a bestseller and was the first of his works to be adapted for the screen in 1971. Crichton had received $250,000 for the film option and quickly realized that a career in show business could be just as lucrative as being a doctor. The tall 6’1″ Crichton was hard to miss on the set and made some important relationships early in his career as a screenwriter.

Crichton began making films based on his own scripts

Crichton began directing adaptations of his own books in the early 1970s, but although he had immediate success as a novelist, Crichton’s career in Hollywood experienced some early obstacles. While the film adaptation of Andromeda – Deadly dust from space was somewhat successful, another adaptation, The Terminal Manflopped despite an interesting performance by George Segal. In 1973, Crichton wrote and directed the film Westworlda low-budget science fiction film about a theme park where visitors interact with robots in a historical setting. The film was well received by critics and received praise from the likes of Gene Siskel and Vincent Canby, but was not the box office success Crichton had hoped for.

A pattern began for Crichton in which, no matter how successful his books were, he was never able to fully match that success as a filmmaker. The Great Train Robbery 1978 was more of the same. The book was another bestseller for Crichton, but even an all-star cast including Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland couldn’t make the 1978 film a big box office success. Crichton continued to make mostly mediocre films throughout the 1980s. but it was a book he wrote in 1990 that would dramatically change his fortune in the film industry. That was Jurassic Parkwhich was once again based on a theme park – this time one teeming with cloned dinosaurs.

Crichton’s collaboration with Spielberg was the most crucial factor in his success

Crichton was friends with Steven Spielberg for years after the two met when Spielberg gave Crichton a tour of Universal Studios in the early 1970s. Several well-known directors and studios made offers for Jurassic Parkafter the film became another bestseller – Crichton set the fee at $1.5 million. After attempts by Tim Burton, James Cameron and Richard Donner to acquire the rights, Universal bought the film for Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment.

Spielberg was of the opinion Jurassic Park could essentially be a continuation of The Great White Shark but on land. His interest in telling these kinds of stories came from his love for Godzilla, king of the monsters!which provided a plausible story for Godzilla’s existence. Spielberg realized that what really fascinated him about the book was Jurassic Park was “a truly believable look at how dinosaurs might one day be brought back alongside modern humanity.” The rest is history after Spielberg pioneered the use of new CGI technology to bring hyper-realistic dinosaurs to life on screen, and Jurassic Park grossed over a billion dollars and spawned six sequels.

After Jurassic Park, Crichton became a goldmine

Suddenly, studios were trying again to adapt Crichton’s work, including Spielberg’s producing partners Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, who adapted Crichton’s 1980 book. CongoIn 1995, Amblin Television had already produced the successful television series HEwhich Crichton had created and which he had been trying to develop with Spielberg for half a decade. Then there was another collaboration between Spielberg and Crichton under the banner of Amblin, Twistersin 1996. Crichton’s novels were adapted for the screen over a dozen times during this time, including Rising sun And notice.

The most enduring thing about Crichton’s legacy was his insistence on tackling difficult subjects like genetics, space technology and robotics. in a way that foreshadowed the future of filmmaking. Even when this type of imaginative science fiction film fell out of favor, Crichton was still working to adapt his or other writers’ works for the screen. When Crichton’s films were worth their weight in gold in the 1990s, earlier works like Westworld would eventually get a second look. It’s almost ridiculous how much more advanced the HBO version of Westworld was more expensive than Crichton’s 1973 film, which was made for just $1.2 million. Nevertheless, it is a testament to Crichton’s forward-looking vision that these stories are still being made into films 16 years after his death in 2008. Jurassic Park is streaming on Peacock.