Comments on: An Open Letter to Steven Spielberg

By: ken

ken — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:36:33 +0000

its my own opinion i hope that the tradition go on on the eiland with spectaculair escapes before the dinosaurs that want to cath them like first she escape from a group dilophosaurs like the second wan whit the velociraptors in the high grass like in nature and that she must to run always from other dinosaurs like the spinosaurus t rex and than she comes to a place where all the herbivores are drinking on a big water and i hope on more fights like when she comme to the place where the herbivores are and a big fight whit the t rex and a triceratops where the triceratops kill the t rex when the people continue to escape in the jungle then are other predators like allosaurus and other want to catch them again and whatever i hope its more nature thing that you can see more realistisch

By: James

James — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:26:54 +0000

Feathers featured prominently on the dinosaurs would be stupid. They weren’t featured in the other films as such and speaking from the fossils thusfar: Velociraptors did not seem to have feathers. Even if they did, they didn’t in the films. Attempting to add them on would be an obnoxious attempt at a scientific point that itself would be self-defeating. If they have feathers now, are we to assume they evolved them since not having them in 1993? That’s almost a more outrageous gesture. Keep it cool. Keep it reptilian. The cold-blooded, scaly, hungry kind of reptilian. Most of all: keep it entertaining!

By: Wescott’s Best of the Science Blogs. Summer Blockbuster Edition. | Science Cheerleader

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:56:44 +0000

[...] An Open Letter to Steven Spielberg. One of the world’s coolest dinosaur researchers gives some creative advice to one of the world’s coolest dinosaur movie-makers about a potential Jurassic Park IV. From Brian Switek at Smithsonian.com’s Dinosaur Tracking blog. [...]

By: Stillwaggon

Stillwaggon — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:07:08 +0000

Anyone who doesn’t think a creature with feathers would be scary, take a look at the cassowaries of today. Last time I was at the National Zoo (where I worked) which is incidentally part of the Smithsonian, there were several cassowaries. They are BIG birds, flightless but with killer talons. They have actually killed humans in their original habitat, but hopefully not in Washington, D.C.!

By: ReBecca

ReBecca — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 04:46:03 +0000

I am with Neil, I really disliked the whole Tyrannosaur rampage through SD part. Lame. And it would be excellent if he could make a JP film that did not refer to the “Velociraptors” as “Raptors” – it has ruined an entire generations vocabulary and is rather annoying IMO.

By: Dan Peterwson

Dan Peterwson — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:00:42 +0000

Brian, I think everyone knows that the ‘Raptors’ in JP were not the little Mongolian variety Velociraptors that we now know did indeed have feathers. In fact, unlike the Mongolian velociraptors, these JP ‘raptors’ are a much larger species being excavated in the American Northwest. The animal that comes closest then, would be Utahraptors that have not reached adulthood yet. Just imagine that every time they said Velociraptor in the JP films, that they really meant Utahraptor.

There is no scientific evidence to prove that adult Utahraptors would be covered with feathers, just as there is no scientific evidence that adult T-Rexes would be covered with feathers, though I would not be surprised if the hatchlings of either species may have been covered in an insulating down.

There are plenty of things to critisize the JP franchise for, but claiming their enormous raptors must have feathers, when there is absolutely no fossil evidence to back this up, is a bit presumptious.

I would like to see JP 4 bring the original Park idea back to a functioning tourist attraction as John Hammond envisioned it, but with safeguards installed to prevent another incident. Just the day to day handling of the dinos would make an interesting film, and even a long term television series.

By: Dear Mr. Spielberg, please give the raptors feathers « News Xazri

Dear Mr. Spielberg, please give the raptors feathers « News Xazri — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 22:31:20 +0000

[...] Mr. Spielberg, please give the raptors feathers Tweet “There had better be feathers on the raptors“: Dino-blogger Brian Switek’s open letter to Steven Spielberg upon the occasion of [...]

By: Nagi

Nagi — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:21:31 +0000

As much as I would love to see greater scientific accuracy in the popular media’s depiction of dinosaurs, I would actually argue that Jurassic Park really doesn’t need it. Not only would it be a massive, distracting continuity break at this point, but Jurassic Park actually has the greatest excuse I’ve ever seen in a film for their dinosaurs being less than accurate: cloning errors. The film’s dinosaurs have the gaps in their DNA filled by that of a frog, not their closest living ancestors, and it’s already been pointed out that it’s caused the animals to mutate into a population of hermaphrodites. Why can’t everything else be explained away by one or two lines of dialogue explaining that the cloning process was less than perfect? Venomous Dilophosaurs, visually-impaired Tyrannosaurs, toothed Pteranodons, hyper-aggressive and physically-empowered Spinosaurs (though I’d really rather never see one crop up again), and featherless “Velociraptors” can all easily be explained away by the fact that InGen screwed the pooch when it came to properly cloning these animals.

Jurassic Park doesn’t need 100% scientific accuracy, if only because they have a pretty darn good out on the matter that they could exploit. Granted, on that same note, they could always insert more scientific accuracy by having InGen or one of its rivals perfect the cloning process, but as far as the Isla Nublar & Isla Sorna populations go, they’re just fine as they are.

By: Roundup of Unusual Size: Get excited the gamer way. « Dire Critic

Roundup of Unusual Size: Get excited the gamer way. « Dire Critic — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 05:37:18 +0000

[...] lot of disconcerting film-related articles. First, a campaign to give raptors feathers in Jurassic Park [...]

By: norbit

norbit — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 00:06:48 +0000

i think the dino’s in the city is a rubbish idea.. at the end of the day that is not jurassic park.. that is not what jp is known for.. think the best idea is that the a desease threatens to kill off all the animals in the park and a team of experts and army go bak in to collect sum dna or what ever to cure the disease.. and all contact is lost…ingen then sends in their own task force to get the dna and wen they go to the island they find every1 dead.. killed by raptors.. they get to the cure after a few encounters with t rex..(no spino bullshit) and once they try and get to the meeting point they realise that ingen bred a gigantasaurous.. and the beast is about to kill em wen t rex comes and saves the day just like the first movie…:)

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 23:27:36 +0000

Book was good… Speilberg ruined the concept and story.

By: Zach Miller

Zach Miller — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:15:40 +0000

I’m sure the ink isn’t even dry yet and my proceeding hope (nay, plea) has already fallen on deaf ears, but:

DON’T HIRE HORNER AS YOUR CONSULTANT. PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. He just sits there and collects a check and doesn’t really say “NO” to anything! Teeth in Pteranodon! Spinosaurus as a super-predator! Dog brains for the raptors! AAAAAAAHHHHHH!

By: Brendan

Brendan — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:57:54 +0000

Why not introduce an evolved Troodon, with a more upright stance and a huge brain. And lots of killing.

By: Christina

Christina — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:55:29 +0000

Feathers aside, it always annoys me that the velociraptors are so big in these movies. They should either start making them smaller or just call them something else. They’re about the right size to be deinonychus, which is a much scarier dinosaur in any event.

By: Dear Mr. Spielberg, please give the raptors feathers | It's like, Really?

Dear Mr. Spielberg, please give the raptors feathers | It's like, Really? — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:40:18 +0000

[...] “There had better be feathers on the raptors“: Dino-blogger Brian Switek’s open letter to Steven Spielberg upon the occasion of rumors about the possibility of a Jurassic Park 4. [...]