Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp recently revealed why he didn't include Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) in his first draft of the 1993 action/sci-fi blockbuster's screenplay.
Koepp explained why his initial stab at adapting Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park novel omitted Malcolm in an episode of the Script Apart podcast. "My first draft I didn't have Jeff Goldblum's character," he said. "I turned it in and I told [director] Steven [Spielberg] before I started, 'That guy's gotta go. I can't do it, it's too hard,' you know? [Laughs] 'He's just talking for pages at a time about esoteric scientific concepts, he's gotta go.' So, even as I turned the draft in, Steven said, 'I have my first note already' -- I don't think he'd read [the draft] -- he said, 'We've gotta have Malcolm. Jeff Goldblum came in and just read some passages from the book and [the part] was made for him. We gotta figure it out.'"
"And so I applied myself to figuring it out," Koepp continued. "And figuring out: how do these esoteric scientific principles or mathematical principles become interesting and amusing?" The screenwriter added that what ultimately made Ian Malcolm work for him was deciding to play up the character's sense of humor, as well as his own understanding of Goldblum's distinctive cadence and verbal tics. This resulted in Malcolm being restored for subsequent drafts of the screenplay, paving the way for one of Jurassic Park's most infamous scenes.
Jeff Goldblum On Ian Malcolm's Return
Goldblum would later reprise the Ian Malcolm role in three of Jurassic Park's five sequels. The mathematician and chaos theory expert plays a key role in direct follow-up Jurassic Park: The Lost World and makes a cameo appearance in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. He then appears in a more substantial capacity in Jurassic World Dominion, alongside fellow legacy Jurassic Park protagonists Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern). Asked how Malcolm has evolved prior to Jurassic World Dominion's release, Goldblum said the character was "more passionately committed to doing what he can to help our species along."
The star was actively involved in shaping Malcolm's characterization in Jurassic World Dominion, according to co-writer/director Colin Trevorrow. In June 2022 interview, Trevorrow confirmed that he consulted Goldblum, Neill and Dern about the starting points for their respective characters prior to the film's screenplay being written. "Once we had those conversations, we were able to build characters around their own intentions, which I think gives everybody a real sense of shared ownership with this movie," he said.
Jurassic Park is currently streaming on Peacock Premium.
Source: Script Apart