Concept art from abandoned Jurassic Park 4 reveals Raptorman

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Early ideas for a fourth JURASSIC PARK film were pretty crazy. John Sayles and William Monahan wrote a script, reviewed by Aint It Cool in 2007, that featured dinosaurs on the loose in North and Central America (cool) and a mercenary being captured by a corporation that wants him to (here's the awesome craziness) train the dinosaur soldiers they have created through oddball experiments. These dinosaurs would have a mixture of dino, human, and dog DNA, modified limbs, more dextrous fingers, and heightened intelligence. Unfortunately, some people didn't embrace the insanity of dinosaur commandos and the idea ended up being scrapped.

We have since received a different fourth entry in the franchise, JURASSIC WORLD, which I enjoyed as a fun return to the roots of the series, but I still long to see a version of that Sayles/Monahan script hit the screen. I'll grasp on to any perceived bit of hope – when watching JURASSIC WORLD, seeing the mash-up creature Indominus‍ rex, and hearing Vincent D'Onofrio's plot to have dinosaurs working for the military, all I could think was, "Could this be the set-up for that Sayles/Monahan story?" 

I want to see that idea play out on the screen so badly, but alas, I fear it's not going to. It would be amazing if the JURASSIC WORLD follow-up J.A. Bayona is going to be directing turns out to be an updated version of that draft from ten years ago, but it seems likely that the most we'll ever get to see of the Sayles/Monahan JURASSIC movie is the concept art that has turned up over the years.

That concept art was done by Carlos Huante, and yesterday the artist took to his Instagram account to share images of a character he called Raptorman, adding the caption: 

Here's an image from an approximately 14 year old, failed version of Jp4…

You can see Raptorman below, and I'm annoyed that I don't already own a copy of a movie released a decade ago that shows Raptorman in action. They had the chance to make a movie featuring a humanoid raptor with a robotic gun for an arm and they scrapped it? This is frustrating. 

Okay, maybe they want to play it safe with the JURASSIC PARK movies, but at least retool this concept into an original film. It would be more fun if it was a sequel to JURASSIC PARK, but I'll take it without those franchise ties if I have to. Just give me that movie with Raptorman and those other mutant dinosaur mercenaries, made on a Universal blockbuster scale and budget.