Steven Spielberg has revealed a piece of casting that almost was in 1993’s Jurassic Park. Harrison Ford was initially in the running to play palaeontologist Alan Grant in the beloved adventure movie.
“Yes, he did, he may not remember that, but I sure do,” Spielberg recalled on the Happy Sad Confused podcast about whether Ford turned down the part. When pushed on whether he was annoyed by Disclosure Day star Emily Blunt, he added: “I wasn’t cross, I was crushed but then Sam Neill came available and he’s Alan Grant. It now belongs to him.”
Well, that would have made a very different movie indeed. At the time Ford would have been just coming off several Indiana Jones movies and was making the switch to several dramas and action hits, so was likely weary about joining another franchise.
We’ve got to admit too, it’s pretty hard to imagine anyone other than Neill as Grant in the Jurassic Park movies. Opposite Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, the central trio of those films is as near perfect casting as you can get.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Spielberg revealed some more details about filming Jurassic Park, including the terrifying real-life event that affected production. “We were hit by a category five hurricane, it made landfall,” he shared. “We were in Kauai and Iniki made landfall at our hotel. Not like five miles up the beach from our hotel or in the other direction, we were landfall.”
The director added about the harrowing experience, “I’ve never been through anything like it before, all of us, the whole cast, the whole crew, we were all huddled in a conference room, 18 feet below sea level. The only thing that saved that hotel, that saved all the people that were in these conference rooms, was the fact that there was an 18-foot breakwater so the sea couldn’t completely get into where we were.”
Spielberg’s latest is a science fiction thriller Disclosure Day, all about a TV meteorologist and a cybersecurity specialist who team up to try and reveal the truth about alien life. Our 4.5 star Disclosure Day review says it proves why the director is “the greatest blockbuster filmmaker of all time with a full-circle aliens-among-us thriller that dazzles as both a pedal-to-the-metal chase movie and a moving reckoning with the idea that we aren’t alone in the universe.”
The film is out now. For what else to watch this year, check out our guide to upcoming movies in 2026 and beyond.
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