Tim Burton's MARS ATTACKS! Movie Was Almost DINOSAUR ATTACKS!
Tim Burton’s classic 1996 film Mars Attacks! was such a ridiculously crazy and fun movie! I know critics weren’t too kind to it when it was released, but damn… I enjoyed the hell out of it! The movie was inspired by the Topps trading card series of the same name featuring awesome art by Wally Wood and Norman Saunders.
The sci-fi comedy movie satirizes the 1950s alien invasion films. The film follows a group of characters, including the U.S. president, a scientist, a talk show host, and a teenager, as they face an invasion by Martians who come to Earth with destructive intentions regardless of claiming that they “come in peace.” The Martians use their advanced technology to wreak insane havoc and chaos, and it's up to the humans to come up with a plan to save themselves and the planet. After a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.
After the Mars Attacks! card series was reissued, in 1988 Topps launched a similar card series called Dinosaurs Attack! and it was at this time that screenwriter Jonathan Gems came across both of these card series.
In an oral history of Mars Attacks! that was published by Inverse, Gems explained that he bought both the Mars Attacks! and Dinosaurs Attack! trading cards at a gift shop for Tim Burton for his birthday. He explained:
"I was working with Tim Burton on something else. It was his birthday, and I was looking for a birthday present. It was difficult to find anything for him because he had everything. I was in a kind of gift store, and on the counter, I saw a complete collection of two sets of cards. These were cards that were like baseball cards. There were two sets, one called 'Dinosaurs Attack!' and another called 'Mars Attacks!' They had these fantastic little oil paintings of these atrocities."
This was the initial spark for Mars Attacks!, but at first, Gems was more interested in writing a film for Dinosaur Attacks!, so that’s what he started with. He just thought that the whole dinosaurs angle was more appealing. This was in the mid-90s shortly after Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park was released, so there was some dinosaur hype.
As he was working on the script, though, Gems learned that Spielberg was making a sequel to Jurassic Park, and he had to change things up. But it would have been a riff on Jurassic Park and, I guess, Towering Inferno, which they thought was hilarious.
"Originally, it was going to be 'Dinosaurs Attack!' But then we found out Steven Spielberg was doing a sequel to 'Jurassic Park,' and they were going to have dinosaurs attacking Los Angeles. Tim said, 'Let's do it as a disaster movie.' Tim and I actually watched 'Towering Inferno' probably about a year before, and we were stoned. And if you watch 'Towering Inferno' when you're stoned, it's hilariously funny."
So, their big Jurassic Park spoof turned into Mars Attacks!, which I don’t have a problem with. That was such a fun movie! They should actually go back and attempt to make their Dinosaur Attacks! movie again! It seems like something I think audiences would enjoy! At least I would! The Dinosaur Attacks! cards are hilarious!