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Info: Jurassic Park - Bootleg / Workprint / Extended Cut on video

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 (Edited)

There have been bootleg workprints, telecine versions or even extended cuts of movies available unofficially. I remember having seen an extended version of Jurassic Park on VHS (probably a workprint) back in 1994-'95. Two of the prominent extra shots I remember are more dialogue in the conversation between Alan and Ellie after scaring off the kid and the two Ford explorers coming out of a garage behind/beneath the Visitor’s centre. I also remember the shot of a Raptor’s eye through the cage while it was being brought to it’s pen by the truck.

So, while searching for it across the internet, I happened to stumble across a guy who pointed me to a post on reddit.com where a guy had got hold of a very old bootleg VHS of Jurassic Park. However, the post is sadly 7 months old and the guy, who did not have a VHS player anymore has probably sold it off. I have e-mailed him to keep it and get it transferred to a DVD for preservations sake and am yet to receive a reply. I am providing a link to that thread (now closed) and an imgur post link where lot of images from the VHS (not screenshots) have been posted.

If anyone here has any knowledge regarding a bootleg version of Jurassic Park please share any information you may have on such rare versions of JP (any of the JP films for that matter), please!

Reditt link - https://www.reddit.com/r/VHS/comments/30nbqx/came_across_a_bunch_of_old_vhs_movies_including/

Imgur images - http://imgur.com/a/uf7Ao

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Why couldn’t you ask him to give the tape to someone on this forum who has proper vhs transfer equipment?

Nobody sang The Bunny Song in years…

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I have already contacted him. He has yet to reply.

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I wasn’t even AWARE of this. If I EVER see this, I’m buying one. I would love to see the extended cut.

Do you recall if the scene with Ellie in the bunker was longer or had the original music in it? I know that shots from that and the original music was removed late in production.


Is it not sad that in this time, we are more surprised by acts of love than acts of hate?
-Me

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I only remember two scenes. The Two Ford Explorers coming out of a garage beneath the Visitor’s Centre and a longer scene in Montana with Ellie and Alan talking before the Helicopter arrives. I don’t remember anything else much. Then again memory can be tricky. One needs to get their hands on a bootleg VHS of Jurassic Park. I know one of them is a direct recording of a 35mm projection in Italian and a scene from it has been uploaded on youtube. Whether that cut contains those extra scenes, I do not know -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjT9uXLcfAQ

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Nothing on there, but wow, I NEED to find this. some of the audio from the scenes you mentioned is on the making of, but still… WANT!


Is it not sad that in this time, we are more surprised by acts of love than acts of hate?
-Me

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Which Making of? The one available on the dvd?

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Uh…If I recall it was on the 4th disc when you bought 1-3 on DVD in a box set. It has a special name. It’s shown up on some of the discs since then. It wasn’t the James Earl Jones narrated one.


Is it not sad that in this time, we are more surprised by acts of love than acts of hate?
-Me

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Oh yes! It was called “Beyond Jurassic Park.” Nothing much usable there, as far as I recall, for the first movie. The features were - “Original featurette on the making of the film” and “Steven Spielberg directs Jurassic Park.”

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True, the audio at least was there so even if the video from a VHS wasn’t very good, we have an option for the audio 😄


Is it not sad that in this time, we are more surprised by acts of love than acts of hate?
-Me

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I’ve been hearing about an extended cut of Jurassic Park for years! Has there been any progress/updates on this proposed project? An extended cut of Jurassic Park is a ‘Holy Grail’ of alternate movie edits to me 😄

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 (Edited)

Nothing of the kind. An extended workprint cut was available briefly on VHS in the '90s. Now, it’s almost impossible to trace it anywhere. The guy who posted the bootleg VHS cover on Reddit didn’t even reply. Also, as Steven Spielberg has said he does not wish to alter his films ever (though he did with Jurassic Park by removing wires, studio lights, netting and added lightning flash and extra sounds not present in the theatrical cut), it’s almost certain that he won’t release Jurassic Park deleted scenes on home video. He did not release deleted scenes for Raiders of the Lost Ark, though he has shown them to a select few people inside his Amblin Studios.

P.S: I’d be one of the first in line to grab a copy if the JP deleted scenes were ever released.

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I have the workprint just unfinished effects no deleted scenes

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In regards to your earlier comment I really wish Spielberg would release deleted scenes of his movies. I know he doesn’t like to do so for some reason but I always wondered why The Lost World was an exception? They even show an extended version on the SyFy channel which I wonder if anyone has made that. Even then not all of the deleted scenes are available. Saving Private Ryan is another one I’d love to see. For Jurassic Park there doesn’t seem to be as much filmed but whatever we can get would be great!

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ReleaseTheImaxCut said:

In regards to your earlier comment I really wish Spielberg would release deleted scenes of his movies. I know he doesn’t like to do so for some reason but I always wondered why The Lost World was an exception? They even show an extended version on the SyFy channel which I wonder if anyone has made that. Even then not all of the deleted scenes are available. Saving Private Ryan is another one I’d love to see. For Jurassic Park there doesn’t seem to be as much filmed but whatever we can get would be great!

True.

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Regarding the lack of deleted scenes available for Steven Spielberg films, well he doesn’t do those or audio commentary for that matter either.

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JadedSkywalker said:

Regarding the lack of deleted scenes available for Steven Spielberg films, well he doesn’t do those or audio commentary for that matter either.

Yes I’m aware he doesn’t do deleted scenes but The Lost World seems to be an exception for some reason? Deleted scenes are included on the DVD, not all of them. I wonder why he doesn’t like to release them? The only way you can see some deleted scenes are in still images for some of the films like Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones but that is about it.

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I seem to remember the shot of the raptors eye through the cage being in the film when I saw it in theaters but being disappointed to find that it wasn’t on my vhs when it was released on video, but I could be mistaken. An extended cut of this would certainly be a real treasure.
I wasn’t aware that Spielberg doesn’t like to release extended footage for his movies given that he has released extended cuts (or at least included deleted scenes on the dvds) for ET, Close Encounters and the Lost World. I wonder if it is just this movie he has an issue with…

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ZombiEsushi said:

I wasn’t aware that Spielberg doesn’t like to release extended footage for his movies given that he has released extended cuts (or at least included deleted scenes on the dvds) for ET, Close Encounters and the Lost World. I wonder if it is just this movie he has an issue with…

Maybe. Jurassic Park is one of the few Spielberg films that has consistently gotten incorrect home video versions released with framing and colour timing different from the original 35mm projection. The colour issue is the most obvious. Even Lost World looks much better comparatively. so, who knows why JP does not get the royal treatment it deserves, seeing that it has become a beloved modern classic.

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Would love to see this if it ever surfaces!

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Also if you scan the barcode Google comes up with Ghost VHS (Patrick Swayze) so they probably reused it.

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Most likely it’s a dup of the official VHS. But it might be worth trying it out and comparing it to the VHS release just in case it’s something different.

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I’ve borrowed a VHS player and this looks like a cam version. The sound and video quality is terrible and it looks like a camera pointing at a projection from the bad cropping.

https://imgur.com/a/0HftVIO

Could someone please clarify at what points in the film time wise the missing parts happen, as I’m not that familiar with the movie.