Michael Crichton got sidetracked on the way to writing the definitive book about Benjamin Franklin. He got this crazy idea: Why not write a book about a super-rich developer who builds a theme park full of dinosaurs recreated from scraps of DNA? Encouraged by Mike Backes, a writer friend with a knack for high-tech stories, Jurassic Park was born.
Steven Speilberg, king of big-screen high-tech, has picked up where the book left off. The Hollywood version of Crichton's best seller, starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, is due this June.
Backes was hired to help build a cinematic recreation. of the dinosaur theme park. The film's plot revolves around a systems breakdown that sends Jurassic Park's fragile, computer-controlled ecosystem into an treacherous tailspin. From the rail-bound cars that cruise the park to the massive control room that monitors its every corner, computing power is ubiquitous at Jurassic Park, so fixing the system involves some pretty serious hacking.
Backes and his cohorts also used some serious hacking to create the system behind the system. More than $2 million worth of Silicon Graphics and Macintosh workstations helped design the complex monitoring systems that make the set look realistic. To create the effect of a major storm hitting the island-bound park, for example, engineers took actual weather satellite maps and data, used Adobe Photoshop to insert a 3-D model of the island, then tracked a hurricane across it.
The dinosaurs themselves mark a major advancement in realistic 3-D animation, according to the film's producers. Although they won't discuss details, the dinosaurs were created by effects wizard Stan Winston in association with George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic.
Backes said that everything imagined in the film could be done one day. "It's a just matter of computing power to rebuild the dinosaurs' DNA," he said. "The rest of the system, well, we already built it, really."
ELECTRIC WORD
Nocturnal Powerbooks Prowl German Clubs
From Computer Bibles to Real Stories
The Ultimate Theme Park
A Report From the Creeping Tendrils of Fringe Culture
The Newspaper Industry Gets Its First R&D Lab
Lost In Japan? Not With This Gadget
Yeah, but will it improve the food? Get yer seat-back service here!
