Well played, HBO. Just as Jurassic Park 3D hits theaters, the premium cable channel announced a new movie titled Bone Wars, a period comedy based on the rivalry between two nineteenth-century paleontologists. If an HBO comedy about battlin' dino-scientists isn't enough to pique your interest, then just wait until you hear who's playing the paleontologists: Steve Carell and James Gandolfini, who will also produce the film.
It’s an inspired incident to tap; if there were ever a period of scientific research custom-tailored for slapstick comedy, it was the Great Dinosaur Rush of the nineteenth century, a madcap decades-long race that made headlines, led to the discovery of over 160 dinosaurs, and helped define the course of American Science.
The movie will retell the historical tale of Othniel Charles Marsh (Gandolfini) and Edward Drinker Cope (Carell), two scientists who were initially friends, until their alliance turned sour as each scrambled to out-discover and out-publish the other. The rivalry escalated just as rapidly: Marsh and Cope sought to undermine each other’s discoveries with accusations of fraud and what paleontologist Robert Bakker would later call “taxonomic carpet bombing,” but quickly turned to espionage, bribery, and outright sabotage. Ultimately, Marsh and Cope’s commitment to their rivalry consumed both men’s careers, collections, and fortunes.
But it left a rich legacy: the field of modern paleontology owes almost everything to the Great Dinosaur Race. And once Bone Wars finds a writer, television may also find itself in debt to the obsessions of Cope and Marsh.
