Carnosaur (1993) on Netflix
Dr. Jane Tiptree runs genetic research on chickens near Climax, Nevada. A creature escapes, a flu-like illness spreads, and watchman Doc Smith reports trespasser Ann Thrush to Sheriff Fowler.
- Netflix1.2/5
- IMDb3.7/104,771 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes10%
Trailer
Plot summary
Dr. Jane Tiptree now does private work for the Eunice Corporation, away from public life. DARPA is wary of her genetically modified chickens but has no legal way to step in. On a transport run, a reptile hatches from one of the chickens, kills the driver and gets loose. In Climax, Nevada, the town around her laboratory begins coming down with flu-like symptoms. Doc Smith, the watchman at a quarry close to town, guards excavation equipment there and turns environmentalists away. He tells Sheriff Fowler about a trespasser, Ann Thrush, who has arrived with a group of activists. Fowler is already working a string of violent deaths.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Carnosaur (1993)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Corman rushed Carnosaur into production only after learning that Jurassic Park was entering production, betting he could make his film faster than anyone else and get it out first; co-producer Mike Elliot recalled Corman saying now was the time to shoot their movie.
- Dr. Jane Tiptree was originally written for a male actor with great strength and intelligence, but when none was available Corman rewrote the villain as a woman and offered the part to Diane Ladd, who had worked with him on the 1966 film The Wild Angels.
- John Brosnan's 1984 novel came to Roger Corman's attention during a signing tour for Corman's 1990 autobiography, and in mid-1991 Corman's wife Julie approached Brosnan to write the screenplay; the two closed the deal at a bar, written on napkins.
- Because Corman felt that stop-motion techniques and optical effects would interfere with filming, effects designer Buechler built all the creatures as "real-time" models, hiring Mike Jones to sculpt the Deinonychus and Jeff Farley to sculpt the Tyrannosaurus rex.
- After seven weeks of pre-production spent sculpting the puppet, the effects team had only three weeks to build a life-size T. rex from sheets of L200 polyurethane covered in foam skin; the finished creature was 16 ft tall, 25 ft long and weighed 450 lb.
- The penultimate fight scene, with Doc Smith battling the creature, used both the puppet and the life-size model, and Buechler said it was "nearly shot for shot modeled on the finale of Aliens"; some shots put the puppet in a miniature set with scale models of Doc Smith and the shiploader.
- As production ran through the holiday season, Diane Ladd gifted the services of a masseuse to the cast and crew for an entire day's worth of production.
