Tyrannosaurus: The Mightiest Ever (planned film)

Tyrannosaurus: The Mightiest Ever was an unproduced American Fantasy epic adventure drama film set to be directed by James Cameron. It was developed in

the early 1990s by Lightstorm Entertainment and Paramount Pictures for a mid to late 1990s release, but struggled to get production off the ground over several concerns, leaving it in development hell for several years before remaining unmade indefinitely and Cameron left the project to direct Titanic. In 2000, Cameron attempted to revive the project and release it between 2002 to 2005, but was unable to secure funding from Paramount.

South Korean film studio CJ Entertainment eventually would be granted permission from Cameron to transform his proposed film into Speckles: The Tarbosaurus (2012) to ensure that his dinosaur film would finally be released, with several changes.

Plot
Note: based on the second screenplay by James Cameron and Jeffrey Boam

In Cretaceous North America, a young Tyrannosaurus Rex named speckles, for his unique birthmark, lives with his older brother, Quicks, twin sisters and mother. They go on a successful hunt. The family and speckles live a long life until one fateful day. Speckles is orphaned and left alone when a rouge, scar-faced Tyrannosaurus named One-Eye causes a massive stampede to kill Speckles' family in order to usurp their territory. Speckles lives on his own by scavenging and raiding nests.

One day while trying to steal food from One-Eye, Speckles encounters a female Tyrannosaurus named Blue-Eyes and the pair team up to hunt and survive together. Over the years, Speckles and Blue-Eyes fall in love while trying to maintain a hunting territory away from One-Eye. Eventually, however, One-Eye discovers their hunting grounds and again attempts to usurp their territory. After Blue-Eyes is hurt by One-Eye, Speckles fights him and eventually drives away and defeats him.

(Tba)

Origins
The film was the brainchild of director James Cameron, who had a dream about buying a promotional comic for a dinosaur fantasy film in collage. In 1990, Cameron wrote a 150 page treatment for Tyrannosaurus: The Mightiest Ever. In 1991, Cameron chose Paramount Pictures as the distributer, and secured funds for the film.

Writing and storyboards
After some criticism about the first treatment, Cameron wrote another script, which was co-written by Jeffery Boam in 1992. Paramount preferred this script over the first, as it did not feature the dinosaur characters talking and featured more fantasy elements. Later that year, Cameron hired William Stout to provide storyboards and some concept art.

Concept art
William Stout, Wayne Barlowe, Mike Mignola, Ricardo Delgado, Mahiro Maeda, Jean Giraud, Gregory S. Paul, James Gurney and Carlos Huante created concept art for the film.

Music
Cameron chose James Horner to score the film in 1993. The two separated after a tumultuous working experience on Aliens (1986). He wanted Sissel Kyrkjebø and Susumu Hirasawa to perform vocals heard in the background of several tracks. Much of Speckles: The Tarbosaurus' Soundtrack adapts the soundtrack with minor changes.

Delays and Cancellation
The first delay was when Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park was released in June 1993. It was delayed from it's original summer 1994 release to march 1995.

Legacy
Tyrannosaurus: The Mightiest Ever would be deemed one of the greatest films never made.