Carnosaur (film)

1993 film by Adam Simon

Dr. Jane Tiptree has withdrawn from public life to conduct sequestered research for the Eunice Corporation. DARPA is wary of her work with genetically modified chickens but cannot legally interfere in her research. While in transport, one of Tiptree's chickens hatches a reptilian creature, which kills the driver and escapes. Meanwhile, near her laboratory in the small town of Climax, Nevada, the populace begin suffering from a mysterious illness with flu like symptoms. At a nearby quarry, watchman Doc Smith protects excavation equipment from environmentalists. He reports a trespasser, Ann Thrush, but Sheriff Fowler is investigating a series of gruesome killings, perpetrated by Tiptree's missing creature, a Deinonychus. Among the victims is the daughter of Eunice employee Jesse Paloma, but before he raises any suspicion to her research, Tiptree lures him into a laser protected dinosaur pen where a fully grown Tyrannosaurus rex kills him. Despite the deaths, Thrush and a group of activists handcuff themselves to excavation equipment in a form of protest. They're attacked by the Deinonychus and everyone except Thrush is slaughtered. Still in shock, Thrush is brought back by Doc to his trailer, where she survives another attack by the creature. Doc discovers a truck with two corpses belonging to Eunice and contacts Tiptree on the vehicle's radio, deducing the creature originated from her facility. As he approaches the lab, Fowler discovers a dinosaur embryo in a carton of eggs and takes it for investigation. Doc infiltrates Tiptree's laboratory and, at gunpoint, she reveals her experiment subjects to him. The town's mysterious illness is caused by infected chicken eggs, which contain a lethal airborne virus that impregnates women with dinosaur embryos. Her objective is to exterminate the human race and enable dinosaurs to repopulate the Earth. News of the town's deaths reach Eunice sponsors, who trace it to Tiptree. In response, the government places the community under quarantine and resolves to kill all civilians on sight. With the illness rapidly spreading, Fowler responds to a disturbance at a pet shop. He confronts the Deinonychus, but both he and the dinosaur suffer fatal wounds in the exchange. Top governmental officials, in a secure underground bunker, also begin plotting the repopulation of the human race in response to the virus; they envision a new social order propagated by strict fertilization policies and artificial wombs. At the laboratory, Doc attempts to escape with a cure to the illness and mistakenly enters the dinosaur pen. Tiptree releases the T. rex which pursues Doc out of the facility. Infected herself, Tiptree births a dinosaur and succumbs to the illness. Doc returns to Thrush, who's been exposed to the illness. The T. rex enters the quarry where Doc uses a loader to battle it. He disembowels and kills the T. rex with Thrush's assistance. After injecting her with the serum, Doc is killed by government soldiers alerted to his presence, and both his and Thrush's bodies are burned.

John Brosnan's 1984 science fiction novel Carnosaur first came to the attention of Roger Corman during a signing tour for his 1990 autobiography. Brosnan was first approached to write the screenplay in mid 1991 by Corman's wife, Julie, who agreed to meet and they formalized a deal at a bar, written on some napkins. Although Corman secured the rights to produce Carnosaur, the project advanced only when he learned that Jurassic Park was entering production. According to co producer Mike Elliot, Corman "felt that now was the time to shoot our movie, because he knew he could make the movie faster than anybody else and get it out there first". Adam Simon, a frequent collaborator with Corman, was tasked with directing Carnosaur and writing its screenplay. The crew was allocated more time to carry out their work than was typical for a Corman production, with Simon having six months for research and writing. On a small budget, his screenplay ignored key plot elements of the novel and reduced the large variety of dinosaur species to two. According to Corman, the main antagonist Dr. Jane Tiptree was originally envisioned for a male actor who had a "great deal of strength and at the same time an intelligent person". With no one available, Corman rewrote the character as a woman and offered it to Diane Ladd having previously worked together in the 1966 film, The Wild Angels. Other cast members included Raphael Sbarge and Jennifer Runyon. On an $850,000 budget, principal photography lasted 18 days. Sbarge expressed his enthusiasm to work alongside Ladd, who had an ability to "bring a real sense of believability to the role". He also recalled, with Carnosaur limited by its special effects budget, that the cast's most daunting task was "making all this seem real" for the audience.