'Spielberg was the right guy to make it': James Cameron would have made Jurassic Park like 'Aliens with dinosaurs'

James Cameron would have made Jurassic Park like "Aliens with dinosaurs".

The Terminator director was in the running to helm the big screen adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel but lost the job to Steven Spielberg, and now Cameron has revealed was initially devastated to have missed out but he later realised he wasn't the right person to take charge of the film.

He explained to Empire magazine: "I got sent Jurassic Park — the Crichton novel. It arrived on a Friday afternoon and I was halfway through it on Saturday.

"I got to the scene in the book where the kids are in the Jeep and they get flipped upside-down and trapped and the tyrannosaurus comes up and licks the windshield because it can smell them inside.

"I got to that scene and I went: 'I’m doing this movie.' So I called up the agent and I said: 'I’m buying the book!'

"And he said: 'Too late, Steven Spielberg just got it'."

Cameron went on to admit he's now glad he didn't end up behind the camera because he would have made the film much scarier and R rated.

He added: "I realised when I saw the movie: he [Spielberg] was the right guy to make it. Not me, because I would have made it too terrifying.

"It would have been R-rated. It would have been like Aliens with dinosaurs.

"Which would have been super-cool, but he made the version that would have spoken to me as an eight-year-old, when I thought dinosaurs were the coolest thing in the world. And that’s the movie that should have been made."