The Billion Dollar Movie Sean Connery Turned Down for a Film No One Remembers
Sean Connery had one of the most illustrious careers possible for an actor.
The feat of establishing James Bond as an iconic movie character alone already could have earned him a noteworthy place in the history of cinema, and his filmography includes a number of other famous roles as well.
Even later in his life, when he often played supporting roles, he usually was among the best parts of any movie he appeared in. He retired from acting with plenty of wealth and a number of awards.
But even a career like his was not free from blunders. Take a look, for example, at one of the last movies in which Sean Connery appeared, Rising Sun (1993).
On the first glance, starring in it does not appear to be much of a blunder – the movie was a reasonable box office success, at least.
Certainly, it was severely disliked by critics, and now remains forgotten by everyone, except a few film buffs, but it wasn't any sort of grand disaster and practically every famous actor has some "meh" movies in his career.
However, thinks look differently once you learn that to star in Rising Sun Sean Connery turned down a role in the original Jurassic Park, released in the same year.
Steven Spielberg considered Connery for the role of John Hammond, the ambitious millionaire who created the eponymous Jurassic Park.
We cannot say why Connery chose Rising Sun over Jurassic Park. It is possible that he genuinely believed the former to be a more promising project.
Both films were based on thrillers by Michael Crichton (though both took liberties with the source material, which might have provoked a fan backlash today, for example the above-mentioned Hammond was a much more villainous character in the novel).
Connery co-starred in Rising Sun with Wesley Snipes, one of the most popular actors at the time, and its director, Philip Kaufman, while not someone of Spielberg's caliber, was well-regarded.
Be as it may, Connery placed his bet on a wrong color – Rising Sun passed into obscurity, while Jurassic Park earned over a $1 billion after all the re-releases and started one of today's big franchises.