of Roger Corman during the author's book signing tour. 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. TV Guide considered the hiring of Ladd—the mother of Jurassic Park star Laura Dern—a "casting coup". 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. Special effects Carnosaur'''s special effects were largely designed by John Carl Buechler. Because Corman felt that stop-motion techniques and optical effects would interfere with filming, Buechler agreed with him that all the creatures would be "real-time" models. In constructing the dinosaurs, he hired Mike Jones to sculpt the Deinonychus and Jeff Farley to sculpt the Tyrannosaurus rex. The first creature constructed for the film, Farley's three-foot T. rex animatronic puppet, served as the basis for an unused suit model and the full-scale prop. A system of hinges and cables was used to operate the creature and radio-operated eyes. With