Michael Crichton RIP.

[Rob McCow]

Author Michael Crichton has died of cancer at the age of 66, his website has announced. As well as writing books which have inspired many movies, including Jurassic Park, Timeline, The 13th Warrior and Congo, he also directed the SF movie Westworld and the thriller Coma as well as creating the hospital drama ER.

Michael Crichton was a real inspiration for Hollywood, producing many classics and Congo.

RIP.

[WhiteCrow]

He really touched a nerve with technology running amok in Westworld - people's combined wonder and fear about technology being in control, and becoming uncontrolable.

Although was it radical, or was it just a reworking of Frankenstein with androids instead of scientifically animated zombies?

[Dirk Gently]

His name will always be bring to my mind The Andromeda Strain, Sphere and Jurassic Park. Although I know of Westworld I didn't realise he wrote it so no association exists for me.

R.I.P Michael.

[Stuart Wallis]

I didn't know that either, it was a very good film.

[Captain Tancredi]

Ah, but have they saved some of his DNA?

It's interesting- from those credits, his influence on popular (in other words summer blockbuster-type) sci-fi is probably more than he was generally credited for in his lifetime. Coming from a directing background, I'd guess that he found a niche in writing original novels with one eye on Hollywood adaptations, and to be fair there's something to be said for that.

[Stuart Wallis]

Funny you should say that; a couple of years before Speilberg decided to do that book with the dinosaurs in as a film, I overheard someone in a shop saying "Yeah I read Jurassic Park - it was written as though the author was expecting it to be made into a film."