Remember Dolly the sheep? Dolly was born in 1996 and represented a huge leap in scientific research as the first mammal successfully cloned from adult mammary cells. What if Dolly were a 40 foot long Tyrannosaurus rex? Universal Pictures, we have your script for the Jurassic Park reboot.

Australian billionaire Clive Palmer wants to do more than rebuild the Titanic (he's actually doing that), he wants to convert his own Palmer Resort into a real-life Jurassic Park, and to do it, he's begun chatting with the creators of Dolly, biologist Keith Campbell and embryologist Ian Wilmut.

While Rise of the Planet of the Apes writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver work away on the screenplay for Jurassic Park 4, a movie that producer Frank Marshall says is coming in 2014, Mr. Palmer wants to bring that idea to life, literally. While Palmer hasn't directly shared his ideas with the public, a proven source close to him relayed the info to Sunshine Coast Daily, claiming that they want to use dino DNA and cloning to bring the prehistoric creatures to life. According to a spokesperson for Palmer, he's planning to hold a press conference on Friday and that's something I'm going to be watching to see if this is truly his plan.

Rumor has it that he's targeting a wealthy middle-eastern demographic and would fly in employees for their shifts. The source also says he's very "serious" about it all, which puts a smile on my face, if not for the comedic value of this situation.

  • Good idea: Spending millions on research and technology investment.
  • Bad idea: Thinking you can create and control dinosaurs (also known as "monsters" according to our own Anthony Ocasio).

As Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park said it best: "life finds a way" and there's zero chance such a park could avoid some major, major issues. For now, let's look forward to 2016 when the Titanic II sets sail. I hear it's unsinkable.

This also ended well:

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What will Steven Spielberg think of this? Practical effects, right? Real dinosaurs are better than CG ones.

[Update: Palmer denied the claims a on August 1st, staying "It's just a beat-up of a story and untrue. There was never any verification, the journalist never spoke to me."

The editor of The Sunshine Coast Daily replied with the following: "Mr Palmer has changed his tune several times on this project and the people of the Sunshine Coast wait with bated breath to see what the real plans are.

"We've heard of everything from monorails to highrises to cloned dinosaurs. The rumour mill has gone into overdrive and a lot of those rumours are coming from Clive's camp."]

 

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Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Sources: Sunshine Coast Daily, BBC