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October 29, 2025 66 mins

There is a movie that exists that is SO bad, the lead actress who signed on had to be legally forced to finish filming it. In 1996, recent Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg had signed on to star in a gritty, sci-fi drama, but the final script had turned it into a buddy cop film in which she starred opposite a talking dinosaur puppet wearing Converse sneakers and a backwards cap. Whoopi tired to back out, the producers sued, and she ended being forced to film Theodore Rex against her will (she is so unhappy to be there you can literally see her sighing on screen in some scenes in the movie). With a budget of $33.5million, Theodore Rex was never released in cinemas, making it the most expensive direct-to-video movie ever made (and the biggest regret of Whoopi Goldberg’s career).


We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's this:

Theodore Rex Wikipedia page - Complete film history and production details

/Film - "How Did This Get Made? Theodore Rex (An Oral History)" - Interviews with producers, director, and crew (2015)

Ranker - "The Story of Theodore Rex, The Bizarre Whoopi Goldberg Dinosaur Film" - Behind-the-scenes breakdown

A.V. Club - "An oral history of how a bomb like Theodore Rex is made" (2015)

YouTube - Theodore Rex Theatrical Trailer



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