Theodore Rex, also known as T. Rex, is a 1996 buddy cop

Buddy cop film

The "buddy cop" is a subgenre of buddy films and crime films with plots involving two men of very different and conflicting personalities who are forced to work together to solve a crime and/or defeat criminals, sometimes learning from each other in the process...

/science fiction

Science fiction film

Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

/family film

Family film

A family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups and, thus, families.In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films. The genre today generates billions of dollars per annum.Family...

 starring Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...

. Though originally intended for theatrical release, the film went direct-to-video

Direct-to-video

Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

, and consequently became the most expensive direct-to-video film ever made at the time of its release.

The film was not well received, and saw Whoopi Goldberg being nominated for Worst Actress at the 1996 Golden Raspberry Awards

Golden Raspberry Awards

A Golden Raspberry Award, or Razzie for short, is an award presented in recognition of the worst in movies. Founded by American copywriter and publicist John J.B. Wilson in 1981, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day...

 (as well as for Bogus

Bogus (film)

Bogus is a 1996 American fantasy film directed by Norman Jewison, written by Alvin Sargent, and starring Whoopi Goldberg, Gerard Depardieu, and Haley Joel Osment. It features magic tricks with magician Whit Haydn as consultant. It did poorly at the box office and Goldberg was nominated for a Razzie...

and Eddie

Eddie (film)

Eddie is a 1996 comedy film starring Whoopi Goldberg and Frank Langella. It was a moderate success, grossing $31,387,164 in the US.The film was directed by Steve Rash.- Plot summary :...

). Despite this, it was listed on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 "Top Video Rentals" list for three weeks in August 1996, peaking at #34.

Plot

In an alternate futuristic society, a tough female police detective is paired with a talking dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 to find the killer of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals leading them to a ruthless billionaire bent on killing off mankind by creating a new ice age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

.

Cast

Actor	Role
Whoopi Goldberg Whoopi Goldberg Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...	Katie Coltrane
Armin Mueller-Stahl Armin Mueller-Stahl Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...	Elizar Kane
Juliet Landau Juliet Landau Juliet Rose Landau is an American actress best known for her role as Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff show Angel, the latter appearance earning her a Saturn Award nomination. She is also known for co-starring as Loretta King Hadler in Tim Burton's Ed Wood.She has appeared in a...	Dr. Veronica Shade
Bud Cort Bud Cort Bud Cort is an American film and stage actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his portrayals of Harold in Hal Ashby's 1971 film Harold and Maude and the titular hero in Robert Altman's 1970 film Brewster McCloud...	Spinner
Stephen McHattie Stephen McHattie Stephen McHattie is a Canadian actor.-Life and career:McHattie was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia....	Edge
George Newbern George Newbern George Young Newbern is an American television and film actor best known for his roles as Bryan MacKenzie in Father of the Bride and its sequel Father of the Bride Part II as well as Danny in Friends...	Theodore Rex (voice)
Carol Kane Carol Kane Carolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...	Molly Rex (voice)
Richard Roundtree Richard Roundtree Richard Roundtree is an American actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and in its two sequels, Shaft's Big Score and Shaft in Africa .-Personal life:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Richard Roundtree graduated from...	Commissioner Lynch
Jan Rabson Jan Rabson Jan Rabson is an American actor and voice actor.Rabson was born in East Meadow, New York. Jan's voice has been heard on thousands of commercials, films, TV shows and animated films and series...	Tina Rex (voice)
Charles Chiodo The Chiodo Brothers The Chiodo Brothers are a group of sibling special effects artists, best known for their film Killer Klowns from Outer Space and creating puppets and effects for films such as Critters, Ernest Scared Stupid, and Team America: World Police...	Guy in the Bag (voice)

Additional Voices provided by Billy Bowles, Rodger Bumpass

Rodger Bumpass

Rodger Albert Bumpass is an American character actor and voice actor, who is noted for his long-running-roles as Squidward Tentacles on the hit series SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Chief from Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?. He also voiced Professor Membrane on Invader Zim...

, Jennifer Darling

Jennifer Darling

Jennifer Darling is an American actress and voice actress. While her body of work as a voiceover artist greatly eclipses that of her on-stage career, she is, perhaps, nevertheless known best to most people as Peggy Callahan, the secretary to Oscar Goldman in the television series The Six Million...

, Denise Dowse, Bill Farmer

Bill Farmer

William "Bill" Farmer is an American voice actor and comedian, best known for being the current voice of the Disney characters Goofy, Pluto and Horace Horsecollar.-Early life:...

, Anne Lockhart

Anne Lockhart

Anne Lockhart may refer to:*Anne Lockhart *Anne Lockhart of Tarbrax, daughter of Sir James Lockhart of Lee*Anne Lockhart, Countess of Aberdeen , daughter of the above...

, Sherry Lynn

Sherry Lynn

Sherry Lynn is a veteran American voice actress, known for young girl roles in animation and video games. She is represented by Arlene Thornton & Associates...

, Mickie McGowan, Patrick Pinney

Patrick Pinney

Patrick Pinney is an American voice actor. He attended college at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he had many friends including assistant director Michele Panelli Venetis and San Francisco Bay area costumer Alison Barnwell Morris , with whom he costarred in "The...

, and Philip Proctor

Philip Proctor

Philip Proctor is an American actor, voice actor and a member of The Firesign Theatre. He plays Rocky Rococo and Nancy in the Nick Danger series. He is from Goshen, Indiana...

Goldberg lawsuit

Though Whoopi Goldberg had made a verbal agreement to star in the film in 1993, she attempted to back out. Abramson filed a US$20 million lawsuit against Goldberg, which they settled very quickly. Goldberg agreed to star in the film for $7 million, $2 million more than the originally agreed-upon amount.

One of the attorneys on the case described this as being similar to the legal battle of Kim Basinger

Kim Basinger

Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman . Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture...

 when she tried to back out of the film Boxing Helena

Boxing Helena

Boxing Helena is a 1993 romantic drama film and the debut feature film by Jennifer Chambers Lynch, daughter of David Lynch. The film stars Julian Sands and Sherilyn Fenn as the eponymous Helena.-Plot:...

.

Distribution

While the film was originally intended for theatrical release, New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...

 decided that it was in their best interests to release the film direct-to-video

Direct-to-video

Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

. This decision came as a result of failed test screenings in Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, Portland

Portland, Maine

Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

 and Providence

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

.

The film's $33.5 million budget made it the most expensive direct-to-video release at that time.