Before the completion of "Carnosaur" (1993), executive producer Roger Corman already wanted a sequel. "Carnosaur 2" writer Michael Palmer said, "Everybody felt the film would do well, and Roger wanted to be ready with a sequel." Effects artist John Buechler said that because "Carnosaur" was the most successful film ever made by Corman and his company New Horizons, they ""had" to make a sequel." Palmer's first draft of the script was finished in three weeks, and it underwent two rewrites. The film's ending battle, with a "T. rex" against a forklift, is a recreation of its predecessor's finale. While "Carnosaur" is considered a horror film, Palmer wrote the sequel as an action film, although some reviewers consider it a horror film as well. The sequel's plot has many similarities to the 1986 film "Aliens", directed by James Cameron.