Jurassic Park IV, V, VI, and 3D

In my Senior year of high school last year I took a Worldview in Film class, an online course where my classmates and I were required to watch a broad range of films (from Mulan to The Matrix) and study the worldviews presented.

Even though I didn't like all of the movies I had to watch (The Village scared me so bad that I couldn't sleep for almost a week), it was still an amazing, eye-opening class.

There were quite a few movies I was excited to see, particularly Avatar and Jurassic Park. Avatar was a great film, but I found that Jurassic Park just left a sour, bitter taste in my mouth.

Sure, the story was pretty inventive, the visual effects were good for its time, it ran at a good clip, and the acting was superb. But watching the dinosaurs tearing at and eating their victims? Even the parts where it was implied that a character was being devoured alive was unsettling. The language was incredibly offensive to me as well.

But the most disturbing part was watching the two little children screaming in terror, getting electrocuted on electric fences, getting injured, being trapped in a crushed car and then thrown into one of the deep dinosaur pens, and generally running for their lives. My maternal instincts seriously overloading by the time the film (thankfully) ended, and I vowed right then and there to never make a movie where kids are put in danger like that. It really just broke my heart.

I know a lot of people won't agree with my thoughts on Jurassic Park, but that's perfectly fine with me. Personally I'm not hankering to see any of the other JP films, but Hollywood is counting on everybody else wanting to see more dino-chomping action, which explains why they're making three more films.

Yep, you read that right. Three more JP films are in the works, plus converting the first one into 3D.


Jurassic Park's IV, V, and VI - all of which are being distributed by Universal Pictures and produced by Amblin Entertainment and The Kennedy/Marshall Company - are all supposed to be a "new trilogy," according to Joe Johnston (who was formerly going to direct the project). Besides that, nobody really knows anything about what this "new trilogy" is going to be like.

Personally I'm guessing that it's going to be something along these lines:

1. Group of people find (or get trapped on) an island inhabited by dinosaurs

2. Group of people find they can't get off of the island, or that they have to do something before they can get off

3. Group gets on wrong side of the dinos

4. Group has multiple run-ins with various types of dinos, most of them bad

5. A lot of group members die in rather gruesome ways

6. Group finally figures out how to get off of island or find the thing they've been looking for

7. Group escapes island, all thankful to be alive

OR

7. Everybody dies. The end.

Yeah, I think that about covers it, don't you? =)

Steven Spielberg (as expected) is producing this new JP trilogy along with Kathleen Kennedy (the lady who took over Lucasfilm, Ltd., when George Lucas retired) and Frank Marshall (who has produced about forty-ish films, including War Horse and The Bourne Legacy).

John Sayles (Amigo, Silver City, The Alamo) and William Monahan (Edge of Darkness, Body of Lies, The Departed) are both writing the screenplay for JP IV. Aso on hand just in case a rewrite is needed are Rick Jaffa (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes).

As I mentioned earlier, Joe Johnston was originally going to be the director for this new trilogy, but that is no longer the case any longer. I'm thinking that maybe Spielberg should jump in and direct just because he can, but that's just my Imaginatrix having fun.

Laura Dern was formerly rumored to be starring in the film (she played Dr. Ellie Sattler in the other JP films), but she is no longer attached to the project. It might be fun if Sam Neill reprised his role as Dr. Alan Grant but, again, that's just because I happen to really like the way Neill acts. He was absolutely brilliant as Sir Bryan Gilbert in the 1980s version of Ivanhoe, which you should totally watch if you haven't already.

Besides this small handful of people, there are not many individuals currently working on JP IV-VI; however, the films are currently in the Concept and Development stages and will likely stay that way for a while yet. And since the original JP is being converted into 3D next year, I think there's a very strong possibility that these next three films will also be released in 3D when they hit theaters. I don't have any firm confirmation on that, but I really don't see why the filmmakers wouldn't just go ahead and do it.

And speaking of JP and 3D, if you like watching intelligent, scientifically-created dinosaurs chase and eat terrified people (well, that sounded really wrong... lol!) then you can head over to theaters nationwide on April 5, 2013, to watch it all in remastered IMAX 3D. No worldwide release date has yet been set.

Considering the fact the JP IV-VI are all still in the early phases of the filmmaking proccess, we don't have a theatrical release date yet. My estimation based on what I know of the industry and assuming that the whole proccess runs at peak efficiancy, I think IV could release sometime in 2014 or 2015. But that's assuming that everything moves at a swift pace. It could be closer to 2017 or 2018 by the time IV comes out, but right now there's really no way to know.


Do you think Jurassic Park IV, V, and VI will be Good, Bad, or Ugly? Would you like to see Spielberg directing this new trilogy? Did you like the original JP movies? And would you go see the first film when it re-releases in 3D?




 - Edessa, signing off