BloodyDisgusting reports that Universal Pictures has begun casting for Jurassic Park IV. Apparently the new film involves dinosaurs which have been outfitted with weapons by the US government (presumably for battle purposes). If this is true, than Universal should shut down production right now. It’s one thing to expect such stupidity from the recent batch of direct-to-dvd sequels, but a big budget Spielberg produced sequel? Steven, please say it ain’t so!
Why is it that most good movie franchises are ruined by ridiculous plot concepts? The studios seem to believe that the higher the number next to the movie title, the more ridiculous the story must become. I would think that Hollywood would look at the successful franchises and study them. There are reasons why the JAWS, Batman and Superman sequels were less successful (people want real, not slapstick). Sequels like Toy Story 2 and Aliens raise the bar.
Jurassic Park 4 will shoot in Kauai, Hawaii later this year. I wonder who’s going to be directing this disaster? Last I heard, Jurassic Park III helmer Joe Johnston bowed out, even after Steven Spielberg publicly announced that he would direct it. Laura Dern was reportedly asked to return for the new film. No word on if any of the other stars will be featured in the fourth film. But what else are Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill doing these days?
And before anyone asks, the JP4 logo is a fan-made design.
August 13th, 2007 at 2:17 am
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/18166
Now this was about two years ago, If this is the same draft they are proposing - sign me up. It sounds delightfully silly.
August 13th, 2007 at 3:17 am
I don’t know but to me… the plot it’s like that crappy 80’s cartoon: Dino-Riders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo8UFClfrBE
August 13th, 2007 at 6:26 am
I’ve heard soooo much about this forthcoming sequel. For a while, there was even a script going around at AICN suggesting that the dinosaurs will be half robot and able to communicate with humans.
I read it and it sucked, but still somehow felt completely legit.
Now that you’re reporting this, I guess it wasn’t too far from the truth…
August 13th, 2007 at 6:51 am
That is the most ridiculous plot line I’ve ever heard. If that’s what the writers think we want, they should be shot.
They should at least wait until the next Transformers movie before introducing us to Dinobots.
Such a shame.
August 13th, 2007 at 7:13 am
The only sequel I would want to see is with the dinosaurs escaping from the island for good. Then the story moves forward about a thousand years, to show the earth is covered with dinosaurs again, and the remanents of mankind are hiding in caves and burnt-out cities fighting to survive.
August 13th, 2007 at 7:36 am
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
COMING SOON! TITANIC 2: JACK’S REVENGE
August 13th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Lame as this sort of plot device sounds, it does almost seem like the next “logical” area for this series. (Please note the quotes around logical.) I mean, there’s already been instances of these dinosaurs getting loose and killing people. So various people, military experts included, would probably take notice (or so these plots usually go), take over the program, and see how they could “weaponize” such creatures.
All that’s left now is the details: get some people in some situation where they have to face off against these things. Or, alternatively, have some “top secret” plane carrying the modified dinosaurs crash somewhere. (Oooo! Now, if they really wanted to go all political on us and maybe impart a “message” with these new dinosaurs, they could have the plane crash land in the Middle East.)
Personally I would like to see NO more sequels of “Jurassic Park.” I really liked the first film (even with the questionable science) and I think they’ve gone downhill ever since.
August 13th, 2007 at 9:43 am
“Apparently the new film involves dinosaurs which have been outfitted with weapons by the US government”
I seriously doubt that Speilberg would let this happen with JP4. If they go ahead with the film, I would really like to see something different, with a totally new set of characters, we have had enough rehash of the first film as it is.
August 13th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Am I the only one who thinks this sounds frickin sweet? I mean, come on! That is quite possibly the most ridiculous idea one could ever have, and yet I still want to see it! You all know you kinda want to as well. This is the best idea for JP4 since I read about a past script that featured Nazi dinosaurs. I guess I can still hold out hope…
August 13th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Sounds like a grindhouse film rofl!
August 13th, 2007 at 11:05 am
I don’t think it sounds all that ludicrous– a short little generic description of what may happen within the context of the film probably just makes it sound far more outlandish than it will probably turn out to be. Besides, I doubt a franchise as big as JP would get a green light with such an extreme concept if it didn’t have genuine potential, especially with Spielberg in the producer’s chair.
That said, there are far more ridiculous movies being all hyped up right now. A film where a man falls victim to a Gamma radiation, so that anytime he gets mad he turns green and gains super powers? Call me crazy, but gun-toting dinosaur-tanks doesn’t sound much more far-fetched than that. Or less awesome.
Besides, movies like Transformers are fuggin’ retarded, but it’s all a suspension of disbelief, in the wake of getting to watch giant robots kicking the shit out of one another. I don’t care how bat-shit the plot is, so long as I get to watch dinosaurs pulverize each other with RPGs.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Andy: you bring up some good points and, in the main, I agree with you. I think the concept of “dinosaurs outfitted with guns” isn’t any more or less ridiculous than other concepts out there. On the other hand, this “ridiculous concept” (and that’s up for debate, I agree) is coming on the heels of three other successful movies in the same franchise that tried to adhere to at least a little realism.
Yeah, the genetics science wasn’t quite spot on and, yeah, there’s a lot of debate about just how viable dinosaur cells could be or if they could be “regrown.” But, within the confines of those ideas, the movies (for the most part) stuck to a certain level of realism and managed not to be totally corny. (I’m putting out of my mind the scene with the acrobat girl kicking a dinosaur. *Shudder*)
So I’m just not sure this is a good direction for them to go given the direction they’ve already taken. But, you never know. As you’ve pointed out, stranger things have come out of Hollywood.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:27 am
I totally agree with your points, Jeff, but even beyond that sort of popcorn-flick forgiveness, I feel like the idea of dinosaurs as weapons wouldn’t turn JP into one of those Turok videogames. This sounds to me, more than anything, like a bridge between how these dinosaurs on this isolated little island might rise into a threat again, as opposed to why two islands need to be avoided. I can’t imagine any other way the writers could bring back previous characters of the series and still generate a somewhat believe scenario of the return of the dinos.
Though, if there aren’t any dino wars, they need a spin-off, or something.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Andy said: “…I feel like the idea of dinosaurs as weapons wouldn’t turn JP into one of those Turok videogames…”
Yeah, that’s very true. For example, I could imagine a scenario where, say, it’s not that the dinsoaurs are mounted with weapons, per se, but rather *are* the weapons themselves. I mean, I would be intimidated by one. But how do you “weaponize” them? One could be literal weapons. (After all, didn’t we used to think of putting bombs on dolphins?)
But I suppose the genetic engineering could come into play: the dinosaurs are harder to kill off; maybe armored skin; or maybe faster self-healing (in the way of reptiles); or maybe they’ve been made smarter; or maybe their reproductive cycle has been sped up. But then, like many such weapons, they start to get a bit out of hand.
So I can definitely see interesting ways they could do this. I’m just hoping that they don’t sacrifice some aspects of what made these films good. To me the dinosaurs in the films were scary because they basically seemed real. We basically went and used an aspect of science to “ressurect” something we really don’t fully understand. And even with all our technology and know-how, they could still kill us off pretty effectively.
I think taking that theme I just said and perhaps making a wider threat to the whole world could be a good direction for the fourth installment but, in that case, I definitely think the devil is in the details, in terms of how they might frame a war between the species.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Well, in the novel (I can’t remember if they included this little tidbit in the film), it was noted that the dinosaurs were designed to need a special diet, so that if they ever escaped, they could only go a certain amount of time without a specific mineral or vitamin that couldn’t be found in the animal’s natural diet, and it would die. That obviously failed, but as we can see from there being another cut taken away from a director via Across the Universe, those in power have a hard time learning from mistakes when they don’t get outright reprimanded for it. And biological warfare isn’t by any means a new idea; dinosaurs would basically be modern warfare’s smallpox, with teeth.
I can see a few quick-and-easy parallels between mankind’s raping of the Earth (global warming, oil crises, etc.) and dinosaurs running amok, or even a parallel between how violence tends to spin out of control, producing a lot of collateral damange post de facto. They practically write themselves!
I agree with you, though. I feel that the most terrifying aspect of the other movies was the sheer isolation of being stuck out, literally, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by these ravenous creatures that we have no understanding of. A huge contamination of these things out in the natural world would sort of rob the series of that classic, “you’re on your own” sort of vibe. But on the flipside, a huge part of the original and even sequel was how all of this human-made control, how all of these barricades and attempts to produce an element of safety disintegrate. “Nature finds a way”. The T-Rex in Lost World was far too wide-open about it; imagine a pack of Velociraptors, freshly escaped, weeding their way through New York. Nobody would have any clear-cut idea what was happening, and the government, if they were involved, sure as hell wouldn’t go posting fliers about their most recent mishap.
But, all of a sudden, I’m really stoked for the fourth!
August 14th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I think the only plot line I could foreseeabley accept dealing with “weaponizing” JP dinos is if they were used AS IS in a combat zone as cannon fodder/foot soldiers: Let loose a group of Raptors into an “enemy infested” zone and let ‘em go to work for you, then recapture them and continue. Making Godzilla out of a T-Rex would be movie suicide. If I saw a Brontosaur take out a military installation with a shoulder mounted Predator-based cannon, I’d have to laugh myself out of the theater and get my money back.
August 16th, 2007 at 9:55 am
http://i16.tinypic.com/54j95×4.jpg
August 16th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I could see a plot that uses the Dinosaurs themselves as weapons and some kind of Universal Soldier mind control tech to shut them down after battle for easy recapture. ZAP!!!! short circuit and BAM!!, you have chaos.
August 19th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
I kinda like this logo I made years and years ago: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1308/1179447232_e3dd55e5bb_o.jpg
And yes, this is how the movie will feel like if the “guns on dinosaurs” rumor is true: http://i16.tinypic.com/54j95×4.jpg
Sequels don’t have to be so… disappointing.
August 29th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Havnt you ever heard of Turok??? dinosaurs with guns becomes a very frightening concept when applied correctly.
December 19th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Here is a quote from the leaked script:
Dr. Grant: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
John Hammond: Velocaraptors.
Dr. Grant: [pause] Riiiiiight.
John Hammond: They’re cloned Velocaraptors.
Dr. Grant: Are they ill tempered?
John Hammond: Absolutely.
Dr. Grant: Oh well, that’s a start.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Penix, that sounds an awful lot like Dr. Grant is Dr. Evil from Austin Powers.
January 6th, 2008 at 4:07 am
@sam ..
You made http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1308/1179447232_e3dd55e5bb_o.jpg ??
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 am
Did you say “presumably for battle purposes?” Errrr…what else would the weapons be for…?!?
March 9th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I HEARD THAT THEY GET LOOSE AROUND THE WORLD AND START ATTACKING HUMANS!!!
April 13th, 2008 at 12:43 am
raph thats so cool
April 21st, 2008 at 4:03 am
i dont believe this all 3 movies were off the all 3 books which were written in the 40’s how is it that a bunch of random dino’s have guns they should make it were the UN figures that if these dinos were to escape it would cause major losses of the human race therefore they must destroy them but this is also like the TF plot “o lets kill them coz there scary” you no but it would be like a v p
would be cool from my perspective
May 30th, 2008 at 6:41 am
I THINK ARE BIG WEAPONS AND THEY DON’T NEED THEM
July 1st, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I love Jurassic park, one of my hero’s is Steven Speilburg, whom i hope one day i will meet and one day be apart in he’s Movie’s. I also admire dinosaurs ALOT but when i herd The plot for JP4 i was APPALLED. that plot is just horrifying i cant believe they have Considered that as a plot, Dinosaurs with GUNS!!!, Who’s on the Crack, my god.
I know, I know many people have said this so but I James don’t want Steven Speilburg Directing this PLOT. Hes movies are legendary.
But i hope the Plot is changed.