Life Finds a ‘Jurassic Park 4’ Director

By  · Published on March 14th, 2013

For some time, the very thought of another entry into the Jurassic Park franchise has seemed like a minor joke being played upon fans. At one point, there was a notion that it would be about weaponizing dinosaurs with lasers. Or something along those lines. In recent years the project has been everything from a few little tidbits from Steven Spielberg to the actual hiring of screenwriters in the middle of last year. But that was so June 2012, they can’t possibly still be working on Jurassic Park 4, can they?

They are. And as of today the project has signed on a very interesting choice to direct.

Colin Trevorrow, best known for the charming, exceptionally smart indie sci-fi romance Safety Not Guaranteed, and for being a candidate whose name we placed in the Star Wars hat, has officially accepted the job to work under producers Spielberg and Patrick Crowley. He’s also currently involved in the Flight of the Navigator remake.

According to Deadline, Trevorrow “met with the studio and filmmakers, and they felt he was a good match for the material, having grown up a huge fan of the trilogy and part of a new generation of directors steeped in all things dinosaur. They felt he would preserve and protect the characters in the story they created.”

The inherent upside to a guy like Trevorrow: he’s smart, talented, untainted by years in the studio system so he’s not just a “yes” man, and like many of you who will undoubtedly excited about this project: he’s a fan. That matters. The potential downside: Trevorrow isn’t seasoned enough yet to avoid becoming Steven Spielberg’s “yes” man, should it come to that. Then again, worse things have happened and if there’s one thing Spielberg knows how to do, it’s make good dinosaur movies. And lets be honest with ourselves: what do we want from a new Jurassic Park film? A new vision? Maybe. But really it would just be nice to have the magic of the first film back. At this point, we can most comfortably entrust such a task to a younger filmmaker who has grown up with the originals.

This fourth installment will be shot in 3D and released June 13, 2014. Beyond that, little is known about the script that Rise of the Planet of the Apes scribes Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver have put together. Chances are good that it involved dinosaurs.

Art courtesy of Knight of Ammo.

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Neil Miller is the persistently-bearded Publisher of Film School Rejects, Nonfics, and One Perfect Shot. He's also the Executive Producer of the One Perfect Shot TV show (currently streaming on HBO Max) and the co-host of Trial By Content on The Ringer Podcast Network. He can be found on Twitter here: @rejects (He/Him)