“Jurassic World” Has Bite

 
 
It’s back, and it’s bigger than ever. The eagerly awaited fourth installment in the franchise, “Jurassic World” opens June 12.

Twenty-two years after the events of “Jurassic Park” (1993), Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. After ten years of operation and visitor rates declining, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new attraction is created to re-spark visitor’s interest, which backfires horribly. [one_fourth]

[/one_fourth][three_fourth_last] This is the first film in the series not to feature Sam Neill, Laura Dern or Jeff Goldblum. This was a creative decision by director Colin Trevorrow: “I know a lot of fans want to see the original characters back. They’re iconic. But I respect those actors too much to shoehorn them into this story for my own sentimental reasons. Jurassic Park isn’t about the bad luck of three people who keep getting thrown into the same situation. The only reason they’d go back to that island is if the screenwriters contrived a reason for them to go.” The new film stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Vincent D’Onofrio.

According to Trevorrow, there will be a statue of the character John Hammond, the founder of the InGen genetic company and Jurassic Park, as a means to specifically honor Sir Richard Attenborough who played the role in “Jurassic Park” (1993) and “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997). Attenborough had spoken in the past of possibly making another appearance in the franchise but his failing health made it highly uncertain. Unfortunately, Attenborough passed away August 24th, 2014.

After the enormous success of the first film, “Jurassic Park”, Spielberg requested Michael Crichton to write a sequel to the novel, leading to the 1995 book The Lost World, which in turn was adapted as “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” in 1997, also directed by Spielberg and written by David Koepp. Another film, “Jurassic Park III” was released in 2001 under the direction of Joe Johnston with Spielberg as executive producer, featuring an original script that still incorporated unused elements from Crichton’s original Jurassic Park.