Category Archives: News

Jurassic World, a blockbuster smash

Jurassic World is finally a fully functional theme park, as originally envisioned by John Hammond himself. Jurassic World is not just an upcoming amphitheater zoo, as suggested by Peter Ludlow. No, we have moved from San Diego back to Isla Nublar, approximately 120 miles off the west coast of Costa Rica. Before John Hammond’s untimely passing, he entrusted the future of Jurassic Park in the capable hands of Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan), of Masrani Global, with explicit instructions to spare no expense. This time, there are plenty of thrilling prehistoric attractions, exhibits, and places to discover that will simply astound any Jurassic World attendee.

Over time the attractions begin to wane. The polls of focus groups suggest that the people want more. Who doesn’t want more? You would think dinosaur attractions would be “wow” enough. We are always demanding more trills, cheers, and of course, screams. This leads the geneticists, under the direction of the Chief Geneticist from InGen, Dr. Henry Wu (B. D. Wong), to engineer a hybrid dinosaur so terrifying that it can give someone nightmares. What do you get when you splice the DNA of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a cuttlefish, an unknown species of tree frog, and other classified species together? The terrifying, fearsome, and untamable Indominus Rex. The Indominus Rex Attraction is sponsored by the equally terrifying Verizon Wireless investors, ironic, is it not?

We meet with Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is actively researching and training a pack of Velociraptors (Charlie, Delta, Echo, and Blue, the beta). Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the Jurassic World operations manager. Her nephews, Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray Mitchell (Ty Simpkins) are attending the park with exclusive VIP access throughout their visit.

Colin Trevorrow has done a tremendous job delivering a sensational summer blockbuster. You will certainly be sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for a glimpse of the original Tyrannosaurus Rex that saved Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler, Lex, and Tim Murphy from a pack of Velociraptors during the first events of Jurassic Park. Trevorrow paid many respects to the original Jurassic Park in the most graceful manner. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard have done an amazing job with their roles. You will believe the Velociraptors are highly intelligent animals that are capable of following orders but are equally terrifying at the same time. Enough so that one of them might just bite your hand off, man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY0bMdC1i4w

If you haven’t already done so, get your tickets today! Jurassic World earned $82.8 million dollars on its Friday debut. Making it the third-best opening on record behind Age of Ultron and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.

Website compromised (Updated)

Sometime in the last 24 hours the Jurassic Park database website had been compromised. The main index page of the website had been replaced with something less than nefarious. I am in the process of restoring the original main index from a previous backup. Please sit back as I bring all systems back online.

In the meantime, enjoy the latest Jurassic World trailer!

Updated 11/25: The website is now back up on its original startup mode.

Official Jurassic World trailer released, 2 days early

In an event that could be considered no more than spur of the moment–Universal Studios has decided to release the official Jurassic World trailer 2 days early. Follow Owen (Chris Pratt) as he rides with velociraptors in an attempts to stop a genetically modified dinosaur wreak havoc across Isla Nublar.

Steven Spielberg returns to executive produce the long-awaited next installment of his groundbreaking Jurassic Park series, Jurassic World. Colin Trevorrow directs the epic action-adventure from a screenplay he wrote with Derek Connolly. Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley join the team as producers.

Jurassic World will be released in 3D by Universal Pictures on June 12, 2015. www.jurassicworld.com

Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical!

Yes, you read right, Jurassic Parq. Word comes to us from Ann (marking representative for an upcoming New York International Fringe Festival show) that a musical parody/tribute to Jurassic Park dreamt up by two Jurassic Park fanatics is upon the horizon. I’ve watched the videos attached to the press release, and I have to tell you… I couldn’t stop laughing. I have a feeling this is going to be great! For those wanting to know more, below is the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bryce Norbitz, Producer
516-996-5904
bnorbitz@gmail.com
Ron Lasko, Fringe Publicist
press@FringeNYC.org

The New York International Fringe Festival Presents:
JURASSIC PARQ: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL
Written by Emma Barash, Bryce Norbitz, Marshall Pailet, and Stephen Wargo
August 20-27th at The Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa

NEW YORK, NY (July, 2010)- Boldly re-imagined and retold from the perspective of the dinosaurs, Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical is an unflinching meditation on gender, sexual, and racial identity in an evolving landscape destined to stun you with its importance. Chaos is unleashed upon the not-so-prehistoric world when one dinosaur in a clan of females spontaneously turns male… because of the frog DNA. The mutation spawns a chain reaction of identity crises, forcing the dinosaurs to question the very facts of life they’ve held as truths.

In addition to being brilliant, Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical is revolutionary and groundbreaking in the following ways:

1. It is cast gender blind, but color conscious.
2. It doubles as an Adv/Beg Jazz Class.
3. It sings the songs of the unsung heroes; those unsung heroes are dinosaurs.
4. It addresses gender, racial, sexual, ethnic, and religious identity… in just 90 minutes!

Starring Big Momma’s House 3: Like Father, Like Son’s Brandon Gill, Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical features John Jeffrey Martin (Rocky Horror, Hairspray, Good Vibrations, High School Musical 1st National Tour) as the Velociraptor of Faith, Mary Ellen Ashley (Yentl, Annie Get Your Gun) as the Velociraptor of Science, Natalie Bradshaw (Hair) as T-Rex 2, Brandon Gill (Neighbors) as the Baby Velociraptor, and Brandon Espinoza (Gypsy, Big, Will Rodgers Follies, Les Mis) as Mime-a-saurus. The cast also features Tara Novie as T-Rex 1, Jay Frisby as Dilophosaurus, Lee Seymour as Morgan Freeman, Denise Dumper, Emily Jenda, Olli Haaskivi and Cara Massey as Chorus-a-saurus.

Written by Emma Barash, Marshall Pailet (Super Claudio Bros., On a Glorious Day, Swimming Upstream), Bryce Norbitz, and Stephen Wargo. Directed by Marshall Pailet. Choreographed by Hayley Podschun (Pal Joey, Sunday in the Park with George, Hairspray, Sound of Music). Music directed by Jonathan Breit. Set by Caite Hevner. Costumes by Bronwyn Meehan. Stage managed by Ashley Rodbro.

Performance Dates: 8/20 at 7pm, 8/21 at 12pm, 8/22 at 6:15pm, 8/25 at 7:45pm, 8/27 at 4pm
At The Ellen Stewart Theater at La MaMa, 74A East 4th St, New York, NY 10003

Please visit http://jurassicparq.blogspot.com/ for more information.
For tickets, please visit http://www.fringenyc.org/ or call 866-468-7619

NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FRINGE FESTIVAL,
a production of THE PRESENT COMPANY   ©  1997 – 2010

Still interested? I know I am. Check out the Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical blog!

More news from Joe

I’m sure we all remember long ago (2004-ish) when Jurassic Park IV was proposed to involve Commandos and “Super Solider” dinosaurs. For the sake of better judgement, the draft by William Monahan and John Sayles has been scrapped. Now, 2010… many years later… Drew McWeeny from HitFix.com sat down with Joe Johnston to comment about the possibility of Jurassic Park IV and it’s potential new trilogy. While it is nothing “new”, it just goes to show you the movie(s) is(are) still on the table. Enjoy!

Drew: Is that still in the offing, or have you moved on now to a new idea?

Joe: We have. There is an idea now for number four that is different from the first three, and that is more or less the beginning of a new trilogy, in that it sends the whole franchise off in a new direction. It’s not about the dinosaur park anymore. It’s about all-new characters. So Steven’s busy right now with the stuff he’s doing and I’ve got to do “Captain America,” but hopefully afterwards, we’ll find time to develop it. And really… it’s something different that we haven’t seen before in the “Jurassic Park” world.

Drew: I’m sorry we won’t see the Sayles/Monahan idea.

Joe: Well, you know, Universal and Steven will want to keep making these movies as long as they’re successful, and who knows? We may see the Monahan/Sayles version come back.

Drew: Is that still in the offing, or have you moved on now to a new idea?

Joe: We have. There is an idea now for number four that is different from the first three, and that is more or less the beginning of a new trilogy, in that it sends the whole franchise off in a new direction. It’s not about the dinosaur park anymore. It’s about all-new characters. So Steven’s busy right now with the stuff he’s doing and I’ve got to do “Captain America,” but hopefully afterwards, we’ll find time to develop it. And really… it’s something different that we haven’t seen before in the “Jurassic Park” world.

Drew: I’m sorry we won’t see the Sayles/Monahan idea.

Joe: Well, you know, Universal and Steven will want to keep making these movies as long as they’re successful, and who knows? We may see the Monahan/Sayles version come back.

Jurassic Park IV is alive!

First off, Happy New years everyone! It’s been a long time coming since our last update… many ages ago. Today, I brings news from Boxoffice.com about Jurassic Park IV from the big man, Joe Johnston! He reports to Amy Nicholson of Boxoffice that Jurassic Park IV is not only happening, but a second trilogy may be in the works. Will our favorite characters (most notably: Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm and Ellie Sattler) be involved with the new trilogy or will this bring a whole new crew to the silver screen? More to follow!

Amy Nicholson (AN): You said that there was no way to get people back on the island for a fourth time and have it make sense, but that 2001 was the last installment and we’re due.
Joe Johnston (JJ): Well, there is going to be a Jurassic Park IV. And it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve seen. It breaks away from the first three—it’s essentially the beginning of the second Jurassic Park trilogy. It’s going to be done in a completely different way. That’s pretty much all I can tell you.
AN: A second trilogy?
JJ: If you think of the first three as a trilogy, number four would be the beginning of a second trilogy.
AN: That’s big. So not to lock you in, but there’s a possibility there might be a total of six films?
JJ: Well, you never know. If they keep working—and if audiences keep going to them—there’s no reason why there wouldn’t be. We just want to make them justified in their own right. We don’t want to make sequel after sequel just because there’s a market for it. We want to tell different, interesting stories. You don’t want to just sell hamburger.

Farewell, Stan Winston, 62

Sad news rolled in last night while I was at work. News that shook me to the bone (link). I couldn’t believe it to be true. Stan Winston, the father of Jurassic Park beautiful dinosaurs, Terminator, Aliens, Predator and many more has passed away at the age of 62. Stan Winston died of complications from multiple myeloma (MM) Sunday at his home in Malibu, said his son, Matt Winston. To us he will always be remembered as the one who created life-size dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, blending them seamlessly with CG images, making us believe that dinosaurs roamed the earth once again. More recently, Winston and his team created the crystal skeletons for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and the suits for the superhero Iron Man and the super-villain the Iron Monger in movie Iron Man. Stan Winston won 4 Oscars, another 17 wins and 31 nominations. He will be missed.

Williams to Return for JPIV?

According to today’s Boston Globe, John Williams will be returning to contribute to the score for Jurassic Park IV.  Says the article:

Williams, now 76, was conductor of the Pops from 1980 to 1993. According to industry reports, he remains a busy man, with soundtracks for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “Jurassic Park IV,” and “Superman: Man of Steel” all scheduled for his touch.

No word yet on whether the film maestro will be writing new music or merely contributing themes, as he did for Jurassic Park III.  This is an exciting piece of information, should it prove true.  Not only does it mean Jurassic Park IV is still on track, but those worried about production value should rest easier knowing Williams will be involved somehow.

JP Collectibles Available in 2008

Sideshow Collectibles, respected purveyor of movie paraphernalia, announced two days ago the acquisition of a new franchise.  Details are lacking, but soon you too can expect to be able to purchase quality figurines, busts, and replicas from the Jurassic Park films.  Good news for fans who are tired of pretending that their Barbasol cans have embryo storage capabilities.  Wait, am I the only one?

JPIV Production Affected by Writer’s Strike

In a recent interview with Comingsoon.net, veteran producer Frank Marshall responded to a number of questions regarding fourth installments of his popular series, including Jason Bourne, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park. On the latest dinosaur adventure, Marshall said that while the current WGA strike is holding up script revisions, the film is still on track for a 2009 release. “There’s an idea and we just have to see if it shakes out,” he said. While it’s disappointing to hear that the script has yet to be finalized, the fact that Frank Marshall still considers the project to be greenlit should be somewhat reassuring to long-starved fans.