One of Harry's spies over at Ain't It Cool News got a chance to talk to Michael Lanteri (Responsible for "Special Dinosaur Effects" in JP and TLW), and happened to ask about the third JP movie. Here's what Lanteri said:
ML : Funny you should mention that. I just had a meeting with Dennis Muren from ILM, and we were talking about that, how we wanted to keep it 'in the family. Joe Johnston's directing and he's done these kinds of films before- Jumanji, the Rocketeer. So it's moving ahead.
Hey, look! DansJP3Page.com -- Coming Soon!
Here's some additional information and speculation about JP3 director Joe Johnston from Chris Maier. I tend to agree with Chris' opinions here -- Jumanji really did have a Jurassic Park feel to it, and it will certainly be very interesting to see what Johnston does with the third installment in the JP series.
Judging by TPM, which has almost entirely digital creature effects apart from some creature masks (Some of the Tatooine citizens and the Trade Federation bad guys) I doubt we'll see any of Stan Winston's creations in this movie, but rather the creations of ILM. In TLW there was some inconsistency between the CG models of the dinosaurs and the animatronic creatures, so it'd be nice to see this fixed up. Hopefully though, they hire Stan as an advisor.
Also, and most importantly, I think Joe has the Speilberg feel for the most part in his movies. He's certainly experienced with rampaging creatures (Jumanji - although I thought the monkeys looked fake), so it's going to be interesting to see what happens.
A small tid-bit about JP2 screenwriter David Koepp in the talk back of Harry's story about the JP3 news, here. According to an interview with the writer/director in the September/October issue of Creative Screenwriting, Koepp chose not to write the script for JP3 because, "I felt like I was dancing pretty hard at the end of the second one to try to get the sailors to throw their money on the stage." The new issue with the interview is scheduled to hit news stands in about a month.
Well, I dunno about you, but I had just about given up hope, but then look what Amblin does: they sign Joe Johnston (Jumanji, October Sky, and Honey, I shrunk the Kids) on as director, and send out this press release, naming Craig Rosenberg as writer (along with Johnston). An interesting (and important) side note: it's also reported that while Spielberg came up with the idea for JP3, both him and Crichton will only have only "passive involvement" with the film. Related press releases/news stories include this one from the AP, and this E! Online story.
And yes, when I get a chance, a very cool JP3 webpage is on my slate. ;)
Rich Wyckoff, designer of the ill-fated and much maligned Trespasser: Jurassic Park computer game for Dreamworks Interactive, has composed a long and well written article for Game Developers Magazine detailed the hardships and troubles the team faced while designing the game, entitled "Postmortem: DreamWorks Interactive’s Trespasser". In the article, Wyckoff blames everyone from the makers of 3D MAX to Crichton and Spielberg ("From my own perspective as a designer, licensed properties are the least fun games to work on. From a movie aesthete’s view, the Jurassic Park movies are among Spielberg’s [and original novelist Crichton’s] worst work, lacking in just about anything beyond pacing and special effects."). In the end, however, Wyckoff grudgingly admits the project was an overall failure, saying that "It is unfortunate that even though the Trespasser team was made of some of the most brilliant programmers, artists, and designers in the industry, the game we ended up shipping was at best a deeply flawed beta." The article is quite interesting, check it out here.
Since it's May, a few people are probably wondering where my promised JP3 page is... well, I've decided to hold off until when (and if) I hear any new official news about the third movie. I check the show-biz news every so often, and so far, the presses have been silent. No script, no director, no cast, no plot, nothing. Personally, I'm not getting my hopes up, it's quite possible that Universal has decided to shelve the project indefinitely, especially now that Spielberg has decided to put all his effort into Dreamworks.
I just read an interesting tid-bit about The Lost World, and figured I'd post it here, even know I'm pretty sure no one visits anymore. Oh well, just for the record, according to David Koepp, the characters of Roland and Nick Van Owen were a reference to the 70's rock musician, Warren Zevon, and specifically the song Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner (click for a RA clip). "Since Roland is a mercenary in the song," says Koepp, "that seemed like a good name or the hunter-for-hire in our movie. While I was at it, I thought it would be fun to make his nemesis' last name Van Owen, like in the song." (Source: Roger Ebert's Movie Answer Man)
According to Kevin (and reported by several other message board regulars), FOX is readying their Lost World television rights, airing TLW on Sunday, November 1st. Even more interesting, however, is that the movie on FOX will reportedly contain "all new scenes". This may be the "Director's Cut" that Speilberg has been promising for quite some time. Get your VCR's ready. (Well, maybe not yet, but soon.)
Embryo, a very nicely designed webpage dedicated (already) to the third JP movie, reports that a JP3 novel by Michael Crichton will not happen. According to the information, Crichton himself told the Sci-Fi channel that he would not write a third Jurassic Park novel.
Speculation about the director of JP3 today. Dark Horizons reports that the name Mimi Leder ("Deep Impact", "Armageddon"), has been tossed around. BenDavid Grabinski states that a high-up Universal source is saying that Jan de Bont ("Speed", "Twister") might be filling the directors shoes. Personally, out of these two, Jan de Bont is my pick. Of course, these are all rumors.
This, my friends, is disturbing: Dark Horizons is also reporting that John Williams may not do the score for JP3, in which case (this is the disturbing part), James "Titanic" Horner may be his replacement. Besides disturbing, I also find this highly unlikely, as Spielberg must realize that John Williams has more talent than James Horner in his pinky toe.
Rumors, rumors everywhere, but no confirmation in sight. As I predicted, the JP3 rumors are flying fast and furious, as the rumor-mongering Corona's Coming Attractions can attest to. Here's the round-up of JP3 rumors so far: (thanks to BenDavid Grabinski)
Well, there's the pretty exciting news (if you haven't seen it, go back to the opening page and hit reload) in black and white, direct from the horse's mouth: JP3 is a go. All the news is in this Variety story, it followed previous stories from The Associated Press, and Reuters.
As for me, while it's still way to early to start on a new webpage (I suppose I could now, but there wouldn't be much news to report), rest assured I'll be here at ring-side covering the action, as I did for The Lost World. Look for the new site around April or May of next year. It will rock.
And be sure to visit the Message Board and join the fun posting your wild speculations on the plot of the third movie! :)