When I recently published a piece about “Fantastic Four,” a commenter asked why everyone seems determined to cut slack to Josh Trank as director of that film. While I enjoyed “Chronicle,” it's not just a blank check. For my own part, I can only say that I want to see Trank pull it off. I don't know if he will or won't, and it's true… we have only one film to judge. But that does't change the idea that I'd much rather get a great “Fantastic Four” than a bad one, and I'm willing to wait to see if the big choices he's making pay off instead of just pulling that automatic fanboy dismissal of things.
I feel the same way about Colin Trevorrow. “Safety Not Guaranteed” is enjoyable, but didn't exactly blow my mind. I am still not sure what it is about that small romantic drama that made the producers of “Jurassic World” decide he was the guy, but like Trank, I think he genuinely loves the property he's working on and I hope he pulls it off.
“Jurassic World” was originally written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and Trevorow has been rewriting it himself to prepare for directing the film, which is due out in the summer of 2015. While we don't know what the storyline for the film, it sounds like they're going back to the island from the first film and Trevorrow has suggested that the amount of time that's passed since the first film came out (twenty-one years, which makes me feel ancient) is the same time that has passed in the movies.
Trevorrow grew up as a fan of “Jurassic Park,” and I was pretty sure when the film came out that it would end up creating a generation of filmmakers, and it looks like that is indeed starting to happen. So far, we've heard some great names attached as part of the cast. Chris Pratt, who is poised for mega-stardom with this coming on the heels of “Guardians Of The Galaxy” and “The LEGO Movie,” Bryce Dallas Howard, Jake Johnson, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Ty Simpkins… all interesting.
Now we can add Vincent D'Onofrio to the list, and according to reports, he's playing the bad guy. I would assume that the dinosaurs will be the actual bad guys, but D'Onofrio will no doubt play someone who has not fully learned the lesson that messing around with dinosaurs will likely lead to someone being eaten. Seems like an easy lesson, but the sequels all depend on the idea that people still think it's a good idea to keep giant carnivorous creatures in a theme park environment.
Trevorrow has gathered many of the people from the original film to work for him, including production designer Rick Carter and Michael Lantieri, designer “Crash” McCreery, and FX genius Phil Tippett, so I hope he's able to create a real trip back to Jurassic Park for fans who have waited all this time.
“Jurassic World” will be in theaters June 12, 2015.