It's been over 10 years in the making but Jurassic Park IV is finally happening. It's been given a release date of 2014, but there's no word yet on plot, cast, or director. So being a self-diagnosed Jurassic Park obsessive, here's what I'd most like to see next summer.
The Lost World pulled something of a cheap trick. There was a second island: Isla Sorna, or Site B, as it was known to In-Gen employees. It was here that state-of-the-art laboratories were built, and the dinosaurs for the amusement park were engineered and cloned. But what’s happened to Jurassic Park (Isla Nublar) in the last 20 years? I think Jurassic Park 4 should return to that primal scene – back to where the raptors devoured Muldoon, where LINUX is still the OS of choice, and where one T-Rex continues to rule the earth. It’d be a huge nostalgia trip, taking in some of cinema’s most iconic locations, transformed by the passage of time: a run-down visitor centre, reclaimed by strange prehistoric flora; the magnificent park gates ravaged by tropical weather. But it needn’t be confined to those familiar settings, located mainly to the North and East of the island. What about the geothermal power station high up in the volcanic mountains? Or the villages of indigenous people who Hammond persuaded (bribed) to leave the island? These have only ever been alluded to in the novel and in tie-in products, but never before seen on screen.
The masterstroke, however, would not be just going back to the island, exploiting its immense nostalgic power, but to justify that return. To do that, it would need to feed into a larger plot, ideally built around the events of the first movie. Perhaps John Hammond has died, leaving a recording informing key individuals – Grant, Malcolm, Sattler – why they must go back to Jurassic Park. It could be as simple as there being something that needs to be deactivated or recovered. What about the can of shaving foam used by Nedry to steal Dino DNA (as contained in William Monahan's and John Sayles's abandoned script)? Did they leave a perfect MacGuffin, drowning in the mud of Isla Nublar. It doesn’t have to be ingenious, but it can’t be as flimsy as another island or a rescue mission for a rich family’s child.
No one’s been back. Why would they? In those 20 years what has happened to that environment, that ecosystem, without human interference? A deleted scene from The Lost World says that all life on the island was destroyed by dropping napalm from the skies (as in the novel). But Spielberg cannily left this out, presumably leaving open the possibility of returning sometime in the future. Hopefully, Jurassic Park IV is that film.
Maybe it’s warm and fuzzy nostalgia that’s clouding my judgement on this one. Yes, 20 years have passed, and yes, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum are 20 years older – and probably quite incapable of going faster – but such a big part of that first film’s charm was the volatile chemistry between the cautious archaeologist and the cavalier mathematician. Grant was the reluctant hero (and in Spielberg fashion, a reluctant father figure too) – he wanted to believe in Hammond’s project, an ambition that brought to life his fossils and research. But he knew, as all life scientists do, that nature is red in tooth and claw, and none is potentially more red than the six-inch retractible claw of a velociraptor. Malcolm, on the other hand, was more cynical from the get-go; he knew it was doomed to fail, a gross historical paradox that could only resolve itself through bloody chaos. It’s a dynamic that would be a dream for any script writer. Each actor has appeared in sequels for the franchise but never together. Can the magic be rekindled?
What a pair of PhDs.
Each JP sequel has introduced different dinosaurs – the stegosaurus was introduced in The Lost World and in JPIII we were introduced into the lesser known Spinosaurus, which towered above the T-Rex, and flying dinosaurs in the form of pteranodons. Part of me wants the upcoming sequel to keep things simple: raptors, brachiosaur, triceratops, dilophosaurus and a T-Rex. In short, all the dinosaurs of the original. They all perform slightly different functions and represents varying levels of threat. But one thing has never been fully exploited and that’s underwater dinosaurs.
Okay, so they’re not technically dinosaurs, but aquatic primordial beasts are an absolute must. Think giant sharks with strange jaws (Edestus), gigantic fish with buck-teeth (Dunkleosteus), or any of the plesiosaurs, but especially the terrifying Kronosaurus or the fearsome Liopleurodon. And why stop there? Prior to seeing the very first dinosaur in Jurassic Park, Ellie Sadler picks up a leaf dating from the Cretaceous period. What about other exotic forms of prehistoric life, creating an entire ecosystem pulled violently into the modern day? You could have giant snakes (Madtsoiidae) or huge scorpions (Pulmonoscorpius). Maybe they’re straying too far from the spirit of the series, but there’s one beast from another time that, I think, would make sense: the Megaladon. Imagine a great white shark but 10 times the size. That’s absolutely terrifying. You could be in danger of straying into low-rent natural horror movie territory, nature running amok – think but how brilliant would it be if JPIV was not only Spielberg’s return to the JP franchise but also his spiritual sequel to Jaws.
Giant shark! What's not to like?
Regardless of the creatures involved, it’s a must that both visual and practical effects are used to bring them to life. Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wobbled when it went all digital. One of the reasons JP defiantly stands the test of time is down to its savvy mix of pioneering CGI and established animatronics.
Jurassic Park is all about life. It’s a film about evolution, how nature ingeniously adapts to protect itself, overcoming man’s best ways to control and confine it. As Malcolm pithily phrases it, “Life finds a way.” So even though the sentimentalist in me doesn’t really want this to happen – I want gas-powered jeeps and West Indian lilac – but part of me thinks the series deserves something much bigger and braver. The sequel has been over 11 years in the making, it can’t just be a bunch of people running away from dinosaurs on a island, can it? Both sequels are structurally retreads of that first movie, and I’m not sure if it’d really work for a third time. I’m not suggesting an out-of-control flea circus instead, or a brutal kitchen sink drama in which characters eat melting ice cream for two hours. Not that out of the box. But what about some of those scripts that have floated around Hollywood?
Treatments which talk of Judas strain creatures engineered to wipe out the existing dinosaurs, of humanoid dinosaurs, and an elite squad of intelligent dinosaurs trained for a special mission. Maybe they’re too outlandish. But how about a road movie in the style of Monsters, following a family as they try to escape from the US’s Southern States where dinosaurs have invaded? I don’t know the solution, but the principles of evolution can sometimes apply to other aspects of life, not just biology. Maybe Jurassic Park IV will have to mutate if it wants to survive, critically and commercially.
Spielberg is quite open about how disappointed he was with The Lost World. His heart just wasn’t in it. Famously, the post-production for Jurassic Park overlapped with the pre-production and shoot for Schindler’s List; Spielberg would be filming in the muddy fields of Poland during the day, while working with ILM on digital dinosaurs in the evening. You couldn’t imagine two more contrasting projects, but looking back now, each one nicely represents the two contrasting halves of Spielberg’s career to date. It was a turning point for Spielberg’s career, and The Lost World suffered – it came at a time when the director was reevaluating his art and had lost his love for the genre that had brought him great success. Why was he now making a film about dinosaurs chewing people after he’d won the Oscar for depicting the plight of the jewish people during the Second World War?
Spielberg moments after poisoning the last living dinosaur.
In the years following The Lost World, Spielberg continued to make more serious, weighty, worthy material – Munich, War Horse, Lincoln, with Saving Private Ryan earning him a second Academy Award along the way. It would be ridiculous to claim that Steve Spielberg has something to prove, but with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull faltering, I think ‘late-Spielberg’ has another classic blockbuster in him. I think he could still show the likes of Nolan and Snyder, weened on the fake butter smell of his very best popcorn movies, how it’s really done.
Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer. He loves Jurassic Park more than his future children. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.
Source : ign[dot]com
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