HOLLYWOOD IS EXCAVATING another beloved IP, and this time, it’s an adventure that’s been 65 million (and 31) years in the making. Opening up those giant gates once again, Universal is set to breathe new life into the long-running Jurassic franchise with Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp back for more. Hoping to take another bite out of the box office, Jurassic World 4 is on the way…for better or for worse.
This isn’t the first time those deadly dinos have faced a reset, and it likely won’t be the last. While Joe Johnston’s Jurassic Park III is seen as a franchise low, an extended hiatus afterwards gave the Jurassic name time to incubate. When it hatched again, we got the record-breaking smash of Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World and a new trilogy where Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt took over from the old guard of Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum.
With 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion bridging the gap between trilogies by bringing back the legacy characters for one more reptilian rodeo, many thought this was the end of the road. Instead, the fact that each three of the Jurassic World movies made over $1 billion at the box office has dollar signs ringing in Universal’s eyes. It’s unclear where the story goes next, but with there being some weird and wonderful pitches over the years, there’s one idea that should stay hiding on the toilet like Donald Gennaro.
Dinosaur soldiers, don’t go there.
The Jurassic Park 4 that never was
Long before Bryce Dallas Howard was running away from T-Rex in heels for Jurassic World, there were plans for a fourth film in the franchise. Despite Jurassic Park III’s critical crucifixion in 2001, Neill was apparently contracted to three movies. Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg started cooking up plans for Jurassic Park 4 late in the threequel’s production, and even though Johnson wasn’t coming back, he teased it was going to be a vast departure from the staple island setting.
Neill and Goldblum were expected to reprise their roles alongside Richard Attenborough as John Hammond. A much younger Keira Knightley was tipped to star, and Spielberg said he wanted to film unused scenes from Michael Crichton’s original novel. The rumored script focused on Grant and Malcolm trying to stop an ecological disaster caused by dinosaurs freely breeding on the Costa Rican mainland. It all sounded pretty reasonable, but that’s where sanity seems to end.
Jurassic Park 4 evolved into an out-there story about dinosaur-human hybrids, which were then weaponized and used by the military. Paleontologist Jack Horner was brought on to consult, and when asked about the idea of humans evolving from dinosaurs, Horner cryptically warned, “Keep thinking about that, and in a couple of years go see Jurassic Park 4.” This leads to the infamous John Sayles draft from 2004 — hold onto your butts.
Sounding like a mix between a Bond movie and The Island of Dr. Moreau, Sayles’ script replaced Grant and Malcolm with a mercenary called Nick Harris (possibly played by Angel’s David Boreanaz). Hammond was the only returning character, sending Harris back to Isla Nublar in hopes of retrieving the Barbasol can of embryos that Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) failed to escape with in the original. An abducted Nick was taken to the Swiss Alps at the orders of the villainous Baron Herman Von Drax. This brilliantly unhinged villain was behind a troop of hybrid dinosaurs who’d been spliced with human DNA and trained like dogs.
Park-ing the idea
As with all the Jurassic movies, things inevitably went wrong. The radio-controlled soldiers were going go rebel against orders and devour their creators as a monstrous military. If you’re still not sold on the idea, Carlos Huante’s concept art (via Jurassic Outpost) likely won’t restore faith that Jurassic Park 4 was going to reinvigorate the franchise. Still, it sounds typically nineties. Trevorrow admitted he’d read the Sayles script (and you can too), telling Screen Crush, “Honestly man? I liked it in a lot of ways.” He said JP4 and his Jurassic World were “bananas,” although the latter seems practically historically accurate compared to what Sayles pitched.
Elements of Jurassic Park 4 made it over to the eventual story for Jurassic World, with Trevorrow admitting Spielberg came up with the idea of a raptor trainer back then. There were also early plans for the scene of humans and raptors involved in a motorcycle chase. As for military interference, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Hoskins discussed the potential of hyper-intelligent dinosaurs being dispatched into the trenches in Jurassic World. Dominion returned to the idea with the trained Atrociraptors, but this is still a far cry from humanoid creatures that look like the Goombas from 1993’s Super Mario Bros. movie.
Given that weaponized dinosaurs are a tease that the World trilogy never fully explored, we wouldn’t be surprised if it was retooled for the next era. To be clear, we’re not totally against the idea of some shady cabal using dinosaurs for its own gain, although it’ll likely be a little close to Austin Powers’ “sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads” if handled poorly. Also, after 31 years of humans trying to harness dinosaurs for their own financial gain, how many times can them turning on their overlords really work? If Jurassic World really wants to surprise, let’s explore further afield.
The ‘world’ is not enough
There’s no word on casting for Jurassic World 4, and to really start afresh, it needs a clean slate. Still, Pratt has some interesting musings, telling Collider he wants the series to explore underwater dinos. Even if the Mosasaurus was a surprise standout of the Jurassic World movies, a movie focusing on seafaring dinosaurs might be too close to something like The Meg. Interestingly, Pratt also said James Gunn has a “wild” pitch for where to take the Jurassicverse next. Could the Guardians of the Galaxy director take some time away from the DCU to put his magic on Jurassic World 4?
Either way, there are critiques that the Jurassic World movies didn’t live up to the “world” part of their name. It’s true that we enjoyed three globetrotting adventures that took us from Costa Rica to Nevada and Malta to the Dolomite Mountains, but while the pre-Dominion marketing made it look like dinosaurs had overrun the world, it was far from the case. Assuming that Jurassic World 4 is going to continue a post-Dominion timeline, we’ll need more of a hook than some evil geneticists trying to harvest dinosaur DNA from the sanctuary of the Biosyn Valley.
Amalgamating old and new, Jurassic World 4 should follow the rebooted Planet of the Apes movies. Similar to Matt Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, imagine small pockets of humanity struggling to survive like early mammals living alongside the dinosaurs. Jumping into the near future, pick up with mankind pushed to the extremes by dinosaurs and living in the ruins of the old world. We’re not saying we replicate Wes Ball’s upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and have evolved dinosaurs because, again, that’s getting a little close to the Sayles draft.
Humans and dinosaurs living happily ever after in co-existence worked as a way to bookend the trilogies, but if we want the peril of Jurassic Park, we have to feel like a small group of survivors is about to get munched. Thankfully, having Koepp onboard for Jurassic World 4 suggests we’ll go back to our Spielberg-esque roots. The (Jurassic) world is our oyster, and for the first time since Jurassic Park III botched the landing, the series has the luxury of being able to go literally anywhere. Forget dinosaur soldiers, what about dinosaurs in space? If Fast & Furious can head to the stars, what’s stopping Universal’s other big IP?
Based in Manchester, UK, Tom Chapman has over seven years’ experience covering everything from dragons to Demogorgons. Starting out with a stint at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom has since branched out to indulge his love of all things Star Wars and the MCU at Digital Spy, Den of Geek, IGN, Yahoo! and more. These days, you’ll find Tom channelling his inner Gale Weathers and ranting about how HBO did us dirty with Game of Thrones Season Eight.
