Universal Delays Jurassic Park 4, New Release Date Unkown

[Earnest Cavalli]

Universal Delays Jurassic Park 4, New Release Date Unkown

Jurassic Park 4 is now officially on hold, and its previous release window has been obliterated in favor of nothing at all.

If you were to ask me a few days ago when you might expect to see Jurassic Park 4 in theaters, I would've have immediately rattled off something about "Summer 2014." Sadly, that was then, and this now. Now, I'd have to say, "I have no real idea, and it may not ever appear." Bummer, no?

What happened? Nobody's quite sure (or, if they are, they aren't talking). Last night Ain't It Cool News reported that the film had been delayed, without any further information on what was going on. That was quickly met with an official confirmation from Universal Pictures, who offered the following largely unhelpful clarification to what we already knew:

In coordination with filmmakers, Universal has decided to release Jurassic Park 4 at a later date giving the studio and filmmakers adequate time to bring audiences the best possible version of the fourth installment in Universal's beloved franchise. We could not be more excited about the vision that Colin Trevorrow has created for this film, and we look forward to watching as he and the producers create another great chapter in this franchise's storied history.

Notice that Universal gives no reason for the delay, nor any word on when we might expect the film. Instead the studio simply destroys the film's pre-existing "Summer 2014" release date and walks away.

Does this spell trouble for the long in-production Jurassic Park 4? Could be, but it could also be an effort on Universal's part to ensure that this film is as great as the first Jurassic Park movie. It's been nearly two decades since that film hit theaters and the franchise's quality has dipped substantially in that time. If Universal's delay is motivated purely by making Jurassic Park 4 the best movie it can be, then we're in favor of the idea.

Of course, if it's the studio having doubts over how the production is shaping up, we grudgingly accept that too. What choice do we have? "People versus CGI dinosaurs" is such a purely fun premise that it just wouldn't do to have a Jurassic Park flick that was anything less than epic. Presumably Universal knows this and lives in as much fear of failing as fans do of seeing the velociraptors kitted out with assault rifles and nanotechnology.

Source: AICN [http://www.aintitcool.com/node/62308]

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[RJ Dalton]

Good. Nothing good's come out of this franchise since the first one. And even then I could make arguments.

 

[Quaxar]

So... will these Dinos be actually accurate this time? JP1 can be excused, the whole Raptor thing was pretty much in its infancy then. But I doubt they will actually go and give them feathers this time around.

 

[mrm5561]

might be for the best, everything i have heard in reguards to the story have made me shiver. the first movie is a classic and its been a down hill ride ever since. unless the kids from the first movie come back as adults and get eaten i see no reason to go watch this

 

[Shoggoth2588]

How many times has this been put on hold or, cancelled? Maybe this thing should just be laid to rest at this point. The first movie was fine but the other two were...not terrible but I wouldn't say necessary.

 

[Risingblade]

Damn it I wanted to watch this. I can't remember the last time I saw a good dinosaur movie.

 

[Muspelheim]

You'd better be spending that extra time on putting feathers on those velociraptors, Universal. Can't have the poor things run about in the nude like last time.

 

[theultimateend]

You'd better be spending that extra time on putting feathers on those velociraptors, Universal. Can't have the poor things run about in the nude like last time.

To be fair I don't think it was common knowledge when the first film released.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Good. Nothing good's come out of this franchise since the first one. And even then I could make arguments.

The second one was actually a pretty good suspense movie, it just looks absolutely terrible next the masterpiece that is the first one. The trailer scene in particular is amazingly well done as a piece of suspense.

As for the fourth one, this is a lot less surprising than the initial statement that it was being brought back into production. They've been working on a fourth one since immediately after finishing the third, and it's been getting either delayed or cancelled and then revived for the last twelve years. The last time it was cancelled was in response to Michael Crichton dying, and at the time is was supposed to be final.

 

[Mahorfeus]

The last time I read about Jurassic Park 4, its script involved a mercenary training a squad of deinonychus.

As much as I'd love to watch a movie about velociraptors with machine guns, the third one should not have even existed.

The Lost World stays near and dear since Jeff Goldblum was in it.

 

[BaronUberstein]

So... will these Dinos be actually accurate this time? JP1 can be excused, the whole Raptor thing was pretty much in its infancy then. But I doubt they will actually go and give them feathers this time around.

There's no reason to make the dinosaurs accurate all of a sudden. The way the dinosaurs looked in JP1 established a canon, and it's silly to demand that the following movies ignore that canon. Hell, it makes things narratively awkward if you suddenly change how the dinosaurs look in a sequel; why did they change? Aren't they being made by the same company with the same DNA?

 

[Therumancer]

I will specify that this is rumor, but a few years ago I went to Universal Studios in Florida for vacation (largely to see Harry Potter in the Islands Of Adventure, but was actually just as impressed by the Marvel Island due to my love of Marvel comics) and have been keeping an eye on it ever since, in hopes I can get down there for another vacation some day though it seems unlikely I'll ever be able to afford a vacation again.... at any rate, I heard that Universal is planning on expanding the whole "Harry Potter" section substantially over the next couple of years, which is going to involve changing some of the rest of their parks. Among the areas changed is going to be their Jurassic Park section and it's associated ride, which is also going to be mildly expanded. The movie has been delayed to be released after they are done with the expansion in hopes that the movie can be used to hype the ride/park and bring in more visitors, being largely an FX movie they figure they can release it whenever they want to, and they want to hold it back for the
biggest possible bang for their buck, since they aren't hurting for money right now. The movie will perform as well later as it will now, and if they can bring in a few million more people for that section of the park due to revived interest, especially if they can work "visit Universal Studios" into the movie/promotions, so much the better.

This could of course be entirely false, but as I said I've been paying attention to rumors about Universal in paticular.

 

[Therumancer]

So... will these Dinos be actually accurate this time? JP1 can be excused, the whole Raptor thing was pretty much in its infancy then. But I doubt they will actually go and give them feathers this time around.

There's no reason to make the dinosaurs accurate all of a sudden. The way the dinosaurs looked in JP1 established a canon, and it's silly to demand that the following movies ignore that canon. Hell, it makes things narratively awkward if you suddenly change how the dinosaurs look in a sequel; why did they change? Aren't they being made by the same company with the same DNA?

Well, I could see it going either way. Technology has improved since the earlier JP movies, and it's been long enough where I imagine this is intended to renew interest in the franchise. Making the dinosaurs look differant would be a way of drawing people in, and oddly this is one case where I suspect the core audience won't mind terribly as the first movie aside, JP hasn't exactly been the world's greatest property from a writing/scripting perspective. The first movie had the benefit of being based on a cult classic novel, I don't think the sequels were (though I could be wrong here, I'm not an expert on JP).

They can also use genetic tampering/mad science, to have the dinosaurs look pretty much however they want, or even claim that the results were corrupted due to problems salvaging the DNA earlier or whatever. They used some fringe science to justify dinosaur spontaneous gender changes to account for them breeding, so I suppose they could say that partially corrupted DNA was slowly re-asserting itself so the Raptors grow feathers in accordance with the way a lot of people now think they looked for example. I imagine if some on-screen scientist delivers his lines with the right amount of authority they could justify pretty much any twist they want... just be very afraid if some of the dinosaurs start to turn purple and sing.

 

[Quaxar]

So... will these Dinos be actually accurate this time? JP1 can be excused, the whole Raptor thing was pretty much in its infancy then. But I doubt they will actually go and give them feathers this time around.

There's no reason to make the dinosaurs accurate all of a sudden. The way the dinosaurs looked in JP1 established a canon, and it's silly to demand that the following movies ignore that canon. Hell, it makes things narratively awkward if you suddenly change how the dinosaurs look in a sequel; why did they change? Aren't they being made by the same company with the same DNA?

There is always the reason of misrepresentation. If prehistoric Raptors had feathers they should be depicted with such, not be inaccurate just so they are "cooler", if you don't give a damn then just make up your own species and call it a day. That's like if Armageddon had not been set in the vaccuum of space but in the aether instead because it provided a better setting.

 

[loa]

So... will these Dinos be actually accurate this time? JP1 can be excused, the whole Raptor thing was pretty much in its infancy then. But I doubt they will actually go and give them feathers this time around.

There's no reason to make the dinosaurs accurate all of a sudden. The way the dinosaurs looked in JP1 established a canon, and it's silly to demand that the following movies ignore that canon. Hell, it makes things narratively awkward if you suddenly change how the dinosaurs look in a sequel; why did they change? Aren't they being made by the same company with the same DNA?

There is alawys the reason of misrepresentation. If prehistoric Raptors had feathers they should be depicted with such, not be inaccurate just so they are "cooler", if you don't give a damn then just make up your own species and call it a day. That's like if Armageddon had not been set in the vaccuum of space but in the aether instead because it provided a better setting.

The dinosaurs in jurassic park had their dna spliced with frogs or somesuch, maybe that's why the raptors are featherless.

 

[Quaxar]

So... will these Dinos be actually accurate this time? JP1 can be excused, the whole Raptor thing was pretty much in its infancy then. But I doubt they will actually go and give them feathers this time around.

There's no reason to make the dinosaurs accurate all of a sudden. The way the dinosaurs looked in JP1 established a canon, and it's silly to demand that the following movies ignore that canon. Hell, it makes things narratively awkward if you suddenly change how the dinosaurs look in a sequel; why did they change? Aren't they being made by the same company with the same DNA?

There is alawys the reason of misrepresentation. If prehistoric Raptors had feathers they should be depicted with such, not be inaccurate just so they are "cooler", if you don't give a damn then just make up your own species and call it a day. That's like if Armageddon had not been set in the vaccuum of space but in the aether instead because it provided a better setting.

The dinosaurs in jurassic park had their dna spliced with frogs or somesuch, maybe that's why the raptors are featherless.

Yeah... I don't particularly mind the DNA crossword explanation, I can go with it even if the half-life of DNA is far shorter than the Triassic. But then you shouldn't really call it a Velociraptor if it neither phenotypically nor genotypically resembles one.
And believe me, no biologist would miss a chance to name something, that's the true flaw in the Jurassic Park script.

 

[BaronUberstein]

So... will these Dinos be actually accurate this time? JP1 can be excused, the whole Raptor thing was pretty much in its infancy then. But I doubt they will actually go and give them feathers this time around.

There's no reason to make the dinosaurs accurate all of a sudden. The way the dinosaurs looked in JP1 established a canon, and it's silly to demand that the following movies ignore that canon. Hell, it makes things narratively awkward if you suddenly change how the dinosaurs look in a sequel; why did they change? Aren't they being made by the same company with the same DNA?

There is always the reason of misrepresentation. If prehistoric Raptors had feathers they should be depicted with such, not be inaccurate just so they are "cooler", if you don't give a damn then just make up your own species and call it a day. That's like if Armageddon had not been set in the vaccuum of space but in the aether instead because it provided a better setting.

But for all we know, those dinosaurs are accurate for the JP movie universe. They're already using dubious methods to clone dinosaurs, if we stuck to exactly what modern science can do or knows, then the entire film premise doesn't work!

People need to stop being so tight-assed about accuracy in films. I recently saw a movie where a Russian sub launched a missile from underwater, even though no currently deployed Russian submarine has that capability. Should I be demanding that they fix that scene?