Source: Deadline | Collider | Posted By: Dan Geer
Colin Trevorrow, who made his directorial debut with the critically-acclaimed Saftey Not Guaranteed at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, is taking a giant leap into one of the biggest franchises in movie history by stepping into the director’s chair for Universal’s Jurassic Park 4, which is set to debut June 13, 2014.
While producer Kathleen Kennedy has left the project to focus on Star Wars: Episode VII, Frank Marshall is still producing along with Patrick Crowley and Executive Producer Steven Spielberg. Rise of the Planet of the Apes scribes Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver have written the script, and now that a director has been chosen, the project should start shooting very soon. Hit the jump for the full press release!
Official Press Release (via Collider):
Long-awaited fourth installment of this groundbreaking film franchise from Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment to be shot in 3D
UNIVERSAL CITY, CA, March 14, 2013 — Colin Trevorrow has signed on to direct Jurassic Park 4, the highly-anticipated fourth installment of the blockbuster franchise that has grossed $1.9 billion at worldwide box office since the first film was released in 1993.
The Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment production will be produced by Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley with Steven Spielberg as Executive Producer. The script was written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes).
Trevorrow directed Safety Not Guaranteed for FilmDistrict and Big Beach Films starring Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass and Jake Johnson. The critically-acclaimed film debuted at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival where screenwriter Derek Connolly won the prestigious Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. The film also won Best First Screenplay at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards, where Trevorrow was nominated for Best First Feature.
Universal will release Jurassic Park in 3D on April 5. With his remastering of the epic into a state-of-the-art 3D format, Spielberg introduces the three-time Academy Award®-winning blockbuster to a new generation of moviegoers and allows longtime fans to experience the world he envisioned in a way that was unimaginable during the film’s original release.
Deadline sheds some light on why Trevorrow was chosen to direct:
He met with the studio and filmmakers, and they felt he was a good match for the material, having grown up a huge fan of the trilogy and part of a new generation of directors steeped in all things dinosaur. They felt he would preserve and protect the characters in the story they created.
Trevorrow would not have been my personal choice to direct, but everyone seems to have faith in his directing abilities after Saftey Not Guaranteed debuted last year, so maybe he’ll do alright. He was even rumored to be directing Star Wars: Episode VII at one point, before J.J. Abrams signed on. It appears that Jurassic Park 4 was the big secret project with a built-in fan base that spawned that rumor.
Whatever the case, this is a big property for Universal, and one that dino fans have been looking forward to for quite some time (Jurassic Park III was released in 2001), so hopefully Trevorrow and company can live up to the hype and make it worth the wait.
Stay tuned, as casting announcements and story details are sure to be revealed very soon!
