Three long years ago, Moriarty at AICN ran a review of a script for Jurassic Park IV. The script’s credentials were impeccable – it was by William Monahan and John Sayles (!*) – but its contents were a little on the odd side. You see, this time out the story wouldn’t take a group of humans to Isla De Las Carnosaurs, but rather bring five trained and armed dinosaurs together to mete out a prehistoric justice. While the scenario sounds absurd at best, Mori loved the script, and you have to love the writers, so maybe there’s something good in there after all.
And maybe that something good still survives. Bloody Disgusting has learned that Universal has begun casting Jurassic Park IV, which will go before the cameras this winter in Hawaii. They also hear that the basic storyline – genetically modified, well-armed dinosaurs – remains the same. Of course in the three years since Moriarty read that script many, many things must have changed (I don’t even know who the current writers would be), not the least of which is that apparently Laura Dern is coming back as Ellie Sattler, a character who didn’t make the draft of the script that was reviewed. Let’s hope that as much of the Monahan/Sayles draft made it through as possible and that some hackwork script doctor hasn’t come and removed all the charm.
* Shocking, until you realize, as Moriarty points out, that Sayles got his start writing wonderful genre films like Alligator, Battle Beyond the Stars and The Howling.