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Humanity
So Jurassic Park 4 has a title ( Jurassic World ), a director (Colin Trevorrow), a few pint-sized cast members (Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson) and a release date (12 June 2015), but what do actually want to see in this much-belated new entry in the dino franchise?
Well, dinosaurs, obviously, but humanity comes first. Sure, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park opened with a vicious raptor attack, but that scene was followed up by a great moment between Sam Neill and a belligerent kid. It was the human touches in Park that made the dinos all the more terrifying.
With his feature debut, Safety Not Guaranteed , Colin Trevorrow proved adept at not only playing around with fun sci-fi elements, but also gradually scraping under the skin of his characters until we felt we knew everything about them.
That approach would benefit Jurassic World , which could all too easily devolve into a pile-up of dead B-characters and snapping dinos (see Jurassic Park III ).
Isla Nublar
This one’s already confirmed, which is great, because a return to the island that provided the setting for the first Jurassic Park is an idea that has us all itchy with excitement.
If Jurassic World follows real-world continuity, it will have been over 20 years since the Park was condemned. So what’s happened since? There’s huge story potential here, with that title suggesting a new, even bigger park may have been created in its place.
On the flipside, the park could also have been abandoned, with Nublar having been transformed into a dino wilderness. Safari park anyone?
A return to Isla Nublar would also bring its own pathos to the story. If this is a new beginning, what better place to kick off again on the very same turf where the original trilogy launched?
Chris Pratt
If Trevorrow is going for an all-new cast, why not sign up one of the most exciting new Hollywood up-and-comers?
Chris Pratt was linked to the film just this week , with The Wrap reporting that he’s in talks to take the lead role in Jurassic World , and we can’t think of anybody better.
Not only is Pratt now buff as hell (after training up for Guardians Of The Galaxy ), meaning he can pull off the ‘hero’ role, he’s also nifty with the comedy (thanks to Parks & Recreation ). In other words, the perfect formula.
Puppets
Sure, Spielberg and ILM did groundbreaking stuff with the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park , which was unprecedented in its use of photo-realistic CGI, but the film also cannily balanced the CG with puppets.
We want to see the same in World . A CGI overload could potentially reduce the film to just another glossy, sterile-looking blockbuster that never feels like our characters are in immediate peril.
Using puppets would bring that vital tactile touch to the film – and ensure that the kiddie actors have something to be really scared of.
John Williams
Obviously.
Though Williams sat out the scoring on Jurassic Park III (giving Don Davis a crack at it instead), and he’s been doing fewer movies of late (well, he is 81), we’d love to see him back conducting a new score for Jurassic World .
Think it’s a long shot? Remember this: he agreed to score all three of the opinion-dividing Star Wars prequels, and is returning for Episode VII …
T-Rex
Jurassic Park III attempted to switch out the beloved Tyrannosaurs Rex for that giant, spiny gecko (um, the Spinosaurus).
Frankly, it was a fatal misstep. The T-Rex IS Jurassic Park (it’s part of the Jurassic Park logo, for crying out loud), which is exactly why it needs to be front and centre in World .
Sometimes, bigger isn’t better.
Sometimes, you just need a mean motherfucking T-Rex…
A heroine
Laura Dern kicked considerable dinosaur booty in Jurassic Park , so it was disappointing that she only got a baby-feeding cameo in Jurassic Park III (after sitting out The Lost World entirely).
With Bryce Dallas Howard in talks to star in Jurassic World , could we be in for a ‘new generation’ Dern?
Considering the success of The Hunger Games and its arrow-loosening heroine, we can definitely imagine Universal pushing for an equally kick-ass lady hero in World . It’s something the film needs – not least because the cocktail of action heroes and dinos could potentially render it a little too ‘boys only’.
Darkness
“I can't actually tell you [ what the main monster ] will be… But you'll want to keep the lights on after you see this movie,” said palaeontologist and long-time JP consultant Jack Horner in April 2013.
Which sounds pretty bloody dark. And that’s just how we like our Jurassic Park movies. Spielberg’s original wasn’t afraid of testing the limits (severed arms, kids dangling perilously above snapping jaws, toilet death), and we want to see a return to that PG-pushing darkness.
With Horner also promising a terrifying new dino to keep us awake at night, we may get exactly that.
Conspiracy
Alright, so we’ve got dinosaurs on the rampage turning our cast into bone-y (un)happy meals, but the great thing about the first Park was the way it used a conspiracy subplot to put a bit of meat on the story.
In 2011, Spielberg hinted that JP4 would use the history of the first three Park films as a starting point, and there are plenty of threads to pick up, including who Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) was stealing dino embryos for.
If this is the first in a new trilogy, there’s definitely room for a conspiracy…
Sam Neill
It doesn’t have to be a big part. Heck, it could even be a sequel-baiting final hour drop in, but Sam Neill NEEDS to be in Jurassic World.
If Trevorrow wants World to sit comfortably in the Jurassic pantheon while taking us off in exciting new directions, a passing of the torch is just what he needs to tie the film to the rest of the franchise.
Also, basically, we love Dr Alan Grant, and if The Lost World taught us anything, it’s that any JP film sorely needs him. What’s Grant doing almost 15 years after JPIII ? We kind of want to know…
