Producer Kathleen Kennedy Talks Jurassic Park 4 and Confirms a Tintin Sequel
Posted 12.05.11 by Ryan
Jurassic Park fans were given a glimmer of hope at the 2011 Comic-Con when director Steven Spielberg revealed that the the long-gestating sequel, Jurassic Park IV, would be made "in the near future", possibly "in the next two or three years". Spielberg claimed that the sequel had a writer, one that was assumed to be screenwriter Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, Thor), with whom Spielberg had reportedly met with in June to
discuss story ideas.
While promoting the upcoming The Adventures of Tintin, Spielberg's longtime collaborator and Jurassic Park producer Kathleen Kennedy didn't confirm the sequel's screenwriter nor did she say a script was being written, but did reveal that they're "talking about" ideas for the screenplay (presumably "they" means Spielberg, the screenwriter and the studio). Kennedy says that the strength of the script will determine whether Jurassic Park IV will ever get made.
A great script is what it’s gonna take to get a fourth Jurassic Park. We have a very high bar for ourselves because we’re just like the audience, we don’t wanna make the movie if there’s not a reason to make the movie. So we’ve kinda created the dilemma ourselves because it was never intended to be a franchise, so there’s an argument to be made "Why are you doing a fourth Jurassic Park?" So we’ve gotta find a good reason for why we’re doing a fourth Jurassic Park and we’re in the midst of working on that right now."
Kennedy's comments are confusing, since Spielberg's Comic-Con announcement about Jurassic Park IV included a declaration that the sequel's story had been cracked. "We have a story," said Speilberg at the time. "I can happily announce right now."
So did Spielberg decide to abandon that story and try to find another, or is Kennedy simply out of the loop? Time will tell. Either way, what looks like a near certainty is a sequel to Tintin with foreign box office sales already earning $221.6 million before the movie opens in the U.S. later this month. Kennedy says a sequel is moving forward.
Oh yeah it is being moved forward, in fact Steven and I were talking about it this morning. We’re working on a script right now, we’ll see a script probably February or March. If we can do some camera capture this summer, which I think we could do, then we would be on track to have the movie either Christmas 2014 or summer 2015, and so that’s what we’re looking at right now.
Spielberg directed the first Tintin, with Peter Jackson producing. Reportedly, Jackson will direct the sequel, and should Kennedy's timetable be correct, it may be possible for Jackson to direct the camera capture of the actors after he finishes shooting the two-part prequel of The Hobbit.
Next Showing: Tintin opens December 21st