Joe Johnston Dishes About Jurassic Park IV and The First Avenger: Captain America
Posted 01.15.10 by BrentJS
Director Joe Johnston has been quietly lining up his next projects while his long-delayed latest film, The Wolfman, languishes in post-production. In a recent interview with BoxOffice to promote The Wolfman, Johnston confirmed that he was in the process of developing not only a fourth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise, but a fifth and sixth, as well.
Well, there is going to be a Jurassic Park IV. And it's going to be unlike anything you've seen. It breaks away from the first three — it's essentially the beginning of the second Jurassic Park trilogy. It's going to be done in a completely different way. That's pretty much all I can tell you.
Johnston also dropped some plot details about of one of the most highly anticipated comic book movies currently in development,
The First Avenger: Captain America. Johnston, attached to direct, teased that the film version of Captain America will be "something different" and not what fans might "expect," but added that it will be a "a lot of fun."
It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction. It's the origin story of Captain America. It's mostly period — there are modern, present-day bookends on it — but it's basically the story of how Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. The great thing about Captain America is he's a super hero without any super powers. Which is why this story, among the hundreds of superhero stories, appealed to me the most. He can't fly, he can't see through walls, he can't do any of that stuff. He's an everyman who's been given this amazing gift of transformation into the perfect specimen — the pinnacle of human perfection. How does that affect him? What does that mean for him emotionally and psychologically? He was this 98-pound weakling, he was this wimp, and he's transformed instantly into this Adonis. You'd think he got everything he wanted. Well, he didn't get everything he wanted. The rules change at that point and his life gets even more complicated and dire. For me, that's the interesting part of the story. It's got some great action sequences in it and some incredible stuff that we've never seen before. But at the heart of it, it's a story about this kid, who all he wants to do is fit in. This thing happens and he still doesn't fit in. And he has to prove himself a hero — essentially go AWOL to save a friend. Eventually at the very end, I don't want to give away too much, but he does fit in. But it's the journey of getting him there that's interesting.
It is unclear from the interview just how far along in the development process the new Jurassic Park trilogy might be or when Jurassic Park IV might go into production. The First Avenger: Captain America is currently scheduled to begin production in June.
Next Showing: The Wolfman is scheduled to open February 12, 2010