Jurassic Park 4 has been on the back burner for some time now. The first JP film made boat loads of cash, broke records, and took imaginations soaring. It was also the inspiration for some really great theme park attractions at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando. The other two sequels weren’t as groundbreaking or as inspiring, but they did further fuel the dinosaur craze and made Jurassic Park a profitable theme park franchise. While Jurassic Park 4 has been greenlit, the original opening date has been moved from 2014 to 2015. Today we have seen a few new possible details emerge about the film. Could this be a precursor to a huge new Universal expansion? Could the ideas in the film possibly be blueprints for new attractions? Warning:There be Spoilerasaurs ahead!
In the original Jurassic Park film, John Hammond had a dream of bringing guests to an island off the coast of Costa Rica where genetically engineered dinos once again walk the earth. Nature could not be manufactured and controlled, so chaos reigned supreme and the natural order began again with dinos doing as they wished. In the subsequent two films there was more of the same, though to lesser extents. But, as Ian Malcolm would say “They…uh…find a way.”
According to a rumor over at JoBlo(click here) the new details of the film will revolve around a trip to the first island, Isla Nublar where ten years after the third film, theme park designers have “found a way”. The new Jurassic Park thrives on the Island, completing John Hammonds dream of bringing man and dinosaur together. In fact, it works out so well that they have trained dinosaurs to do tricks, appear on command and wear tiny hats. Okay…so maybe the hats aren’t that tiny. They even go on to describe a SeaWorld like arena where a Great White Shark dangles from a hook as guests look on, and a huge aquatic dinosaur jumps from the Jurassic Park Lagoon and eats it. Talk about splash zone! The threat comes in when an all new dinosaur species that we haven’t seen on screen before comes on the scene and starts going against theme park protocol. If you’re a fan of T-Rex and Raptors, they’ll be used as weapons to battle the other dinosaur and will even have muzzles.
I’m a purist, and I see problems with this film on many levels….but it still fascinates and captures me as a huge fan of the series and theme park attractions. Naturally Universal can redesign their current Jurassic Park areas around the new film, and include some new concepts. While it’s not confirmed at all, there are rumors going around that Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando will be undergoing a massive facelift with some new attractions coming in just a short year or two.
While we’ve talked about that before…we’re going to stay away from those and just talk about some of the great new attractions that we could (and would like to) see after the film comes out.
- Mr. DNA:The Ride-In the first film we see the Jurassic Park Discovery Center much like it is at Islands of Adventure. There is one exception, Mr. DNA. In the film guests are greeted with a film and an explanation of how dinosaurs are made. It would be a great thing for the film to show Mr. DNA again and maybe update him a little bit. Then, go into a ride at IOA where we see the creative process of making dinosaurs. A simple dark ride, maybe you can have things go wrong…but nothing too scary, maybe make it a Dinosaur Carousel of Progress…only without the dog and annoying song
- Updated Jurassic Park River Adventure-Jurassic Park River Adventure is one the all time greatest water rides in history. It’s an aquatic version of the film, and is made great by some really good animatronics and story. An updated version of that would be required, with more dinos and maybe some different scenes like a falling car, and a part where we get closer than we would like to a Triceratops
- Aviary-The third Jurassic Park introduced us to Pteradons, and a huge aviary that kept them from escaping. It would be great to see that somewhere in the park, and have a new coaster soaring through the top of it, complete with some great big animatronic Pteradon’s and Pteradactyls!
- The Lagoon-If Jurassic Park is going to go “SeaWorld” in the next film, we really need to make it worth the while and have a huge lagoon show. You can do this one of two ways. First we can do an aquarium type of setting. Very easy (relatively speaking) to do. An “underwater viewing area” will give guests front row access to projected dinosaurs. The 3D mapping that Universal does for Halloween Horror Nights is already impressive, so imagine what they could do in a darkened area with defined surfaces. The show could change from room to room and result in a huge final demonstration where guests sit in a large stadium along the lagoon and a huge plesiosaur can go jumping through the air in trained sequences. The other way to do this is a night time show, and would involve projecting onto water. Either way it would be an amazing effect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZHs7qo0ZSE
While there are no confirmed plans for Jurassic Park expansions in either Universal Hollywood or Orlando, these ideas just represent what WE would like to see. The important part isn’t what will or will not be made, the important thing is that a new Jurassic Park film is being made, and while it’s looking to capture a huge audience, it already has our imaginations!
