Jurassic Park 4 started to gain momentum last year. The continuation of the dinosaur franchise brought on director Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) to direct a script from writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes).
Universal put the film on the fast track in January when the studio set its release date for June 2014. However, the film's prospects started to wane when the studio put the film on hold early this month.
According to SlashFilm, Universal put the film on hold temporarily. Reports had Universal still happy with the picture but gave no reason for the delay. New comments from the star of the original Jurassic Park may show why the film was put on hold. Sam Neill says the next Jurassic Park will be a 'big reboot'. Neill, who played Dr. Alan Grant in the original movie, sats that the latest film in the dinosaur series will be a complete re-working of the franchise.
He tells New Zealand newspaper the Dominion Post that he hasn't been asked to return to the series. His reboot comments come following previous reports which pegged the film as a continuation of the series. The film's Producer Frank Marshall said late last year that the film would be a continuation of the events that occurred in the previous three films. That plan may have changed when the movie was put on hold.
No matter how the film turns out, the franchise looks primed for a comeback. Universal released a 3D version of the original last April. The film went on to gross over $45 million at the box office. The release marked the first time a film in the Jurassic Park trilogy came to theaters in over 12 years. Jurassic Park 3: The Lost World was released in theaters way back in 2001.
Last year, a story emerged that could have caused the franchise to take on a very different look. Avatar Director James Cameron said in an interview that he almost bought the rights to the Michael Crichton book that the original movie is based on. Cameron told The Huffington Post that the film's eventual director Steven Spielberg ended up beating out him for the rights by mere hours.
