Whilst being interviewed about his upcoming The Wolfman, Joe Johnston has let slip on some details on his upcoming projects, including Captain America: The First Avenger, and the status of the long gestating Jurassic Park IV.
The last we heard about the dinosaur movie was that despite years of planning and almost getting to the point of being filmed on several occassion, it had been put on the back-burner and was pretty much dead in the water (producer Frank Marshall described it a ‘a long shot’ about six months ago). However, now Joe Johnston, who directed Jurassic Park III and was supposed to make the fourth one, has suggested that not only is another dinosaur movie a very strong possibility, but so is Jurassic Park V and VI.
Johnston told Box Office Magazine that, “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.”
As for Captain America, which Johnston is currently in the middle of pre-production on, he was a bit more talkative, saying “It’s not going to be a Captain America that you expect. It’s something different. 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… He can’t fly, he can’t see through walls, he can’t do any of that stuff. He’s an every man 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… 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 to much, but he does fit in. But it’s the journey of getting him there that’s interesting. And it’s a lot of fun.”
It certainly sounds like he’s on the right track, although with Johnston’s rather variable track record (which ranges from Honey I Shrunk The Kids and The Rocketeer to Jumanji and Hidalgo), there are still likely to be plenty out there who aren’t sure if he’s the man to handle such an iconic comic book character.