Joe Johnston keen on Jurassic Park 4 as start of new trilogy

DIRECTOR Joe Johnston has expressed an interest in returning to the Jurassic Park franchise to create a new trilogy of dinosaur adventures.

Earlier this year, producer Frank Marshall said a fourth movie was a long shot, following reservations about another film after the death of Michael Crichton in 2008.

But Johnston - whose Jurassic Park 3 is widely regarded as the weakest in the series - said he would be prepared to revive the prehistoric predators once more.

He told Ain't It Cool News: "There is a great story for the fourth one that I would be interested in getting involved with and it's nothing like the first three. It sort of takes the franchise off in a completely different direction, which is the only way I would want to get involved."

One early script for Jurassic Park 4 included genetically-modified raptors trained as mercenaries, while another report suggested the fourth film would be called Jurassic Park: Extinction and centred on the reptiles carrying a deadly virus that threatened to wipe out mankind.

Johnston said the franchise had to evolve and move away from the islands featured in the first three films: "We've done that and it's been done three times. Why would anybody go back to that island? It was hard enough to figure out the second and third reason for them to go, but it would take it off in a whole other trilogy basically, but when it gets to that level it's sort of about studios and Steven's thing and who knows.

"I think we are at that point where we are due for another one if we are going to do it. They had what four years between them? 1992... 1996 or 1997, and then 2001, so we are past due. I don't know, but we will see."

In all honesty, the franchise has reached a natural dead end, although dinosaurs are always popular in films, especially with modern digital wizardry making them more realistic.

Two other dinosaur-centred stories I'd rather see brought to life are: March of the Mighty Ones, the comic strip from Buster (reprinted in Monster Fun) in which mechanical dinosaurs go on the rampage after lightning strikes the computer that controlled them; and Flesh, a strip in 2000AD in which cowboys travel back in time to hunt dinosaurs for meat.

Johnston's remake of The Wolfman is set for release in February. He is next directing Marvel's The First Avenger: Captain America.