Back in October, it came out that Dennis Kelly was hired to write WORLD WAR Z 2, allegedly to keep director J.A. Bayona from jumping ship and helming the much bigger and safer JURASSIC WORLD 2. Well, last week, Bayona did indeed bail WWZ2, and now Deadline is saying that it’s real likely that Bayona will jump right into the fourth JURASSIC PARK sequel.
Apparently, Bayona (THE ORPHANAGE, THE IMPOSSIBLE) has a good relationship with producer Frank Marshall, strong enough to make him rumored as the frontrunner even though there haven’t been any official talks yet (though one suspects that some line of communication had been opened when his name was first mentioned).
Even though he hasn’t done a tentpole yet, the thing about Bayona is that he’s great with kids. Between his two previous movies and the upcoming A MONSTER CALLS, he’s worked with child actors extensively, which would prove a huge asset in this franchise that continues to prioritize young leads right alongside the more experienced actors. If he could use that ORPHANAGE/IMPOSSIBLE magic to make the stuff with the kids-in-peril a little more tolerable than it’s been in the prior four JPs, then he’d be a huge asset to this follow-up to the shockingly successful JURASSIC WORLD.
They got just about two and a half years to get this out, but they still gotta get a director onboard soon to start prepping the movie. If Bayona’s going to do it, I’d assume he’d want some creative input before things get cemented, so I’d expect to hear more solid info on this within the next couple of months.
Is Bayona the man for the job, or should it go to someone a little more popular/mainstream?
JURASSIC WORLD 2 better have an over-the-top villain speech by B.D. Wong on June 22nd, 2018.
