A Jurassic World Info-Dump

A few days ago, Slashfilm visited the set of Jurassic World and managed to take back a goldmine of information. I have to take this apart bit-by-bit because there’s no possible way that I, you or anyone else could handle all this awesomeness at once.

Unlike the real Sea World, there are no protesters decrying the park’s administration, as it is believed they are not mistreating the animals.

Really? Not one single person would have any reason to protest this?

Not one?

Nobody?

No one on the face of the earth?

Not a single living soul?

I guess people think it’s okay if they’re not mistreating the animals. It’s not like there’s a history of people dying in these situations or anything.

Producer Frank Marshall told us that Universal Studios theme park is developing stuff that should be current with the movie when it’s finally released. The theme park was really curious about what they were doing; Marshall thinks they might be making a ride version of the gyrosphere for one of the theme parks as the theme park guys were very excited when they saw them on set.

AWW YEAH! It’s not official, but I want a Jurassic Park expansion so badly I’ll take it. A Gyrosphere ride would be truly incredible; it might just be a motion-simulation ride a la the Hogwarts train at Islands of Adventure, but a valley filled with animatronic dinosaurs would be amazing. I don’t even care if nothing exciting happens, just let me cruise around with robot stegosaurs.

Bryce Dallas Howard’s character Claire Dearing is the operations manager of the park. She sees the dinosaurs as assets and “she is sort of Malcolm’s worst nightmare. Like, you stood on the shoulders of the giants and now you just want to sell it.”

I just included this because I pathetically cling to any Malcolm reference I’m thrown. Actually, I feel like if Malcolm met Claire, he’d spend 10% of their meeting lecturing her and the rest of the time relentlessly flirting.

Claire is a workaholic. She’s not here to make friends or have a good time, she is completely focused on her job. She is very type-A but not really connected to her real humanity. When she took the job she was inspired, but she has lost the awe for the park as she’s been there for eight years. She’s described as akin to an amazing hotel manager in Dubai.

Nothing we haven’t heard before or that hasn’t been inferred, but the more character development the better. It’s going to be cool watching her go from this to full Molly Weasley when the kids are in danger.

Her sister, while mediating her divorce, has sent them to be with Claire in Jurassic World. The boys meet their aunt, who is very busy and gives them a bunch of fast passes and sends them off.

Nothing to see here folks, just more absentee parents just like every other movie in this franchise, move along now.

Unlike the other sequels, Jurassic World is aiming to feature the wonder and joy of the original for the first 45 minutes before it shoots you into terror.

If this is done successfully, I’m really glad it’s happening. This franchise could use a heck of a lot more wonder, and there’s definitely a lot of potential for it in this movie.

In the scene we saw being filmed, Johnson’s character is wearing one of the old Jurassic Park t-shirts from the original park gift shop, which he bought for $150 off eBay. Mint condition t-shirts apparently go for upwards of $300.

First of all, wow, that’s kind of an oddly specific detail to include. Second, I’m noticing a bit of a continuity issue here. According to the Masrani site, the only people anywhere near the first park after the events of the first movie were InGen builders in 1994; since no one believed Malcolm’s story until after he got back from Sorna, nobody would even know there was a first park until at least 1997, so no one would go there. Even then, if any investigative journalists or local authorities managed to get past the top-secret InGen park building project already stationed on the island, who would go into the gift shops and grab merchandise when there were raptor paddocks and wild dinosaurs to look at? Who would capitalize on something that everyone knew was a disaster by selling T-shirts? And wouldn’t the T-shirts be in pretty bad condition from rotting in the jungle for 4 years anyway? I realize this is pretty nitpicky, but it really bugs me.

Lowery serves as the voice of the audience on screen. He is concerned about the irresponsibility of the parks creators and the evolution of the capitalistic measures adopted by the park. The character is based off a screenwriter friend who is skeptical. Lowery has an story arc which hopefully will please audiences. His tech character doesn’t get to leave the Jurassic World control center. Johnson started shooting the same day Chris Pratt wrapped production.

Well, at least the movie has a way of addressing our concerns and questions. They had to talk about the central problem that everyone has been wondering about in some way or another, and I’m glad they’re doing it in a way that works and doesn’t just seem like “HERE IS EXPOSITION”. And the skeptical guy in glasses who talks about how the park is irresponsible is based off of a screenwriter friend. Right. Of course.

Lowery is a fan of the original park and thinks its dumb that they have made a sequel. In one take the character says “The first park was legit, it didn’t need genetic hybrids, it was real.” Claire says the t-shirt is in poor taste since people died at that park.

Dude, it kind of was a disaster that ended quite a few lives and ruined others. That’s not something people are typically fans of. Again, this strikes me as a little bit of a continuity error; in this universe, I was under the impression that to the general public, Jurassic Park was a disastrous incident that resulted from a company’s criminal neglect. I would think that worshiping the original park in this universe would be like someone else in this universe glamorizing the San Diego Incident or something. I thought people generally thought of Jurassic Park as something horrible that happened, not a cool idea that happened not to work out. But I guess I was wrong.

Lowery complains about park’s corporate sponsorship, saying why don’t they just start allowing the corporations to name the dinosaurs: “Pepsi-saurus”

Nah, people would only visit that exhibit when the Cokeasaurus one was closed.

There’s a couple of new photos of Claire and Lowery:

He’s said this before, but I think this character was actually based on Dinosaur Guy.

In the scene, Jake Johnson’s character lists off some statistics about the day at the park: 6 kids are in lost in found, 28 people got heat stroke, and a kid tried to feed a triceratops ice cream.

The only thing funnier to imagine here than a little kid sweetly trying to share their ice cream with their favorite dinosaur is a baby trike enthusiastically licking up the ice cream instead, and then following the kid around and nuzzling them for more.

Doctor Wu has been asked to ramp up one new genetically-engineered species. He has something going on that people don’t know about. At the back of his office a secret door leads to more equipment and a ton of aquarium tanks filled with rare reptiles which he uses to sequence DNA. They had a two-headed snake and albino snake in some of the cages. Pipes cover us above. The room is darker, concrete, less futuristic looking but more real and functional. There is a refrigerator unit with trays of DNA sample tubes. There are four circular tubes with spines in a clear fluid. The hidden genetics lab is in a back room so that tourists won’t see it when touring the facility.

Ooh, Wu has a mad scientist lab! I really want to see this set, it sounds fascinating. I’m guessing this is where that shot of a spine in the first trailer came from. Also, is the “thing going on that people don’t know about” the I. rex or… something more sinister?

Maybe if I chant in Latin long enough it will go away.

Some people on JPL have speculated that the project referenced here is the Stegoceratops, or that Stego is the eaten sibling referenced in the Super Bowl trailer. Hasbro said that it was just a toy, but that may have been spread as deliberate misinformation in order to make the animal’s appearance in the movie more of a surprise. This is all we have to go on at the moment, but hopefully more details will come to light soon.

We visited another set which is the remains of the old visitors center from the original Jurassic Park. This was probably the coolest set we saw as it felt like I was stepping into the same location from the first film. Years have gone by, and the visitors set has been completely abandoned. Greenery has completely taken over, and the bones of the T-Rex lay on the floor as do the dirty scraps of the banner, which we were told play into this story. Vines are growing around a piece of the scaffolding we saw in the first film. The stairs are overgrown with tree branches, vines and grass. The iconic doors are rusted and vines have taken over the archway entrance. The old visitors center is located in a part of the park which has dinosaurs roaming free. The boys stumble upon this location somewhere in the middle of the movie.

Aaaaaand we’re all gonna cry. I can’t wait to see this even more than Wu’s lab. And I wonder how the banner and the bones will play into the story? Gray strikes me as the kind of kid who’d stick a T. rex bone in his pocket, so maybe that’s why. Or they’ll try to climb up the banner to escape something, maybe?

The dinosaurs in Jurassic World will be created using performance capture. Humans are playing the T-rex dinos.

Wait, so humans are playing the T. rex? And does this mean there’s more than one rex?! Maybe the kids run into a wild rex when they’re in the restricted area; I can’t see any other reason for another T. rex to be in the story at all. And if there’s no T. rex animatronic, then yeah, I can kind of see why they’d do something like this to enhance the CGI.

They have actors on set who wear lifesize models of the dinosaur heads for the actors to respond to on set.

I take back what I said about the cardboard heads. This is hilarious.

One of the themes in the movie is that all of the dinosaurs are organic and the synthetic must die.

Hmmm. Considering the dinosaurs are all genetically engineered to some degree, what exactly constitutes a synthetic dinosaur? Does this refer to the I. rex, and are they really going to tell us that the other dinosaurs should attack the I. rex or something because it’s less “organic”? Houston, we have an appeal-to-nature fallacy.

The dinosaurs in Jurassic World can mate in the wild but all of the dinosaurs are monitored and tracked at all times. Even the surviving dinosaurs in the closed off section of the island have microchips and are tracked.

Okay, I can see why they’d do this, but why would they bother doing capture-and-release? Why even keep wild dinosaurs around at all if they won’t bring in profits and they’d actually serve as a liability? If I were a corporate executive in this movie with the resources to track down and catch wild dinosaurs, I’d just go ahead and get them off the island while I had them. I’d send them to zoos or labs or something; visitors would never see them anyway. And some people have said that this confirms that the park managers have gotten the sex-change problem under control. Yeah, that was kind of a major bug, it was probably pretty useful to have that fixed.

Jurassic World will not feature weaponized dinosaurs from the infamous abandoned Jurassic Park 4 script.

Well, not T. rexes with lasers or anything, but a trained raptor attack squad sounds a lot like weaponized dinosausr to me.

Spielberg loved the idea of the Mosasaurus eating the shark but suggested that when the animal grabs the shark that the whole bleacher section submerge underwater using a hydraulic system so that the audience will be able to see the Mosasaurus feeding underwater.

Now that is one good idea. Maybe that’s what we saw in this scene:

On an unrelated note, the whole Mosasaur tank situation is starting to remind me a lot of a Sarlacc pit. You know, a big toothy monster who can’t leave its hole but that’ll snatch up anything that goes near it.

Steven Spielberg was very hands-on in the development of the project, but now that production is in full gear, he is fairly hands-off. Spielberg watches the dailies every day but has said he wants Trevorrow to make his own movie.

No! Daddy, don’t leave us! You can’t go, Daddy!

That’s the end of that article. Ain’t It Cool also did a set visit and it’s mostly the same thing, but there are a few other details.

…the sides had live feeds from throughout the park. Some of it was tourists queuing (which we were told was actual footage shot at Universal Orlando and run on a loop)

If any of you have been to Universal Orlando recently, you might want to consider watching those camera feeds in the control room reeeeeeallly closely. You just might get a surprise.

The scene had Bryce Dallas Howard’s character, Claire, come in and, sipping coffee like a true boss, being brought up to date on the goings on.

Ugh, like, don’t even talk to Claire until she’s had her morning coffee, you know what I mean?

The set up for this scene allowed for Jake Johnson to use his mumblecore training to be conversational and a little off the cuff.

A mumbling, nerdy guy in glasses who talks about the ethics of the park. Yeah, they’re not fooling anybody.

I get the feeling that aside from the Walt Disneyification of John Hammond this new attempt at the park is trying to avoid all branding with that incident.

And you know what? I can kind of see why.

Lowery bites back, though. He’s a bit of a Park hipster.

There’s nothing I can add to this. Jurassic. Park. hipsters.

Trevorrow said that [T. rex] looks leaner and meaner and that he kind of modeled the aging of her face on Burt Lancaster

No complaints from me. This is hilarious.

The new scene has the same players, but they’re reacting to something bad. I think it was the realization that the Indominus Rex has removed its tracking chip (something we see in the latest trailer). “I’m telling you she’s where she’s always been…” but then they see her on a security camera feed somewhere else and realize that she is indeed where she shouldn’t be. Panic sets in, they start yelling “Get the out of there now!” and “Evacuate the containment area!”

This makes sense, I’m sure, but I do wonder how this fits in with the latest clip. Does I. rex get out when she chases Owen– in which case everyone in the control room is already watching and therefore would already know– or does she just claw out her implant and waltz out of her habitat? I’m sure it’ll make more sense in context.

So we’ve just learned some details that fill in a few gaps and flesh out the world-building. I love this, especially the confirmation that we’ll get to spend time in the ruins of the old park and the Universal ride idea. The whole T-shirt thing still bugs me a little, but in the grand scheme of things it probably won’t matter; hey, maybe Lowery just studied accounts of the old park a lot and decided the idea of it was cool. As always, I’m getting more and more excited for this awesome movie.

Read the Slashfilm article (I really recommend you read the whole thing, it’s very interesting) here: http://www.slashfilm.com/jurassic-world-set-visit/

The Ain’t It Cool article: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/71296

Extended Footage Description

Someone on the Internet has surfaced with a description of the extended Jurassic World footage from CinemaCon! As far as I know, this is the only account that’s surfaced, so we’ll just have to take this guy’s word for it and hope he’s not another Reddit Guy (I haven’t kept up too much with how accurate that guy’s description was, but I think one or two of his claims have been debunked; please correct me if I’m wrong.)

The opening of the footage had a pig running through tall grass, and a guy on a security catwalk yelling “We have an animal on the loose” and leaning over a railing to attempt to catch the pig in a noose. But a raptor leaps in from out of frame, pulling the guy off the catwalk, and he lays on the ground surrounded by hungry raptors.

First, this is the same idiot who opened the door in yesterday’s clip, isn’t it? Man, that guy ruins everything. Second, predatory animals tend to learn that living things like humans can be caught and eaten– it’s typically not an innate thing. If these raptors were bred by scientists and raised in captivity– and therefore didn’t have other raptors as parent figures– then somewhere along the line they had to learn that humans are tasty and easily killed. We can’t be sure if the raptors have never eaten anyone before, but we also can’t be sure they haven’t. It may have been an accident that led to someone becoming raptor chow, but what if it wasn’t? I’m still holding onto the idea that Hoskins is behind the whole raptor-training thing and that he’s using it as a top-secret security project. That might involve having the raptors know how to effectively kill humans if one day it became necessary, which might mean that Hoskins or one of his cronies deliberately let the Raptor Squad hunt somebody at least once. If that’s the case, mission accomplished, that right there is one very effective villain. I could be totally wrong about this, but at least to me it makes sense.

Third, hooray for references!

Don’t go into the long grass, piggy!

Raptors on catwalks!

Cue Chris Pratt! This is the beginning of the trailer scene where he’s standing in front of the raptors, hand outstretched, keeping them at bay. He saves the guy. Why the guy was trying to save a pig, which was clearly intended as food anyway, is beyond me.

Hey, it’s not like a pig doesn’t deserve to be saved too. Some animals are more equal than others.

The next bit of newish footage was an extended piece of the Indominus Rex escape. Pratt and another dude run through some closing door, chased closely by the dino, who smashes through the door. Pratt hides under a car, the other guy behind one. The dino sniffs around and picks up the car, exposing the hiding guy – who sits there holding his knees until the Indominus eats him whole. It next turns its attention towards Pratt, who thinks quick and cuts the fuel line on the car, dousing himself in gas so the beast can’t smell him.

Ha ha! I called it! I. rex can totally pick up cars! Also, is it just me or is this the most blatant throwback to the first movie we’ve seen so far?

There’s two cars, a rex attacks one and then eats a guy and then goes for the other car, the residents of which cleverly avoid being eaten. I mean, really…

There was some other action footage, including a soldier firing on the charging Indominus, which just gulps him right down, and a helicopter opening fire on the jungle below.

I just love this. Soldier guy’s firing at her with all of his might and she’s just like, “Are you done yet? Meh, whatever. Snack time.”

Also extended: the bit where the pteronadon picks up the lady in the middle of a shopping area in the park. In this clip the dino drops her into the mosasaur tank, and the mosasaur jumps up and eats them both.

WHAT?!

OH MAN, THAT’S AWESOME! I thought Zara– the victim here– would just get carried off into a nest or something and the boys would have to rescue her, but this is so much better! And Mosasaur’s teaching the pteranodon who’s really in charge around here Godfather-style! That sounds so incredible!

I mean, uh… too bad about Zara. She will be missed.

One quick thing in the footage that I liked – a shot of kids in a petting zoo riding baby triceratops.

Just leaving this here.

I understand that the triceratops are probably okay with it and that kids would really enjoy this, and of course I don’t want children to get hurt, but I would still love to see a baby trike just buck one of them off and gallop away on its stubby little legs in a blaze of triceratops glory.

I wish there was a way to make a Jurassic Park movie that wasn’t so anti-science, because a world where science allows kids to ride triceratops is a good world.

This is just the author’s opinion, but… oh, honey. Honey, no.

And that’s the end of it. Of course I’d enjoy it more if we actually got to see it, but for now I’m content with the awesomeness described here. I especially want to see the Mosasaur and raptor attack scenes, but then again I always do. Read the full account here: http://badassdigest.com/2015/04/23/cinemacon-extended-jurassic-world-footage-has-an-action-vibe/

The Best Jurassic World Trailer– An Analysis

SPOILER ALERT!

They did it. They really, really did it. They dropped the best Jurassic World trailer yet, and I don’t see any way another trailer could top this. I was literally squealing with glee while I watched this. There’s no way for me to react but to say: THIS TRAILER IS AWESOME.

We open with an extended sequence of Owen training his Raptor Squad; some of the footage is new. For the sake of time, I won’t cover the older material in the trailer. He talks more about how his relationship with the raptors isn’t about control. The movie really seems to want to emphasize this, probably for the sake of the fans who rightly freaked out when they heard about trained raptors.

There’s another sequence of the Raptor Squad dashing through the woods, dubbed over by one of Owen’s “70’s sexist” lines from the MTV clip. Whether that was already in there or added as a deliberate middle finger, we may never know, but there are dinosaurs to gawk at so I won’t dwell on it.

Here’s a two-in-one: a throwback to the first movie and the solution to the Mystery of the Goat Video. The T. rex paddock is apparently in a very woody area. Well, at least she’s sorta comfortable, right? Now, by the way, I see why people went to this park in the first place, after everything that happened. You can talk about ethics and worry about animal breakouts all you want, but at the end of the day, you know you’d risk it to watch this up close:

Claire talks about how new dinosaurs always bring attendance spikes and corporate wanted something bigger. STOP! MOSASAUR TIME!

She’s so awesome! Look at that lunge! That shark looks like it’s already dead, but I guess the younger children aren’t fully prepared to witness the mighty power of Mosasaur quite yet. They must age and learn to fear. They must truly know what mortality is before they can face her glory. Surprisingly, this is not the best Mosasaur moment in the trailer. That’s coming up later.

Owen says what we’re all thinking: that the dinosaurs themselves should be so impressive that they shouldn’t need to make a new one. At least the movie is conscious of itself and what it’s doing. Speaking of which:

Hey, I was promised a missing foot. I want my money back.

And now, it’s time to get I. rexy. Claire pulls off the action-movie driving-and-yelling-into-phone thing remarkably well:

There’s an asset out of containment and people are gonna die. Mercedes-Benz!

Owen does a wicked gravel dive:

There’s appropriate running and screaming:

Never mind, that’s a historical reenactment of the opening of JP3.

Then we see a scene with a bunch of ACUs out in the jungle. Just as that one article predicted, they get mauled by the I. rex while everyone else watches from screens in the control room.

We find out that not only did I. rex remember exactly where her tracking implant was put in, but she clawed it out of her body. If you think she’s not the most metal animal to ever live, please raise your hand so I can smack you. This explains why it’s such a big deal that they need to track her down; I was wondering how they could manage not to find her if the dinosaurs had such good tracking equipment on them. Personally I’m really looking forward to this scene. It does indeed seem very Aliens, and quite a bit scary too.

Here’s Lee. Hi, Lee. You’re dead meat.

And here’s Lowery, who appears to be wearing an original Jurassic Park T-shirt. Fight the power, Lowery. (Side note: what kind of sicko would make Jurassic Park T-shirts, since in this universe Jurassic Park is a notorious ‘Incident’ that ruined lives?)

We get an extended Gyrosphere attack scene, and holy crap look at this!

This is not, as I had previously assumed, the I. rex punching the glass. It’s an Ankylosaur laying down the law of the jungle, which is just as cool. Wait, an Ankylosaur?!

There’s my guys! I wasn’t expecting looks at the Ankylosaurs in action, but I’m pleasantly surprised. They’re well-animated and they look a heck of a lot better than they did in JP3. They don’t look like dumb, docile herbivores, they look like killer dinosaurs. I love this.

Hoskins, amid shots of ACUs shooting laser guns (no, seriously, actual lasers) and getting totally demolished, talks about how the island has 20,000 people on it and they have no boats and not enough guns. Yeah, it sure is bad that there aren’t adequate escape measures and not enough weapons are on hand, isn’t it, GUY IN CHARGE OF SECURITY?

The Raptor Squad has gained a new member: Barry the French Guy on his ATV. That’s OK, though. I’m sure it’s a Cool Raptor ATV of Power. They Squad it up for a little while, and then there are bunch of explosions and people barking into phones. Hey, it’s an action movie, you’ve gotta have few explosions. It’s not like you can just have a giant dinosaur in the movie to wreck stuff and cause damage, after all.

Hey, did you ever wonder what happened to the guy in the helicopter from the Lego pteranodon attack set? Well, I’ve got good news and bad news.

I rex has entered the aviary, and it’s incredible. This is my favorite part of the trailer. In any other movie, this might have been cheesy, but now I’m just in awe. Look at that wicked roar she throws down! Look at how she turns away from the fiery explosion like an action hero! AND SHE DOES IT AGAIN!

In a few hours, my rational side will take over and I’ll think this is cheesy and the action is too hyped up, I’m sure. But right now I’m watching this and shrieking like a little kid. This is a Jurassic Park movie and dinosaurs are busting up in this place and people are gonna get eaten. This trailer is doing its job and getting me really, really excited for the movie.

Barry says, “Something’s wrong. They’re communicating.”

Hey, this looks a little familiar.

Ahh, I thought so.

I’m pretty sure the communication isn’t just between the raptors, because I’m pretty sure two raptor trainers would know by now that raptors can “talk” to one another. What I think they may be referring to is an unconfirmed, random rumor that some members of the Raptor Squad go rogue and start attacking people. I think they’re saying that those raptors are communicating with the I. rex and they’re in league together. Do I want this to happen? No, but some signs point to it, including another one that we’ll see in a minute.

I. rex punches through the wall like a bad*** in a scene that I think is a little reminiscent of the waterfall attack in the first book, where the T. rex grabs at the kids in a similar way. Over this, Claire says “We’re talking about an animal here!” and Owen talks more about how the dinosaurs are highly intelligent and uncontrollable. She even calls the I. rex “it” while Owen refers to her as “she”. There’s that interesting dynamic I liked so much in the clip– the whole “illusion of control” thing. The movie seems to be handling that topic a lot, and I’m all for it. Not only does it depolarize Claire like I mentioned, it gives us a reason as to why Jurassic Park was a bad idea and shows that there’s an alternative that doesn’t involve trying to control the dinosaurs (cooperating with and understanding them, like Owen does).

And here’s why I mentioned the possibility of a rebel Raptor Squad:

It’s totally possible that this is a wild Nublar raptor or something, but this does take place right next to the raptor enclosure, and that raptor does look an awful lot like Charlie. I don’t know why a Raptor Squad raptor would suddenly turn on people, but I would venture to guess that coming into contact with wild dinosaurs– either the escaped I. rex or wild raptors– causes them to go crazy somehow. Or maybe they taste human flesh and go full Bruce on everybody. I think I changed my mind– I actually do want to see this happen. I don’t want to see them kill their beloved trainer and I feel like Blue at least will stay loyal until the end, but something inside me wants to see raptors being villains and killers again. Running next to a motorcycle is nice, but I wanna see some maulings.

What have we learned about Claire and personal bubbles, Owen?

So then we see the pterodactyl attack scene again, and then as the amazing end shot:

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so here are a few pictures that I feel sum up my reaction to this moment.

SHE’S SO COOL SHE’S SO COOL LOOK AT HER EAT THAT PTERODACTYL LIKE A MEATBALL!!!!!!!!!!

And that’s the end of the best trailer released yet. I’m not one for excessive gushing (pfft, who am I kidding, of course I am) but there’s not a single thing I don’t love about this trailer. The CGI is beautiful, it’s suspenseful and fast-paced at the same time and it seems to show a really, really exciting movie. This gives us a rough idea of the sequence of events leading up to the main breakout: I. rex escapes unnoticed, she attacks the gyrosphere, ACUs and Claire and Owen are alerted, I. rex breaks into the aviary and sets the residents free, the Main Street attack goes down and I. rex goes out into the jungle with ACUs in pursuit. And we also have the question of why raptor attacks are suddenly happening to deal with. It’s really exciting for me, and I think a lot of others will feel the same way.

What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

Random News: Cups (And Not the Annoying Song Either) Edition

When it rains on Isla Nublar (fun fact: rain is evaporated ocean water, which may mean that when it rains on Isla Nublar, it’s partially mosasaur sweat that’s coming down from the sky), it pours. A trailer dropped and I was getting ready to sit back and bathe in that sweet, sweet traffic boost that always follows a trailer analysis when a bunch of other pieces of JW news came out. So here I am again. Hello.

Dairy Queen’s promotional campaign is still gearing up. It’s a win-win– they’re getting nice cup designs and ad revenue and we’re getting our mitts on HD movie stills. Nemosoul on JPLegacy was kind enough to give us thorough shots of four more Dairy Queen cups from the upcoming line. There’s a Mosasaur one:

Dude, that last picture! Look how cool that is! I know there’s been a lot of controversy about Mosa’s size, so if it helps: she is freaking gigantic judging by this picture. I’m guessing they also let the sharks they feed her swim freely in the tank; this is appropriate, as the mighty Mosasaur must occasionally remind great whites of their place in the seas she now rules with an iron fist. My favorite part of this, though, is the look on Mosa’s face. Look at that last photo. Look at that mischievous look in her eyes, the upturned corners of her jaws. Mosasaur is having a blast.

Don’t tell me you don’t see it.

Also, if any of my readers work at Dairy Queen, hit me up: can one order gummy sharks in a Blizzard?

There’s also a Raptor Squad cup:

I really like the raptors’ designs here. Their faces are well-defined and, at least from a still shot, their CGI looks pretty decent. I especially like the bare-toothed snarl in the last photo. And I guess it really is the lighting that makes them all look the same color. Not, of course, that Owen doesn’t know the difference between them anyway. He’d know Echo’s sweet little chirpy noises and the adorable sound Blue makes when she tears out intestines any day.

Here’s a Gyrosphere cup:

The apatosaurs in the first trailer got a lot of flak for having bad CGI and looking dumpy, and I think Universal really did work to amend that. The animals here might not be perfect, but they aren’t awful either. Their tails are nicely detailed, at least.

Also. Quick lesson to any of you current or aspiring Dairy Queen CEOs out there. Here’s some free consumer feedback just for you.

Things that I typically like to think about when I am eating:

Things I typically would not like to associate with my eating experience:

There’s a cup featuring the park monorail:

I have one comment only:

Finally, there’s an artsy one of Claire and the I. rex:

This looks like it should be called “Confronted by the Power of Man” or something and posted on an indie art gallery site with no accompanying caption and five million shares. Nonetheless, I love this design and I’ll gladly buy a print if anyone wants to make one. Also, look at I. rex! What a sweetie! I bet she wants her widdle nose scratched, doesn’t she? Yes she does! Who’s a good girl?

In other news, Hasbro has officially thrown its hands up. We have left the age of the I. rex ban: http://www.hasbro.com/en_US/shop/details.cfm?R=E669B427-5056-9047-F5A3-1EE92DBDDFF5:en_US

I don’t know when we’ll be able to preorder these guys, but I’m assuming it’ll be sometime next month. The rest of the toys should start making their way into stores about then, too. A tsunami is about to hit us, ladies and gentlemen, and the only hope we have is to empty our wallet-boats in hope of staying afloat. Incidentally, have I told you I’m bad at metaphors?

Jurassic World will apparently have a special advance screening at Bozeman ( http://www.kbzk.com/story/28616896/jurassic-world-movie-to-have-special-bozeman-screening ) on June 10th, 2 days before the movie comes out. Judging by the general public’s track record of utmost respect towards the crew’s wishes and refusal to even touch Jurassic World leaks thus far, I give it 2 hours before someone plasters the thing on BitTorrent. I plan to be there when this occurs. I’m not gonna download the movie or do anything illegal, of course, but I’m not exactly putting a modesty veil over my eyes when screenshots come up.

Finally, we have another official new shot of Owen and Masrani, the latter of which has perfected his “ugh, really, peasants?” look:

I’ve already speculated enough about what Owen’s doing in the control room. Masrani looks relatively clean and unimpressed, though he looks unimpressed with pretty much everything. That could mean two things– it’s early in the movie and nothing major has gone down, or Masrani is a smart man who knows that emergency bunkers are tickets to survival in these movies and knows not to leave the one he’s got. That or he doesn’t want to mess up that wicked suit. Hey, I wouldn’t either.

Stay tuned for more Jurassic World news!

“LET IT GOOO! LET IT GOOOOOO!”

Major Leakage

SPOILER ALERT!

That’s right, folks, it’s high time for another leak! Today on Twitter, we got a glimpse of a call sheet from the shooting of Jurassic World:

First of all, we now know that Omar Sy the raptor trainer’s name is Barry (you know, because he’s French) and Katie McGrath’s name is Zara (and she’s some kind of concierge, as we’d previously suspected). We also learn that Zara calls Claire at one point to tell her that the two boys, Zach and Gray, are at the park’s perimeter fence. I think this may be reminiscent of the first film– they could be returning from the old park and trying to get past the fence into the new one, and Zara (man, that’s a cool name) wants Claire to turn the fence off so they can get back in to safety. Now this is really starting to excite me, if it means what I think it does. If the boys– AKA potential I. rex chow– head back to the new park after tromping around in the jungle (where we know I. rex goes at some point), that means she will in all likelihood follow them back. Pair that with a fence that’s at least temporarily non-electric and the fact that this is far enough into the movie that Claire’s probably already released the T. rex, and we’ve got a mid-park T. rex/ I. rex showdown. I mean, that’s always been a possibility– although it’s not official– but I’m always really excited when it’s hinted at more and more (you can see the volcano-thing from the park in the background on the Halloween bucket that shows a T/I rex fight).

The sheet also mentions a “Research Arena”, the possibilities of which are probably only I. rex and raptor research but which could be something more (maybe Vic Hoskins’ weapons research). There don’t appear to be any more details from this sheet at the moment, but at least we have a couple more names and a rough layout of a scene that might lead to an awesome, awesome rex battle. Here’s the link to the original leak: https://twitter.com/DinoReviews101/status/580176951295352832

This isn’t a leak, but it’s something official. Sickle_Claw of JPLegacy was recently lucky enough to visit Universal Studios in Hollywood, and he got pictures of official advertisements being set up there! Take a gander:

A studio where they filmed the movie. I would’ve jumped out of the tour trolley and made a run for it.

The park is open indeed. Pictures can be found here: http://jplegacy.org/board/showthread.php?t=28160

Another piece of merchandise has cropped up; it’s a thermos– sorry, a funtainer— and it stars the I. rex, who really needs to figure out what her good side is:

If you look in the bottom left corner, you’ll see what a lot of JPL users think is a reference to the T. rex and raptor DNA in the I. rex. Overall, I really like the look of this. It’s very scientific, and I’ve been hoping that merchandise will cover the high-tech, futuristic aesthetic of Jurassic World instead of being all jungle-themed. It’s not available for order right now, but it will be here: http://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Funtainer-Ounce-Bottle-Jurassic/dp/B00TZLUA32/

Last but not least, a new Raptorpass has come out, which gives some basic facts about Mosasaurus. It’s only background information and isn’t too fantastic, but it does have a couple of interesting facts. I suppose that’s only fair– if I were about to be gloriously slaughtered by a merciless killing machine, I would want to know about its origins and discovery so I could fully appreciate the experience. Read it here: http://www.jurassicworld.com/raptor-pass/mosasaurus-detail/

Katie McGrath, Mosasaur Toy & I. Rex’s Mommy Issues

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!

Right on the heels of the new trailer, we got some Jurassic World news and speculation today. First of all: we’ve known for a while that Katie McGrath has a role in the movie, but people are beginning to think she has a bigger part than we previously suspected. From Sickle_Claw at JPLegacy, here’s why.

There’s a good chance that this is her, playing the unlucky lady in the best part of the trailer:

Here she is in the Hilton lobby. Look very, very closely and you’ll see her in the lower right corner, wearing this same outfit:

Combine that with the fact that Jurassic World Hilton offers concierge services:

With time-bending powers!

And add in the fact that a few extras have said they’ve seen her– and the leaked script page that shows Zack and Grey meeting a concierge at the hotel– and we’ve got some pretty solid evidence that she’ll at least have a role on the larger end of minor. In Sickle_Claw’s speculative words:
So in summary. I believe Katie McGrath plays the Concierge, who will have a connection with the boys even in a protective way in the opening scenes. Maybe we get a scene in the crowd where she recognizes them and shouts at them to come with her…and the boys are about to when she gets grabbed.

That makes a lot of sense, and I actually would like to see that character arc happen. It could add some emotional depth to the story. Plus she’d be the first woman killed in a Jurassic Park movie (which people on the JPL forums are really excited for, whatever makes you happy I guess) so there’s a historical moment.

Next, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. I present to you the first image of a Jurassic World Mosasaur toy (also posted by Sickle_Claw, bless that guy:

As for the toy itself, I like it a LOT. The body is nice and streamlined, the fins and tail look good and overall it looks very trailer-accurate. What I don’t like is the giant hinge between the neck and the body. I realize that a few things might need to be sacrificed for greater play value and the head and jaws should move if the body can’t, but Mosasaurus was a very streamlined animal, specifically involved to be as sleek and fast as possible. I don’t really like how the head just looks tacked on. I’m sure it’ll look better once it hits store shelves, though. Also, note her size. I think she’s just a little too big, but the one in the movie is too big, too; probably for the same “bigger with more teeth” reason the geneticists made the I. rex.

The submarine and scuba diver make me wonder. The submarine thing has a giant claw and some kind of rocket launcher, so we can pretty much assume it’s made for underwater capture. In that case, someone will probably have to go after an escaped Mosa in the movie, and they’ll have to do it somewhere bigger than her tank. I assume that means she’ll get into the ocean, in which case, good luck getting her back with a flimsy little thing like that. That tiny claw couldn’t even get around her tail! So does this mean Mosa is going to swim to the mainland, or at least try? And if she gets to the ocean, how will she escape her presumably-landlocked tank? Could the guy feeding us a bunch of rumors be right– could there be a series of underground pipes for waste disposal that lead to the ocean? This is shaping up to be a really interesting part of the movie, and I can’t wait to hear more.

Finally, Colin Trevorrow did an interview with USA Today, in which he revealed some interesting information about the I. rex:

Director Colin Trevorrow’s upcoming fourth entry into the dino-mite movie franchise pits Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard vs. this beast created in a lab that is, as Trevorrow told us, quite sizable at 40 feet tall. “That’s one of the selling points: ‘Bigger than a T. Rex!’ looks real good in an advertisement.”

“When you grow up in captivity, you don’t know your mother and you’ve never seen another thing like you. Farmers will tell you that hybrid cows are a little crazy. What we did was had this corporation create something new with modern genetics but it was driven by that need to constantly offer the audience something with more teeth. As a result, there’s only one of them, so it’s ‘the other,’ and it makes these other synthetic dinosaurs into something organic in comparison to this.”

So the I. rex feels sort of lonely and not quite right. That’s the general feeling I got from this. She never had a mother or a parental figure, her gene splicing is starting to take its toll and it’s the only dinosaur of its kind in the whole world. Wow, that’s… that’s really, really sad.

These conditions pretty much exemplify how an extinct dinosaur brought back to life would feel, by the way; it’d whack out because its genes weren’t quite right (especially if it was the first try), it would get lonely really fast and generally would have a pretty unpleasant life. That’s one of the reasons people advocate against ancient extinct animal cloning. So, in a way, is the story of the I. rex trying to tell the audience that actually bringing dinosaurs back to life is a really bad idea? Funding for dinosaur-cloning research has increased ever since the first movie came out, and experiments like Jack Horner’s chickenosaurus project are steadily progressing. If the movie wants to give a serious message, this would be a pretty effective and hard-hitting one. If arguments like Malcolm’s and scenes of dinosaurs breaking out and killing people didn’t convince the majority of people that dinosaur cloning shouldn’t happen, maybe humanizing a cloned dinosaur and showing what it’s going through will.

This could also tell us about I. rex’s motivations. Maybe she’s not a big, angry monster, maybe she’s been mistreated– albeit unintentionally– and thinks enough is enough, so she finally lashes out. She doesn’t have another I. rex to keep her company and can’t interact or sympathize with the other dinosaurs, so she’s lonely and miserable. Trevorrow’s talked in the past about how this isn’t a monster movie– it’s about dinosaurs as real animals reacting to the presence of humans on the earth they used to rule– so since the movie is already sympathetic to the other dinos, why not I. rex?

Anyway, this movie might be a kill-the-Godzilla story, but more of a fleshed-out and possibly sad one. But bear in mind, that’s in the movie. For now, all forms of advertising for Jurassic World are showing I. rex as a big, scary monster with more teeth. Maybe that’s to make the sympathetic outlook in the movie seem like more of a surprise (which I’m guessing won’t show up until the end, when the characters realize her true intentions). But now we’re supposed to think she’s scary and awesome. So GO I. REX!

Source:

http://entertainthis.usatoday.com/2015/01/30/the-new-jurassic-world-dinosaur-is-pretty-much-the-deadliest-thing-ever/

Hero Masher Pictures

We’ve got more photos of the Jurassic World Hero Mashers toys! Featuring:

Angry the Ankylosaur!

Pissed the Pteranodon!

Whatever the $%^# This Is the Velociraptor!

Sad Sack the Spinosaur!

Stupid-Looking the… oh, no. No, no no.

Oh, honey, no.

This Stegoceratops thing is getting bigger by the minute. Either it’s in the movie (more on that in a minute) or someone had Hasbro had the idea for this dinosaur OC and just needed to share their brainchild with the world. This is the third Stegoceratops toy we’ve seen so far, and the more pictures of it crop up, the more likely it is that we’ll see this thing tromping around Jurassic World.

Since we’ll need to do a lot of reality-facing if this turns out to be canon, I might as well talk about what Stegoceratops in the movie might imply. Obviously it would have to be created by the same scientists who made D. rex, and probably with the same intentions. Either that or it’s a failed genetic experiment, a splicing mistake that came to be before they perfected DNA mixing. If it’s the second, it’ll probably break out of its containment/enclosure and get its revenge on the scientists, driving home the movie’s moral– come on, can you see this animal’s story arc ending any other way? I can also kinda see Owen finding this hidden away in a lab, and that being the moment he realizes that messing with DNA is never OK, or whatever. However it turns out, this animal doesn’t look like it lives a pleasant life. I have a feeling it’s some kind of representation of the darker side of Jurassic World, and if so, then it might actually fit into the movie and making it canon might not be so terrible. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Finally, we’ve got:

Miserable-Looking the Mosa/Spino!

You know what? That actually isn’t so awful, because if they make a Mosasaur set that looks good, I’d actually welcome it. We haven’t seen any Mosasaur toys so far– they’re presumed to be in the line after the pictures we’ve seen– so even a sub-par Hero Mashers toy would be nice not to have to wait for. By the way, the Mosa-Spino is probably just a suggested combination (like the AppleDash and PinkieShy mashup ponies that they suggest you make on the back of those My Little Pony Pop toys). I know, I panicked for a minute too.

New Toy/ Another Trailer Leak; The Plot Thickens

SPOILER ALERT!

Today, Designtrend released a new photo of another Jurassic World toy prototype (EDIT: Apparently it’s a custom and not an actual toy, according to the JPL forums):

Is that a Dilophosaur? I mean, the coloration would say it is. It could be a Metriacanthosaurus– which is a good thing if it is, Metri needs some recognition– or a Baryonyx. Basically, everything about it except the size (unless it’s an adult, but the only other dilo in the movies was a juvenile) and lack of head crests suggests that it’s a dilophosaurus. Whatever it is, it looks exceptionally good. I love the skin texture and the quirky little look on its face. Plus, yay for rocket launchers!

The fact that this site has a previously unseen toy (it’s not even showing up in the JPLegacy toy leak thread) makes me think that these people might know a few things we don’t. That’s why I got so excited about what’s underneath the photo. If you’ll pardon my being a white girl about it:

Whatwhatwhat? The only place on the Internet besides this blog that’s taking the Malcolm-rumor guy from yesterday seriously is a single thread on JPLegacy. Either these people are getting that information somehow and presenting it as fact, this was some kind of slip-up or AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I’m being cautious about this because the details surrounding this rumor are still very dubious. We don’t know what we can believe right now. Still:

Find the story here: http://www.designntrend.com/articles/35971/20150121/jurassic-world-toy-line-introduced-hasbro-sneak-peek.htm

Something else happened today– the upcoming Super Bowl trailer was supposedly leaked. (A week. We would’ve had to wait one week to see it. Whoever leaks this stuff must know exactly how spoiler-hungry this fandom is.) I haven’t seen the video and can’t seem to find it anywhere, but luckily International Business Times provided a summary.

The opening scene of the video shows the gyrosphere with the voice-over that says “welcome to Jurassic World.” Chris Pratt appears in the next scene saying “It’s like taking a stroll through the woods.” He is talking to Bryce Dallas Howard in the scene.

Someone says “welcome to Jurassic World”– didn’t see that coming, did ya, folks? And here we have yet. another. snippet of Claire and Owen’s meeting. I assume the ‘stroll through the woods’ is the trip through wild Nublar to see the wreck of the gyrosphere, in which case, no, Owen. It’s a stroll through a forest of six-foot turkeys who want you for lunch. Don’t lie to the poor woman.

The video appears to be a collection of scenes that the producers intended to put together in the advertisement. The video may not be the final cut of the second trailer. One of the scenes of Chris Pratt shows him trying to pacify the velociraptor dinosaurs.

Well, we’ve seen that before:

I dunno, I really liked that part of the trailer for some reason. It’s just awesome to see Owen and these raptors working together. I really want to see the final product of this scene soon.

The video shows additional footage of the scenes already seen by the fans in the first official trailer of “Jurassic World.” Fans get a better look at the Indominus Rex dinosaur in the video. One of the scientists can be seen in the video saying that the new dinosaur was designed to be bigger than a Tyrannosaurus rex.

I think it was Wu who said that in the first trailer leak. Anyway, we knew all of that, and we’ve already seen the I. rex; I do, however, want to see her in motion. For instance, how fast can she go? Probably a little slower than raptor speed. She isn’t too bulky and her body looks pretty streamlined.

The video also features an action sequence involving a helicopter. The graphics of the Indominus Rex appear to be incomplete in some of the scenes. Viewers get to see the dinosaur trying to escape from the gunfire coming from the helicopter. Viewers also get to see an extended version of the scene where the dinosaur chases Chris Pratt.

Well, I guess we solved the mystery of which scene this is from:

I guess the pterodactyl is just there to photobomb.

The graphics are incomplete; keep that in mind when the bad-CGI-griping tidal wave hits the fandom again. Also, yeah! Chase scene! Get your popcorn.

The video reveals that thousands of visitors will be trapped on the island in “Jurassic World.” Fans of the franchise who enjoyed watching the Mosasaurus in the first trailer, get to see an alternative version of the scene in the new video. The scene includes a voice-over of a man calling the Mosasaurus “shy” and requesting the audience to “give her a hand when she comes out.”

Ha ha ha ha! NO.

“NONE SHALL MOCK THE MIGHTY MOSASAUR’S SOCIAL ANXIETY! I WILL EAT A HAND WHEN I COME OUT! NO ONE IS SAFE!”

That’s it; I’m assuming the trailer isn’t too long, which is disappointing. Still, if this is legit, at least we know what to expect. I’m really looking forward to that chase scene.

Source: http://au.ibtimes.com/jurassic-world-leaked-super-bowl-ad-video-reveals-details-about-new-hybrid-dinosaur-indominus-rex

Keeping the Rumor Train Chugging

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!

I did a little more digging into the Malcolm rumor that I posted about yesterday. Apparently, JPLegacy (or at least Sickle_Claw) is in contact with a source who claims to be close to Jurassic World production. According to this source, whose qualifications are questionable, Jake Johnson will leave the control room and lead an expedition into the old park in order to find the missing kids. This is when he told about the Malcolm cameo, which Sickle_Claw words thusly:

Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). He is seen for a few minutes but then you don’t see him again for the rest of the film… He’s claiming that this cameo is at the petting zoo on a screen giving tips on how to feed the babies.

Again, we have no way of knowing who this guy is or how he knows any of this. (If Sickle_Claw or someone else in contact with him would like to tell us, it’d be much appreciated.) Opinions vary on his credibility:

Yeah with the cameo he mentioned, I think that confirms this guy is just feeding us BS. A lot of it still might happen, but it is because he is taking what we have already heard and been rumored to be in the movie. (Nublar7)

I believe him without a doubt in my mind. Nothing screams BS. Everything adds up with my vision of the movie.

Jake Johnson is a leading character, why would every second of his screen time be in the control room. That would make for one dull character. I don’t see why HE COULDN’T get out and about.

The Ian Malcolm thing totally legit…in my head. I figured it would of been a hologram. Nothing all that bad. (DoYouKnowTheMuffinMan?)

Let’s explore the evidence here. Jeff Goldblum has said that he hasn’t been contacted by Jurassic World production– but he’s also said that he’s open to the possibility of being in another JP movie, if he’s given the chance. No one’s broken NDAs or given any sort of hint that anyone from the original cast has visited the set– but look how many takedown orders, security measures (remember how no extras on set were allowed to have uncovered phone cameras?) and general spoiler-related damage control the production team has been dishing out since the beginning of production. If they really want to deliver a big surprise and spring a big shock on the audience, a cameo by one of the original 3 main characters– especially the fan favorite– would definitely deliver it. If I was directing this thing and I had a complete fixation on surprising my audience, and I had a surprise like that up my sleeve, I’d guard it like my firstborn child.

But let’s not forget the in-universe issues. Would Dr. Malcolm actually help the park in any way? He’d never go the the island, of course, and he wouldn’t have to go to the island to record a video, I assume. But would he even do that? (It’s possible that some sort of clause in his original InGen contract made him do the video, or he did it because he genuinely was convinced that the park was safe. Or because Sarah made him so she could study the baby dinos. I can’t stop shipping, help me.) I don’t know about this, and I’m gonna be honest, I’m mostly covering it because of a desperate hope that more Malcolm is in store. Be assured that I’ll keep tabs on this as it develops.

Here’s something else the guy said:

The Mososaur is only really there for the “wow” factor.
It is too large to do anything. It will have some screen presence but not too much.
The action scene mainly involves plesiosaurs which escape into the river and attacks kayakers when the security system is shut off and when the Mososaur attacks the underwater observatory. There are some sort of underground interconnected vents and tunnels where the underwater observatory is connected to the river and ocean pumping in natural controlled sea water. The oceanic creatures also need natural ocean water to survive and so this is why the cretacious cruise river is directly next to where the Mososaur and other sea creatures are based. There is a plesiosaur chase scene.

Hmmmm. I mean, it’s possible. There’s no mention of plesiosaurs anywhere on the website or in the leaked brochure, but the plot of the entire movie does revolve around the fact that the park’s scientists are creating entirely new dinosaurs in their lab that no one else knows about. Plus, they’ve been hyping up the Mosasaur a lot on the official site, so the Mosasaur thing might be a red herring, but I kinda doubt it.

The source on Isla Sorna being mentioned in the movie:

Not that I saw anyway.
If it was mentioned it would have been brief.
I have seen some good chunks of the movie but not scene by scene throughout, although I have seen enough to understand the sequence of events.

That makes sense. There wouldn’t be a real reason to make Sorna a huge part of the plot, anyway. It’s basically no-man’s-land after 13 years of presumably being left alone.

There is a big confrontation between Vincent D’Onofrio’s character and Dr. Henry Wu once he shuts down the parks security system and tries to obtain the information. Owen releases one of his raptors to hunt down Vincent D’Onofrio as he tries fleeing the island by helicopter via a remote passage way on the island. Vincent almost gets killed by the velociraptor but diverts the attention to Henry Wu who then gets attacked and eaten. This is how Dr Wu gets killed. Vincent D’Onofrio laughs it off and manages to escape the island by helicopter with the help of others but it gets attacked by Pteranodons and crashes. While the D-Rex escapes and everything is turning into chaos Owen runs back to the control room to see Clare and orders her to evacuate the island. This is just before he realizes what has happened with Vincent and then sets one of the raptors to hunt him down as he tries to flee the island.*
Although Owen sets one of the raptors loose on Vincent who almost gets killed he cleverly diverts the attention to Henry Wu who instead gets killed.*

See that tiny, thin thread reaching across this page? That’s this guy’s credibility being stretched as far as humanly possible. Why would Owen set a raptor on his boss? Doesn’t sound like something a protagonist we’re supposed to root for would do. Also, the fact that he’s still using “D. rex” makes this even more suspicious.

The bottom line here is that this guy might have a shred of truth in him, but he’s saying stuff that contradicts what actual actors have said. For instance, he said that Jake Johnson leaves the control room and becomes a major character, and here’s something Johnson said a few months ago:

But I’m just the control-room guy, so I don’t actually battle dinosaurs.

So believe what you want, but take this guy’s word with some skepticism. He could be right about one or two things and wrong about the rest, he could be entirely right or he could be BSing it all. Right now, we have no way of knowing. Stay tuned.

Here’s the original post: http://www.jplegacy.org/board/showthread.php?t=27534&page=21

New Toys, Website Additions, Snacks, Raptorpasses and New Jobs

Just my luck, exhibit A: The one week I was away and had no Internet connection, a bunch of new Jurassic World stuff happened. As you can see by the title, there’s a lot to look at. Before we go on, though, look at the picture above the title. Just look at it for a little while.

Right then. First, several Jurassic World toys were leaked this week! No, they’re not of people or dinosaurs. They’re cars, guys. Cars.

Probably the packaging; no, they won’t be selling actual living rexes , sorry.

I’m not too into the Jurassic Park motor thing, but I know a lot of people in this fandom are, so there you go. Regardless, I’m gonna buy that Jeep Wrangler; I got a Papo velociraptor the other day who’s in serious need of a ride. More on the toys, including prices and descriptions, here: http://www.scified.com/site/jurassicworld/jada-toys-jurassic-world-prototype-images-leaked

Next, we have a picture of the first Jurassic World products on the market. Drum roll, please…

FRUIT SNACKS!

I really love that group shot of the Raptor Squad. Somebody Photoshop a gang symbol and leather jackets on them right now. Anyway, I can’t wait for these to get to my area. I wonder what a goat-flavored fruit snack tastes like.

Next, the Masrani site has updated and now offers veterinarian jobs at Jurassic World:

Speaking of the viral sites, if you signed up for a ‘Raptorpass’ from the Jurassic World site, you should have gotten an email this week. If you didn’t, here’s what they looked like:

And the Jurassic World site also updated to include four new dinosaur bios! There’s Ankylosaurus:

She was always my favorite as a kid, and now she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

Gallimimus, which “like to hang out in flocks” and look downright cocky in their photos:

“AYYYYYY!”

Stegosaurus (the site specifically mentions that it’s dangerous):

“Nobody takes me seriously, man.”

And LOOK LOOK LOOK IT’S HER!:

I’m 100% convinced that someone who works on this website reads my blog, because here’s her bio:

Mosasaurus once ruled the Cretaceous seas. An immense seagoing lizard– and not an actual dinosaur– Mosasaurus can use its fearsome array of teeth to catch fish, birds and other marine reptiles– even great white sharks. In fact, Mosasaurus has a second set of teeth in its upper palate that ensures any prey sliding down its throat will not be able to escape.

Isn’t that just perfect? There’s another picture of her that I had to go to some trouble to screencap but is totally worth it. Note the high aggression index and the spikes on her tail that look wrong but feel so right:

There’s also a cool size comparison chart:

That’s all the official news for this week, but hang on, we’re not done yet. Someone wrote an article on the fashion of Jurassic Park, which you can find here: https://www.listicle.co/list/user/post.php?listid=91672 . As a cosplayer, I can definitely say, “Pfft, I knew that,” but it’s still pretty funny. (Also, Malcolm wore all black for a reason explained in the book so the Malcolm/Hammond wardrobe thing is only partially symbolic; I say that whenever someone points out that detail.)

Let me tell you, I’ll never get sick of Owen and raptor fan art:

Or treasures like this:

‘Parental Advisory’

Or this:

No words needed:

An article about a probable reason why there won’t be feathers in Jurassic World: http://thoughtcatalog.com/steven-ray-morris/2014/12/the-real-reason-there-wont-be-feathers-in-jurassic-world/

An interview with Laura Dern, in which she talks about Jurassic Park: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/jurassic-park-steven-spielberg-dinosaur-impression_n_6262356.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

And finally, a possible new dinosaur species called Dracorex hogwartsia (dragon-king of Hogwarts). Keep in mind that it’s very possible that this is a juvenile Pachycephalosaurus:

Or, as you’ll soon see it referred to on your Facebook feed, “DINOSAUR SMAUG!”

Well, that’s all I’ve got for today. Happy 2015, everyone– it’s the year of Jurassic World!