News: Jurassic Park, Norman Osborn and more!

There's some awesome news this week for several franchises, starting with one of my childhood favorites: Jurassic Park 4 has finally found a director. Plus, Guardians of the Galaxy has cast another character and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has added yet another major character, and we can finally see Amy Adams as Lois Lane. It's after the jump.

Jurassic Park 4 gets a 2014 release date

Deadline is reporting that Jurassic Park IV is set for a June 13, 2014 release date. No director is signed on yet, but it will be shot in 3D (no post-conversion) and the new script is by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) who were hired last year producers Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy. The movie has been in and out of development for 10 years, and some thought the death of author Michael Crichton might finish the project for good, but it seems like one of my all-time favorite movies really is going to get another sequel. A 3D rerelease of the original film is set for April 5 this year.

Jurassic Park 3D is coming soon

The poster for the 3D conversion of Jurassic Park is here, and it looks good. It'll open on April 5 next year. Off all the 3D conversions queued up over the next few years, this is the one I'm most looking forward to. As I've said before, it's one of my all time favorite films, and Steven Spielberg has said Jurassic Park was the only one of his films he'd want to see converted. Plus, this is Universal's way to generate some buzz for the long awaited Jurassic Park 4. So far, writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (from Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes), and producer Frank Marshall are on board. While Kathleen Kennedy has confirmed that the film won't be a reboot and will continue the continuity of the previous films.

Cool bits from the interwebs

Comic-con has come and gone since my last post of links, and as expected, there were some exciting pieces of news and great reveals over the last couple of weeks. I'm not going to try to cover everything that came out of the con, but here's a few of things that particularly stood out to me.

Another week of links

Here's a collection of links including a new superfood, an exciting new educational opportunity, posters from the next Harry Potter, an TV spot for Captain America, and the other reason I need a Blu-ray player. Oh, yeah, and a hoverboard will soon be mine.

Flashback: Jurassic Park

I'm going to start a series of posts looking at my favorite stories of all time. I going to talk about how these influenced me and what I think where some of the significant themes and features that made them work. Mostly, this will be movies and books. I'm starting with one that's both a book and film. The Michael Crichton (RIP) novel and Steven Spielberg film: Jurassic Park.

I generally list Jurassic Park first among the major influences of my life, and put it at or near the top of lists of favorite books and movies. My dad read me a parentally-edited version of the book when I was three or four, and my parents took me to the movie when it was released in '93. I don't remember it specifically, but Dad's version of the story has me standing on my seat saying, "This wasn't how it was in the book." Apparently I haven't changed much.

Now it's entirely possible that the Jurassic Park's significance for me comes from permanently burning it into my physique by seeing the movie and reading the book more times than I can count and has nothing to do with any qualities of the original work. It's possible, but I don't seem to be only person who appreciates it.