Joe Johnston Talks Up JURASSIC PARK IV and CAPTAIN AMERICA

Director Joe Johnston sat down recently with Box Office Magazine to not only promote his upcoming WOLFMAN remake.   Among some of the more interesting aspects of the interview (including the fact that Gene Simmons and David Lee Roth provide howls utilized in the finished film), are some updates on upcoming Johnston projects, namely THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA and JURASSIC PARK IV.

Here is what Johnston had to say about the p0tential fourth film in the JURASSIC PARK franchise:

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.

If you think of the first three as a trilogy, number four would be the beginning of a second trilogy.

Johnston also discussed the upcoming CAPTAIN AMERICA film, which, to hear Johnston describe it, sounds like it is going to be more of a character study on young Steve Rogers than a wham-bang adventure movie.

The great thing about Captain America is he’s a super hero without any super powers. Which is why this story, among the hundreds of superhero stories, appealed to me the most. He can’t fly, he can’t see through walls, he can’t do any of that stuff. He’s an everyman 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. The rules change at that point and his life gets even more complicated and dire. For me, that’s the interesting part of the story. 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.

Check out the rest of the interview over at Box Office Magazine where Johnston talks about Rick Baker’s effects in WOLFMAN and the reasoning behind the R rating.

THE WOLFMAN hits theaters on February 12th.   THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA is set for release on July 22nd, 2011.