Jurassic Park

The blockbuster Steven Spielberg movie "Jurassic Park," being re-released in 3-D on April 5, wouldn't be the same place without paleontologist Jack Horner. In addition to advising the production on scientific matters, Horner provided inspiration for the character of Dr. Alan Grant in the original 1993 movie. Universal Pictures is preparing to shoot a fourth installment in the "Jurassic Park" series and will once again tap Horner to serve as an advisor. "It's fun to see a lot of the stuff that I do in there," said Horner, curator of the Museum of the Rockies and professor at the University of Montana.

News broke Thursday that actress Bryce Dallas Howard is in talks to join the cast of the much-anticipated sequel "Jurassic World," the fourth in the franchise that kicked off with Steven Spielberg's 1993 film "Jurassic Park. " There are few specifics on the movie's plot line, but the creatures of the earlier films seem to now inhabit their own world. The film is being directed by Colin Trevorrow, following up his Sundance sci-fi rom-com "Safety Not Guaranteed. " Trevorrow is co-writing the film with his "Safety" collaborator, Derek Connolly.

"Jurassic Park: The Facts Behind the Fiction" will air at 7 p.m. today on the Sci-Fi Channel. The half-hour special will feature exclusive behind-the-scenes footage detailing the film's development and will analyze the possibility of a real-life Jurassic Park through discussions with leading paleontologists. For Steven Spielberg fans who don't catch it the first time, the program will be rerun seven times this month.

"Jurassic Park 3D" had a strong opening day in China on Tuesday, earning $6.3 million on 2,500 screens to debut at No. 1. That gives the Universal movie, a 3-D conversion of Steven Spielberg's 20-year-old science-fiction adventure, the fourth highest opening day of the year in China, behind the new films "Iron Man 3" ($19.1 million), "Pacific Rim" ($8.6 million) and "Fast & Furious 6" ($8.3 million) and ahead of titles such as "Man of Steel" ($6.2 million) and "The Hobbit" ($5.6 million)

Just over a week after its highly touted debut, the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios malfunctioned and sprayed more than 100 guests with hydraulic fluid, sending four people to the hospital with minor injuries. The accident happened Saturday morning as several boats, filled with up to 150 guests, made their way through the final leg of the ride, said Jim Yeager, a spokesman for MCA Inc., which owns and operates the theme park.

Steven Spielberg, whose "Jurassic Park" is the top worldwide grossing film in movie history, has signed on to direct the movie of Michael Crichton's sequel "The Lost World," which has nestled in the top spot on the best-seller lists since the book was published on Sept. 28. The film will be a co-production of Universal Pictures and Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, which is being folded into DreamWorks SKG, the company he formed last year with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.

Seven riders on Universal Studios' new Jurassic Park attraction suffered minor injuries Friday when two boats nearing the end of the ride collided, an amusement park spokesman said. A worker near the ride reported seeing one of the boats stall about 4 p.m. and get hit from behind by another, he said. "The seven guests walked away from the ride," he said. Six adults and one teenager were taken to hospitals for observation.

At Universal Studios Hollywood, the movie lot tour is celebrating its 30th anniversary with Jurassic Park--Behind the Scenes, an extensive peek at the making of the box-office hit. Steven Spielberg has donated his private collection of notes, models and visual gadgetry for the exhibit, which runs through May and serves as a precursor for yet another film-based attraction, a Flintstones stage show that opens in June.

The fright factor in "Jurassic Park" is especially intense for young children, concur a group of experts who study child psychology and the effects of mass media. In an informal survey, The Times interviewed a number of authorities, all of whom saw the popular Steven Spielberg film in its first few days of release, to elicit their firsthand reactions to a subject that has become very topical.

The verdict isn't in yet on what they'll think of "Jurassic Park." But when paleontologists have nightmares, they dream of old dinosaur movies--some of the greatest founts of fudging and outright scientific misinformation ever. Consider some of the problems that plagued the prehistoric monster movies of the B.C. (before Crichton) age: Confusion of eras. Never mind that most evolutionists insist that dinosaurs and cave gals never walked the Earth at the same time.

Hey dinosaur fans: You're going to have to wait a bit longer to see some new creatures from the paleolithic era storm your theaters. Universal Pictures said Wednesday it has postponed its release date on "Jurassic Park 4," which had been set for June 2014. "Jurassic Park 4" is the second installment in the series to be made by someone other than Steven Spielberg, who directed the first two films. Production on the movie, which is being directed by Colin Trevorrow, the helmer of last year's indie hit "Safety Not Guaranteed," was supposed to begin this summer.

Ray Harryhausen, the stop-motion animation legend whose work on "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms," "Jason and the Argonauts" and other science fiction and fantasy film classics made him a cult figure who inspired later generations of filmmakers and special-effects artists, has died. He was 92. Harryhausen died Tuesday in London, where he had lived for decades. His death was confirmed by Kenneth Kleinberg, his longtime legal representative in the United States. In the pre-computer-generated-imagery era in which he worked, Harryhausen used the painstaking process of making slight adjustments to the position of his three-dimensional, ball-and-socket-jointed scale models and then shooting them frame-by-frame to create the illusion of movement.

"Evil Dead" sucked the life out of the competition at the box office this weekend, leaving its rivals as casualties while claiming No. 1. The fourth entry in the horror franchise debuted with a healthy $26 million, according to an estimate from distributor Sony Pictures. Heading into the weekend, prerelease audience polling indicated that the scary film would be in a tight race with holdover "G.I. Joe: Retaliation. " But "Evil Dead" ended up beating the big-budget action flick, which collected $21.1 million during its second weekend in theaters.

"G.I. Joe: Retaliation" could be demonized by "Evil Dead" at the box office this weekend as the horror film aims to possess No. 1. After debuting with $40.5 million, the action sequel will likely take in an additional $20 million during its second weekend in theaters, according to those who have seen pre-release audience surveys. That will put the film in a tight race for the top spot against "Evil Dead," which is poised to start off with a solid sum of between $20 million and $25 million.

The blockbuster Steven Spielberg movie "Jurassic Park," being re-released in 3-D on April 5, wouldn't be the same place without paleontologist Jack Horner. In addition to advising the production on scientific matters, Horner provided inspiration for the character of Dr. Alan Grant in the original 1993 movie. Universal Pictures is preparing to shoot a fourth installment in the "Jurassic Park" series and will once again tap Horner to serve as an advisor. "It's fun to see a lot of the stuff that I do in there," said Horner, curator of the Museum of the Rockies and professor at the University of Montana.

Dino Land theme park in China recently unveiled the $20-million Dinoconda , a thrilling fourth-dimension roller coaster with independently rotating seats. PHOTOS: Dinoconda 4-D coaster at China's Dino Land Located in Changzhou about two hours west of Shanghai, the Chinese park known as the "Jurassic Park of the East" features roller coasters, thrill rides and attractions themed to dinosaurs and mythical creatures. The mechanically complex coaster boasts wing-shaped vehicles with seats that rotate head over heels, both forward and backward.

A video retailer joked that "Jurassic Park" should be subtitled "The Beast That Ate the September Rental Market." * What he meant was that with MCA/Universal releasing Steven Spielberg's dinosaur adventure on home video Oct. 4 at $25, retailers' September budget for new titles will be gobbled up by stocking up on that movie. But that's only part of the story. The other part is Snow White.

A Northridge woman who hurt her neck when the then-new Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios Hollywood malfunctioned, jerking her back and forth in her seat, was awarded $90,000 in damages by a jury Monday. Marcy Mintz, 45, had taken more than half a dozen relatives visiting from out of town to the park in July 1996, a month after the $110-million ride made its much-ballyhooed debut. The park had raised a number of defenses, including that the mishap was an "unavoidable accident."

Universal Orlando's salute to 100 years of filmmaking history replays more than 200 clips from the movie studio's vault on a watery canvas in the theme park's lagoon. PHOTOS: New attractions coming to Universal Orlando Creative Director Michael Aiello and his team at Universal Entertainment spent two years culling the studio's archives down to 18 minutes for " Universal's Cinematic Spectacular ," the new nighttime water show officially debuting Tuesday at the Florida theme park.