Today's News: Jurassic World's human casting underway, but still no word on dinosaurs

Did some news posting on MS last night:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/150412/bryce_dallas_howard_gecast_in_jurassic_world

You can expect a lot more tidbits of Jurassic World related news on this blog of mine over the next few years. Like any good and loyal JP fan, I'm following this movie's development more closely than any other film currently in production. So naturally the news flashes I consider worthwhile for posting on MovieScene I will post, unless one of my colleagues beats me to it which is always a possibility considering I can't be on top of JW 24/7. Nevertheless, the number of news posts concerning this movie and/or mentioning anything JP in general are suspiciously high for those that don't know me and my passion for this franchise.

Bryce Dallas Howard and David Oyelowo were rumoured to be in negotiations with Universal for this project earlier this year, but nothing materialized then due to new director Colin Trevorrow's wish to polish the script some more. Apparently Universal was serious about the both of them, as they've been approached again for Jurassic World, and this time Uni doesn't seem to take no for an answer. I don't mind if these two actors get the parts. Of course there has been no official plot information released or even leaked so far, so I have no idea just what characters they are supposed to play, but I've seen enough of them in action to know they can act and are not ill suited for a JP film. Howard I know from Spider-Man 3 as the previous cinematic incarnation of Peter Parker's love interest Gwen Stacy (not a very large role, but played well enough, especially compared to the other girl, Kirsten Dunst's obnoxious Mary-Jane) and more importantly as the main chracter from M. Night Shyamalan's hugely underrated thriller piece The Village, where she played a very convincing blind girl driven to travel through monster infested woods (or so she thought) out of her love for a wounded man. As far as I'm concerned that was her seminal role, the one-to-watch. Unfortunately her second collaboration with Shyamalan, in the rather silly semi-fairy tale Lady in the Water, proved less than stellar, but the blame in that case can be assigned to lackluster writing. Lastly, I also know Howard from a small role in Terminator Salvation that failed to impress me, mostly because of her very limited screen time.

Oyelowo I know from an equal number of roles, though in none of them he starred as the lead character. I've apparently seen him in A Sound of Thunder and The Last King of Scotland, but I can't remember him from either of those: in the former case because it was such a forgetful movie overall, in the latter because I only saw that film once and that was seven years ago (but I remember it was quite a good and disturbing movie). He played in a short but crucial scene in Spielberg's Lincoln (where the president is confronted with the plight of black soldiers in the American Civil War). I do remember him the most as the unscrupulous, profit driven CEO of the shady genetics company in Rise of the Planet of the Apes though, where I was pleased to see he rightly got his come-uppance at the hands of the simians abused at his command. He played a decent villain, grounded and realistic, not devoid of emotion and making a point that wasn't wholly wrong, but overall not a particularly sympathetic person. I wouldn't be surprised to see him play a similar type of baddie again, given that this movie deals with a similar subject matter and a previous version of its script (which was only adapted by Trevorrow, not discarded entirely) was penned by the same pair of writers responsible for that film's scenario. Either way, Oyelowo's stock is rising, not only in terms of an important role in Jurassic World, but also in the upcoming Interstellar by Christopher Nolan, plus he's increasingly rumoured to be featured in Star Wars Episode VII. Universal better get him now while he's still affordable.

Enough of this talk about humans though, when will we get some dinosaur casting news? Will T-Rex be the main dinosaur again? What will this new awesome beastie be that Trevorrow keeps hinting at? And will there indeed be marine reptiles involved? Good cast members are always a plus, but interesting dinosaurs violently ripping them apart are still a bigger draw for audiences me thinks.