"Lost On The Horizon"

Just when you thought it was safe to let little kids sit through the coming attractions, Steven Spielberg has let the dinosaurs loose. Shelving his usual "Don't give anything away" approach, the current trailer for The Lost World : Jurassic Park (opening May 23) is a two-minute ad that teems with prehistoric beasties: A herd of stegosaurs rumble through the jungle. An angry triceratops rams a truck. A stampede of various species rushes through the bushes. All this plus a comforting dose of Spielbergian relief. "Mommy's very angry," says Jeff Goldblum, watching a truck get swatted across the screen, Twister,style. As for revealing too much of the plot, this trailer merely implies that this time, the terror isn't confined to one little tropical paradise.

Christopher Baker sends along some details about the Jurassic Park Crunch, on store-shelves now: "The marshmallows in the cereal are Triceratops, Velociraptor, Dinosaur hatching egg, and "Chameleon" T-Rex! Maybe that explains why the Thrasher T-Rex toy is Bright yellow and green. The marshmallow is yellow and green as well! There are also some matching games on the back, and the "roaring box" contest."

I've received several messages during the past few months or so about how people have heard that Michael Crichton said publicly that he would not be doing another Jurassic Park book. (Just today, Michael Diament said that at a seminar, Crichton denied the rumors that he was working on a third book) However, I still believe (and have confirmation from Dreamworks) that there will be a third JP movie.

The main pages have been updated!

Baryonyx reports that there is a special Betty Crocker JP2 Three Cheese Stroganoff box. It has dino shaped pasta such as a T-rex, a rex foot, and a stego. The box pictures a rex head crashing through the bushes, as well as the "roaring box" contest.

The new issue of Cinescape magazine is now on news stands. It contains their annual "Summer Movie Preview", with a short article on JP2 and a very non-informative interview with Jeff Goldblum (Goldblum says something funny along the lines of: "I can't tell you anything except that dinosaurs will definitely be in this one").

An article on The Lost World appeared in the Australian Sunday Times last week. Here are some excerpts: (thanks to Andrew)

A RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE
At last almost invisible Steven Spielberg is back doing what he does best -making blockbuster movies. Okay, so he might have been executive producer on Casper and Twister, but the last time we saw a film that he actually directed was way back in 1993.

Admittedly, that was a vintage Spielberg year with Jurassic Park and Schindler's List hitting theatres, but the screen since has been a virtual Spielberg Free zone.

All that's about to change with the release next month of The Lost World, one of the most eagerly awaited sequels of all time. All the indications are that the wait will have been well worth while. Even the publicity people are keeping quiet about it -always an excellent sign. When they start giving away T-shirts on street corners you know the movie is bound to be a clunker. And the trailer that is screening in US theatres is enough to show that if you were terrified with Jurassic Park, The Lost World will leave you breathless. That's the lease we'd expect from a man whose name has become almost a brand name for the biggest hits Hollywood has ever produced.

[Concerning the plot:] [We] should just read between the following lines and imagine a water-gate style cover-up involving dinosaurs. A few years back, John Hammond out how to recreate dinosaurs from DNA fragments in amber. He set up a company called Ingen, which placed the genetically engineered dinosaurs in a theme park off the coast of Costa Rica. But the park systems broke down shortly before it could open, the dinosaurs got free and had to be destroyed and the island was closed to the public. In the aftermath, everyone moved quickly to quash the story. Ingen wanted to limit it's liability. The Costa Rican govt. wanted to preserve it's reputation as a tourists paradise. And the scientist who had been hired as consultants on the project were bound by non-disclosure agreements to remain silent. But as a resentful Dr Ian Malcolm is about to find out, Something Has Survived the disaster... There are no prizes for guessing that what survived was a dinosaur -and it won't just be one of the cute ones which eat leaves.

Steve Human wanted me to remind everyone that he is still selling a Official JP2 Leather bomber-jacket, exactly like the ones worn by the cast and crew. Click here for a picture. If you're interested, feel free to e-mail him.

A few people have e-mailed me to report that while they were playing in traffic, they saw a JP2 poster on the side of a bus.

If you were wondering, the only two stores where JP2 toys have been spotted is Walmart and Toys-R-Us. If you find the toys anywhere else, please e-mail me.

Talking about the JP2 toys, "Killer" sends along some more detailed info about some of the merchandise:

• The Junior T-Rex has dino-damage, you can break his leg. It comes with a leg cast and mouth cover. You can put the cast on the leg and it fixes it.
• The Raptor comes with capture gear. You put it on her back and the mouth gear over the mouth, you press her leg in passed each other and the raptor opens up it's mouth and breaks free of the gear.
• Ian comes with a rex hachling and smart misile.
• The Dino-Snare Dirtbike comes with a guy named Carter. The bike blowes up into three pieces when you hit a button in back.
• The Ground Tracker comes with three misiles. Electric roll bar lights and when you hit a button up front the hood blows off.

Just to let everyone know, tomorrow I'll be visiting University of Maryland, and probably won't be able to update the page until Saturday morning.

• There's a scene in which the hunters find Malcolm's crew, round it up, and start a caravan across the island to the camp. On the way, they are ambushed by raptors, and the entire group scatters into the woods.
• A scene where the two T-Rexes attack the trailer. This scene is parallel to the attack on the Cruisers in the first movie, but is grittier, scarier, and gorier than than its counterpart in JP.
• A scene with people just driving through a field, with CG Brachiosaurs in the background.

Just for the record, Alan reports seeing a "condensed" version of the new JP2 trailer, which lasts for around 10-15 seconds.

The Universal Back-Lot store is selling various JP2 merchandise, including hats, shirts, key-chains, and pins. You may be able to mail-order the products by calling the store direct, at 1-800-447-0373, although be prepared to spend top-dollar. (thanks to Chris Kerr)

Two JP2 T-Shirts can now be ordered online, directly from the Hollywood Online Studio Store. Choose from either the "Stone Logo Shirt" or the "Slasher T-Shirt (click a link for the picture). Each costs $16.95 and can be ordered here. (thanks to Max Szoc)

Talking about JP2 Merchandise, have you checked out The Shop yet? It's where you can buy various JP2 products, for discount prices! Pre-order the "Making of The Lost World" by Jody Duncan now and be the first to receive it when it comes out!

Have you voted yet?

Global One, a merchandise company, will be producing various JP2 merchandise, including a line of "Roaring Posters" (retail $14.99). The company reports that they sold out their inventory of approximately 100,000 posters. Other products will include glow-in-the-dark posters, and Jumbo six foot tall posters. K-mart and Blockbuster will both feature nationwide poster promotions for "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" in more than 4,800 retail stores combined. Other exclusive licenses include Classic Commemoratives (matted and framed prints), Book Bites and wallet cards, lucite and laser cut key chains, magnets and stickers. (thanks to BBCompy

Joey Tribbiani reports that Empire Magazine says that JP2 will be released in the UK on July 18th, and not the 8th, as was originally reported.

The past week's poll topic was "What is your favorite dinosaur" and while the results were kind of predictable, there was fierce competition for the top spot from the beginning. The T-Rex and the Velociraptor exchanged places many times during the past week, although the Velociraptor finally came out to be the victor, with 36% of the vote. The T-Rex came in close second, with 24% of the vote. The "Utah-Raptor" (a few people say the "Velociraptors" in JP were actually more like "Utah-Raptor"s), came in third, with 11%. The other votes were scattered around. Poor "Centrosaurus", "Diplodocus", "Jurassosaurus", and "Tenontosaurus"--they didn't get any votes at all!

This weeks' Poll: "What is your favorite Michael Crichton Book?. Thanks to Gatsby for the suggestion. If you have a suggestion for a poll, please e-mail me!