The Jurassic Park franchise had pretty much run its course by 2001′s Jurassic Park III, and since Hollywood is incapable of letting a franchise die, it was in serious need of a reinvention if there was going to be a fourth movie, which of course there was. Check that, is. As of today, Rise of the Planet of the Apes writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver are scripting a fourth Jurassic Park, with Steven Spielberg producing, aiming for a summer 2013 release. But back in 2004, there was a pitch and a script from William Monahan (The Departed) and John Sayles (The Spiderwick Chronciles) that involved dinosaur-human hybrids that shot weapons and were used to fight crime. Oh what could have been.

It might be hard to believe but the story saw a secret genetics lab get involved with cross-breeding humans with dinosaurs, giving them problem-solving intelligence and the ability to fire weapons and fight crime, but controlled by human authorities. [Reddit via FirstShowing]

DINOSAURS THAT SHOOT GUNS AND FIGHT CRIME! And to think, all this time I thought that idea only existed in old Photoshops of mine. Apparently it made it far enough into pre-production that ILM created concept art and 3D models (see above and below). Jesus, that is the best idea ever. Here’s a bit more, from an old, ridiculously verbose script review on AICN:

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"Yo Al Qaeda Predator, chiggity check yo self."

Just the other day, we brought you the news that Channing Tatum would be starring in a film from Independence Day/The Patriot-director Roland Emmerich. The film is called White House Down, for Sony, with a premise described as “Die Hard in the White House,” and a script from the writer of The Losers, The Rundown, and the upcoming Total Recall remake (these are all true things, I swear). Burnsy seems to have a source very close to this project, because he was able to share an exclusive excerpt of the script in his original post. I don’t know how Burnsy gets his hands on so much C-Tates-related material, and come to think of it, both he and C-Tates are about the same age, both from Florida, both C-walk like angels, and to my knowledge, have never been photographed or seen in the same room together. In any case, we’ll hopefully be able to continue posting excerpts and behind-the-scenes information from the film, starting with today’s exclusive selection from the official storyboard.

Enjoy:

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I tend not to post a lot of concept art for movies, because in general, that stuff is much more about execution than it is about imagination, but when it’s concept art for a David Cronenberg-directed Total Recall that never got made, I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING!

From I09:

My wife and I both worked for nearly a year on the David Cronenberg version of Total Recall. At Dino DiLaurentiis’ studio outside Rome, we worked under the direction of the brilliant production designer, Pierluigi Basile. I produced scores of drawings and paintings while Judith created models of sets and spacecraft, mostly of paper and balsa wood.
What did eventually make the screen was much closer to what screenwriter Ron Shusett had originally imagined… less like the Philip K. Dick story, “I Can Remember It For You Wholesale”, that the screenplay was based on — and which was what Cronenberg wanted to do — and more like an over-the-top adventure.
What eventually became Pyramid Mountain in the Verhoeven version was originally a prehistoric Martian sphinx excavated from the Martian desert, and a good deal more screen time was have been allotted to Kuato, including an elaborate dream sequence where he morphed first into the sphinx and then into a kind of phosphorescent vagina.

So there were already carefully-laid-out plans for a glowing Mars Kuato vagina sphynx, and instead we got a PG-13 Recall set entirely on Earth? I hate you so much, Hollywood.

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You may remember last April when Relativity Media was negotiating with Bradley Cooper to star in a “reboot” of The Crow, which was somehow going to reinvent the franchise by being darker and grittier™ than the original, despite starring a guy who looks like he just fell off a sailboat in Connecticut. Cooper dropped out (supposedly, they actually wanted C-Tates or Mark Wahlberg to replace him) and the project has been on hold ever since, possibly because the guy whose idea it was managed to poke his eye out with safety scissors.

But now some concept art from the film that was to be has leaked out, and I have to say, I’m sorry I ever doubted this project. I had no idea that “dark and gritty” was going to mean “a top hat with a skull on it.” Suddenly, all my reservations have disappeared. It’s like if you tell me you’re going to take a ’69 Mustang and make it more extreme, I probably wouldn’t believe you, because it’s already so extreme. But then if you drive up in that same car and it has flames painted on it? I’d probably be all, “Whoa, dude, that is pretty extreme.”

The real victim in all of this is the Steampunk Hatter, and all of the business they’re going to lose.

[From Diego Latorre, via ShockTillYouDrop]

Yesterday we got a look at the suit for Captain America.  Today Collider has some concept art images from Thor, set to be played by Chris Hemsworth.  I was hoping it’d look more like this, but oh well.

Thor is being directed by Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet).  The film also stars Natalie Portman as love-interest Jane Foster, Anthony Hopkins as Thor’s papa, Odin, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the film’s villain.  The film also stars Ray Stevenson (Punisher: War Zone), Tadanobu Asano (Mongol), and Joshua Dallas (The Descent: Part 2) as the Warriors Three; Idris Elba [Stringer Bell] as Heimdall, Stellan Skarsgard (Angels & Demons) as Selvig, and Jaimie Alexander (Kyle XY) as Sif. [Collider]

Not too many surprises with this one.  How come all superheroes wear boots?  Wouldn’t they seem faster if they were wearing some sweet Air Jordans or something?  Maybe they’re saving those for Idris Elba, the Norse God of Urban Flavor.  He carries a smaller hammer because he’s not compensating.

Higher res versions available at Collider.  Meanwhile, I’ve got some test footage of Thor and some of the other Norse Gods below.

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