It’s been rumoured for a couple of years, and now it seems like Jurassic Park IV is finally happening. Universal will release the fourth instalment of everyone’s favourite dino franchise on June 13th next year, in 3D obviously. Steven Spielberg, director of the original movie and its sequel, The Lost World, is on producing duties, as he did with the Joe Johnston directed third entry.

No other details have emerged yet, but it is something Spielberg has been talking about for a while, and with the recent delay to Robopocalypse, he seems to have some spare time on his hands, which may well have had a hand in getting the movie moving again.

Plans for the fourth film in the franchise were originally mooted shortly after the underwhelming third instalment. Obviously these never came to fruition, but in the last couple of years Spielberg and co and started to talk up the project, confirming at Comic Con in 2011 that the film was in development. A few scripts have been commissioned in recent years, most recently by Rise of the Planet of the Apes writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.

Hopefully the franchise will take a new direction. Although the original Jurassic Park is one of our favourite Spielberg’s (a T-Rex, Dennis Nedry, Laura Dern in shorts, what’s not to love?) the ‘bunch of people get trapped on an island filled with rampaging dinosaurs’ concept was pretty much worn out by, ooh, about half an hour into The Lost World. Oh sod, it, as long as there’s velociraptors in it, we’ll be happy.

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