While J.J. Abrams seems to have no problem multitasking between two mega sci-fi franchises, not to mention his numerous producer gigs on projects for both television and the big screen, Lucasfilm honcho Kathleen Kennedy is keeping her eye firmly on Luke Skywalker and co.
Answering an inquiry on Twitter this weekend, Kennedy's longtime producing partner Frank Marshall revealed: "No, Ms. Kennedy has moved onto Star Wars and will not be producing JP4. She's traded raptors for TIE fighters." While the move might be seen as a suprise, she was actually not named in the original announcement of "Jurassic Park IV" last month. That being said, she has been Steven Spielberg's collaborator for nearly his entire career, and they've worked together on the sequels in the series thus far, but this time around he'll be teaming with Marshall without Kennedy's participation.
This bit of news likely means very little in terms of "Jurassic Park IV" moving foward, but does say something about the seriousness of the task at hand, that Kennedy wants to focus her energies on "Star Wars" and living up to the massive expectations around those films. That said, Kennedy was a pretty important figure in helping bring the "Jurassic Park" movies to nearly $2 billion worldwide, so that absence will be that felt. Universal is still on track for June 14, 2014 release date for the dinosaur movie, but a director is still waiting to be locked down. Just sixteen months to go guys… [Deadline]