ANOTHER WALK IN THE 'PARK' A NEW DIRECTOR SINKS HIS TEETH INTO THE LATEST 'JURASSIC' FILM, BUT WILL AUDIENCES BITE?

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

What you've seen is what you'll get.

That's pretty much the working philosophy behind ``Jurassic Park III,'' the latest installment in the hugely successful dinosaur movie series that opens Wednesday. Steven Spielberg has relinquished the director's duties, staying on board as a consulting executive producer, but you'll hardly notice the change since new director Joe Johnston (``Jumanji,'' ``October Sky'') isn't willing (or able?) to tinker too much with a formula that has proven so successful.

``It's tough being the third movie,'' Johnston admits. ``You can't break the rules of the franchise. I think this film is as different as I could make it. It's a little bit darker than the first two, a little more desperate, maybe.

``Now,'' Johnston continues, ``I think for No. 4, for which there is a really great idea that Steven has come up with, they'll probably set the first three movies aside and go off in a different direction. But here, we had to pretty much stay the course.''

Box-office heft

If Spielberg seems to be getting a little ahead of himself with talk of a ``Jurassic Park IV,'' you can hardly accuse him of overestimating the value and popularity of the franchise he launched in 1993. ``Jurassic Park,'' the original movie based on Michael Crichton's best seller about an island theme park full of dinosaurs, grossed $920 million worldwide, third on the all-time box-office list. Its 1997 sequel, ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park,'' is No. 10 on that list, taking in $614 million worldwide. That film still holds the record for biggest-grossing opening weekend with $92.7 million.

Expectations for ``Jurassic Park III'' aren't nearly as high, but in turning over the franchise to Johnston, Spielberg was, in a way, keeping it in the family. The two first collaborated in 1981 when Johnston worked as visual effects art director on ``Raiders of the Lost Ark,'' winning an Oscar for his efforts. Johnston had once pitched Spielberg on the idea of directing the second ``Jurassic Park,'' but he had to wait his turn when Spielberg decided to helm the picture himself.

Johnston, though, might have gotten more than he bargained for when Universal Pictures - anxious to lock the movie into a summer 2001 slot - demanded that he start shooting without a finished script. Admittedly, the premise for ``Jurassic Park III'' isn't exactly complex - an estranged couple (played by William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) convince (or trick) paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill, returning to duty after skipping ``Lost World'') to go back to dinosaur island and rescue their son, who accidentally landed on the island after a parasailing mishap.

Naturally, the dinosaurs view the encroaching humans as snack food, and set about chasing them for most of the movie's 94-minute running time. The creature mix, courtesy again of Stan Winston's Van Nuys shop, includes old (T-rex and some spiffed-up velociraptors) and new (the 44-foot, 12 1/2-ton spinosaurus, which makes T-rex look like the runt of the litter). Also on board is the pteranodon, the winged reptile glimpsed at the end of ``Lost World.''

``There's an extreme challenge when you're making the sequel of a sequel,'' says Winston, whose hand-built dinosaurs co-exist with computer-generated creatures supplied by George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic. ``First you think, 'OK, what dinosaurs are missing? What haven't we done?' And then you think, 'OK, what can we make better?' ''

Script on the fly

That last question weighed heavily on the minds of the movie's actors when it came to the movie's ever-evolving script. Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (who co-wrote ``Election'' and ``Citizen Ruth'') did a major rewrite, and John August (``Go'') was brought in for an uncredited polish. The production ended up having to return to location in Hawaii in January to shoot a new ending after the original conclusion was found wanting.

``We had a hard time finding a way to wrap it,'' Johnston says.

The well-spoken Neill, one of only two actors to return from a previous ``Jurassic'' outing (Laura Dern has a cameo), professes to be pleased with the end results. But then, he's still smarting from the memory of the New Yorker magazine's capsule review of ``Jurassic Park'' which read, in part: ``The first film in cinema history where the special effects are more real than the actors.''

``That pissed me off,'' Neill says. ``So if I was going to come back, I wanted to do something about that. And I think there's a much better balance between three-dimensional people and three-dimensional dinosaurs in this one.''

Adds Leoni: ``With this one, I thought, 'If we're just trying to fill a slot, what are we doing calling Joe Johnston and Bill Macy? And why is Sam Neill coming back? And for that matter, why call me? I'm not the best T&A you can get.' I realized that everyone involved with it didn't go in thinking, 'Let's make the third one.' It was: `Let's make the best one.' It was more than showing the audience a bunch of great new dinosaurs.''

Pixels and puppets

Of course, Leoni and the other actors know full well that the movie's core audience is going to see the movie precisely to watch those dinosaurs, both old and new. What they won't see - at least, consciously - is the seamless blending of Winston's dinosaur puppets (Leoni: ``Barney's a puppet; these things could crush you'') and ILM's computer-generated creatures. For the first time, the two co-exist in the same shot.

Explains Winston: ``In 'Jurassic Park,' you had that famous shot of the T-rex's head looking into the car and then the CG dinosaur walking away. In this movie, we have animatronic (puppet) velociraptors and CG velociraptors in the same shot and I defy anyone to tell the difference. That's how much both animatronics and computer technology has advanced since we made the first film.''

And if there's a fourth film? Winston says he'd come up with something good. (``If Steven (Spielberg) asks, I'm there.'') Just don't ask him to create anything bigger than the spinosaurus. He had to knock out a wall of his Van Nuys studio to get it out of the building and onto a flatbed truck.

``I'll never build a bigger animal,'' Winston says. ``I tell you, I'm done.''

As Sean Connery could tell Winston, however: When it comes to sequels, never say never again.

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Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) THIRD HELPINGS The makers of `Jurassic Park III' offer mean cuisine for sequel-hungry moviegoers (2 -- color) And down the stretch they come ... ! Tea Leoni tries to outrun the spinosaurus, one of the new dinosaurs in ``Jurassic Park III.''

(3 -- color) The pteranodon, which had a cameo at the end of the series' second movie, pursues a meal for its hatchlings in the latest installment of the dino saga.

(4 -- 5) The cast of ``Jurassic Park III,'' above - which includes, from left, Tea Leoni, Trevor Morgan, William H. Macy, Alessandro Nivola and Sam Neill - had to reconvene in Hawaii in January so that director Joe Johnston, right, could shoot a new ending.