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Universal Pictures has set a release date of Friday, June 22, 2018 for "Jurassic World Sequel," which hopefully will have a catchier title and a director soon. But it does have Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard returning as the leads and "Jurassic World" helmer Colin Trevorrow writing the script. He isn’t returning as director because it’s expected he’ll instead go off and do one of the "Star Wars" films. Frank Marshall and Steven Spielberg are also in the braintrust. 

It’s not surprising Universal would move aggressively on another sequel based on the novel by the late Michael Crichton, or that they would do it faster than the 14 years it took to make the fourth Jurassic Park movie. That delay had much to do with the tensions between Universal brass and Spielberg after his DreamWorks got close to making a distribution deal with the studio that owns the lot where he has been headquartered his entire career. Spielberg stayed in those Amblin offices, but the feelings were frosty when Spielberg’s DreamWorks made a distribution alliance at the last minute with Disney, leaving Universal at the altar.

All that is forgotten after the outsized performance of "Jurassic World," which has grossed $614 million domestic and a whopping $1.5 billion worldwide to become the fourth highest grossing film of all time, a standing it will eclipse shortly when it passes "The Avengers" and its $1.519 billion gross mark.

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