Joe Johnston directed the third Jurassic Park, that's Jurassic Park III, and his representatives have just announced that he will not be directing the fourth, that's Jurassic Park IV.

So that raises the question of who will direct the film. Steven Spielberg once said that if it wasn't Johnston then he would direct, and with the story going that he thought up the great way to bring some new life to the franchise then it would make sense.

The story comes from /Film who make the connection. They also point out that he has a real busy directing schedule on with Indiana Jones IV, Interstellar and Lincoln. Well sure he's done more than three in a year, and they were all big, but these are at various stages of development. I could see Indy starting pretty late in the year, Interstellar is starting to gain momentum, but Lincoln is perhaps the furthest ahead.

However both Interstellar and Lincoln are due out in 2009, only Indy is coming 2008 (allegedly), so maybe he'll have plenty of time to direct Jurassic Park IV. I hope he does, it would be a welcome return and he could do something special with it.