JURASSIC WORLD's Derek Connolly Writing PACIFIC RIM 2

After the charming indie Safety Not Guaranteed put him on Hollywood's radar, writer Derek Connolly has become a go-to guy for big studio projects. He co-wrote Jurassic World with his writing partner Colin Trevorrow, is co-writing that movie's sequel, and took a swing at Kong: Skull Island, just to name a few, and I believe he's also co-writing Star Wars: Episode IX. Now he's adding one more big project to his schedule, as THR reports he'll be penning the screenplay for Pacific Rim 2.

This particular project has experienced a lot of ups and downs over the past year or so, but the current configuration is that original director Guillermo del Toro will serve as a producer and Daredevil season 1 showrunner Steven S. DeKnight has stepped in to direct for Legendary Pictures. At this point it's unclear if he's going to start from scratch, or if he'll be doing rewrites of work that's already been done by Jon Spaihts, Zak Penn, and del Toro himself. I'm just surprised this project has continued to exist at all, because for a while it seemed as if it was just going to be another one of those "what if" movies that geeks would wonder about for years to come. Here's hoping Maisie Williams still gets to pilot a Jaeger against some rampaging kaiju in it.