Jurassic World Writer to Bring Monster Action to Pacific Rim 2

While Guillermo Del Toro remains on board as executive producer of Pacific Rim 2, his involvement in the sequel to his 2014 monsterfest is somewhat reduced. Earlier this year it was announced that former Daredevil showrunner Steven DeKnight would direct, and now it has been reported that Jurassic World's Derek Connolly is to work on the script.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Connolly is the latest writer to join the film. Del Toro himself has written one draft, with Zak Penn and Jon Spaihts also contributing. It is unknown whether Connolly will be rewriting the script from scratch, or working from an existing draft.

Connolly is one of Hollywood's most in-demand screenwriters--his other upcoming credits include Kong: Skull Island and Star Wars Episode IX.

DeKnight's directorial role was announced in February. The status of Pacific Rim 2 has changed over the past few months, with various press stories and its disappearance from release schedules suggesting that the movie was far from a sure thing. However, Del Toro has always insisted that the project is moving ahead.

In January, Legendary Pictures was bought by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, for a massive $3.5 billion. Although the domestic gross for the first Pacific Rim was disappointing, in China it proved extremely popular. It opened with the sixth biggest gross ever for a Hollywood movie, and ultimately earned more than a third of its entire international gross in China.