The Lost World: Jurassic Park is the sequel to Steven Spielberg's 1993 film recounting events on a Costa Rican island inhabited by genetically-engineered dinosaurs, which broke all box-office records and showcased an emerging visual effects technology.

Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, the story picks up four years after the disaster at Jurassic Park. Something has survived on a second island Isla Sorna, where the dinosaur manufacturing facility code-named Site B has been destroyed by a hurricane and the animals now run free, constrained only by the laws of nature.

"When I first heard that Michael was going to write the book and that he was thinking of calling it The Lost World, I was thrilled because I'm a big fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Lost World. I was compelled by the idea of being inside a prehistoric world that exists today - not behind electrified fences, not in a theme park, but in a world without the intervention of man. I thought, 'Wow, what a great story.' If I hadn't found a story I was interested in, Jurassic Park would have remained just a nice memory for me," says Steven Spielberg.

For Spielberg, who had been carefully considering a number of projects for his return to directing after a three-year hiatus, Crichton's interest in revisiting the Jurassic saga helped sway his own decision. Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, Spielberg's production company, had begun discussing a sequel to Jurassic Park as the original film was breaking box-office records around the world en route to becoming the highest-grossing motion picture of all time. Now, Spielberg, Crichton and Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp entered into a gentleman's agreement to bring The Lost World to the screen, under the Universal-Amblin umbrella.

"I realized that what I really wanted to do was direct. I had started a company and done a lot of other things in those three years. So I was ready to return to it, and I had always wanted to do a sequel to Jurassic Park - both because of popular demand and because I'd had such a great time making the first film," Spielberg reflects.

With the deal in place, Spielberg began to pull together a creative team, nearly every member of which was a veteran of Jurassic Park. Serving with Spielberg were producers Gerald R. Molen and Colin Wilson. Executive producer Kathleen Kennedy would also return to the fold, along with production designer Rick Carter, film editor Michael Kahn and composer John Williams. With full motion dinosaurs by Dennis Muren, live action dinosaurs by Stan Winston and special dinosaur effects by Michael Lantieri, this Academy Award®-winning triad that had combined talents to create the dinosaur effects for the first film also committed to the sequel. Of all the department heads, only director of photography Janusz Kaminski - who had shot Schindler's List for Spielberg - was not an alumnus of Jurassic Park.

In The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum reprises his role as chaos theorist Ian Malcolm and Richard Attenborough makes a special appearance as the ambitious entrepreneur John Hammond. Julianne Moore (Nine Months ), Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father ), Arliss Howard (To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar ), Vince Vaughn (Swingers ), Vanessa Lee Chester (Harriet the Spy ), Peter Stormare (Fargo ), Harvey Jason (Air America ), Richard Schiff (City Hall ) and Thomas F. Duffy (Wolf ) join Goldblum in the cast.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is Spielberg's first film since 1993, when he directed both Jurassic Park and Schindler's List, which won a total of seven Academy Awards® including Best Picture and Best Director. Jurassic Park was also honored with three Academy Awards® including Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects.