Jurassic Park - Jurassic Park 4 Loses Producer To Star Wars Franchise

Kennedy, who produced the original 1993 dinosaur epic and Jurassic Park Iii in 2001, was due to reunite with her husband Frank Marshall and Steven Spielberg to bring the latest sequel to the big screen - but she has since bowed out of the project.

Marshall revealed the news on Twitter.com on Sunday (17Feb13) after a fan asked if Kennedy was on board to produce Jurassic Park 4.

He responded, "No, Ms. Kennedy has moved onto Star Wars and will not be producing JP4. She's traded raptors for Tie fighters."

The loss of Kennedy will be a big blow for Universal Pictures executives as they work to get the project in production in time to meet its projected June, 2014 release date - the film is still without a director after Spielberg opted not to take charge of the forthcoming installment.

Meanwhile, the new Star Wars film series has secured J.J. Abrams as director for Episode Vii and is due in cinemas in 2015.