diff --git a/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geometries.py b/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geometries.py
index 21b8a1a27c..a39838c6ce 100644
--- a/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geometries.py
+++ b/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geometries.py
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ from django.contrib.gis.gdal.prototypes.srs import clone_srs
 # Regular expressions for recognizing HEXEWKB and WKT.
 hex_regex = re.compile(r'^[0-9A-F]+$', re.I)
 wkt_regex = re.compile(r'^(?P<type>POINT|LINESTRING|LINEARRING|POLYGON|MULTIPOINT|MULTILINESTRING|MULTIPOLYGON|GEOMETRYCOLLECTION)[ACEGIMLONPSRUTY\d,\.\-\(\) ]+$', re.I)
-json_regex = re.compile(r'^\{.+\}$')
+json_regex = re.compile(r'^\{[\s\w,\.\"\'\:\[\]]+\}$')
 
 #### OGRGeometry Class ####
 class OGRGeometry(object):
diff --git a/django/contrib/gis/gdal/libgdal.py b/django/contrib/gis/gdal/libgdal.py
index 28d2d49907..4e26cf0ff3 100644
--- a/django/contrib/gis/gdal/libgdal.py
+++ b/django/contrib/gis/gdal/libgdal.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def std_call(func):
 #### Version-information functions. ####
 
 # Returns GDAL library version information with the given key.
-_version_info = lgdal.GDALVersionInfo
+_version_info = std_call('GDALVersionInfo')
 _version_info.argtypes = [c_char_p]
 _version_info.restype = c_char_p