Similar to writer David Koepp's sentiments from a few days ago, Jurassic World Rebirth director Gareth Edwards shares the excitement about returning the franchise to a more simple formula.
These locales were part of the “back to basics” approach to the movie. As the title suggests, the next Jurassic World sequel, hitting theaters July 2, 2025, is a “rebirth” of sorts for the franchise. Not that it necessarily needed one. People still flock to theaters to see dinosaurs on the big screen; the last three each crossed $1 billion at the global box office. Still, since 2015’s entry, which began a new trilogy starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, critical acclaim drifted downwards incrementally. The last installment, 2022’s Dominion, with its reunion of Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, made about half as much as the first Jurassic World in the U.S. alone, but at the end of the day, it still skirted over the billion mark worldwide. The team behind Rebirth hopes to recapture the magic of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic with real filming locations, less blue screen, and a pretty simple but compelling story with fresh leads.
And as for the future of the Jurassic Park film franchise...
“I can't speak for Universal, but it did feel like a new trilogy, in a way,” Edwards says. “I'm not sure what their plans are, but it felt like the beginning of a brand-new chapter in this franchise. To me, it's a giant love letter to Steven Spielberg and his earlier films. There are moments in this movie that remind me very much of Jaws. It’s like little greatest hits of all those aspects of his films that I loved growing up as a child. It's essentially a little adventure odyssey across this island, a survival story, really.”
Source: Entertainment Weekly