For more than 30 years, few franchises have captivated audiences quite like the Jurassic Park series, which launched in 1993 with Steven Spielberg’s iconic film. Since then, a variety of filmmakers have put their own spin on the concept of what would happen if science found a way to bring dinosaurs back to life, and while there have been a number of thrilling moments throughout multiple installments, filmmaker Gareth Edwards took things to new heights with Jurassic World Rebirth, which fully leaned into the more horrifying elements of the premise. With Rebirth now available for purchase on Digital, ComicBook had a chance to catch up with Edwards and the film’s stars to talk putting a fresh spin on the beloved premise.
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“I wish I could write a little document and go, ‘This is what makes a Jurassic film, this is what does not make a Jurassic film,’ but you can’t do that. It all becomes very subconscious and pure instinct,” Edwards shared of his approach to honoring the past while forging a new path. “When you make a movie, you’re basically, especially this film, if you go slightly left, you’re just copying Jurassic Park, if you go slightly right, it’s not a Jurassic film. It’s a really delicate balance, every single decision the whole way through. To be honest, the first director’s cut, the first version of the movie, had a lot of Jurassic nods. Because I’m a massive fan, I think the world’s a massive fan of that first film.”
He continued, “Then what happened was, we showed it to Steven Spielberg and David Koepp, and it was, ‘Naughty Gareth.’ I was doing all the notes, when you sit there and you go, ‘Oh, God, what are we going to get?’ And it’s Steven, you’ve got to do everything he says, because he’s a master. You’re going through it all, and then it was like, ‘I think it’s really good, it’s really good, it’s so good.’ It was an hour and a half phone call, and then the very last one was, ‘Oh yeah, by the way, take out all the Easter eggs and the Jurassic references.’ And it was like, ‘Oh.’ It was one of those things where you go, ‘Okay, let’s do that, and then see how everyone feels about it.’ And thankfully, we did it, and then they, obviously, were like, ‘Okay, fair enough, you can put some of that back in,’ and so I think we landed in a good place.”
In the latest chapter of the Jurassic franchise, “A covert extraction team races to the most dangerous place on Earth, an island research facility where dinosaurs too deadly for the original Jurassic Park were left behind. Their mission: collect DNA from three colossal creatures to unlock a drug with huge benefits for humanity. In a terrain populated by perils, they will make a shocking discovery that has been hidden for years.”
Despite Rebirth largely functioning on its own, Jonathan Bailey’s Dr. Loomis references having worked with Sam Neill’s Alan Grant. The actor recalled his own process for developing that backstory and how much of that history he would reveal.
“You come up with a full idea of it. Actually, we didn’t really speak about it at all,” Bailey admitted of collaborating with Edwards about that backstory. “There’s conversations that you have in your head, and also in the costume, and it’s innate that you work out exactly where your character is … I also feel quite protective of the old backstory. Because also, especially in Rebirth, which hits the ground running, there’s moments that you share at the beginning of the film before the momentum really kicks off where you get to understand a bit about the characters.”
While Bailey might have been cryptic about his character’s past, stars Luna Blaise and David Iacono addressed their characters’ futures and whether their romantic relationship grew stronger or weaker after battling dinosaurs.
“I think it’s ambiguous for a reason. I don’t think audiences have to know. I think, personally, if I had to guess, I’d say Xavier would very much want to continue to be with Theresa. I think he’s very in love with her,” Iacono shared. Blaise added, “I think by the end of the movie, the last shot, I think it’s literally the second-to-last shot of the movie, is of us. I’m lying in your arms … And that was very much like a moment of like, ‘We’re here. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you,’ type of thing. I would hope that they would stay together, and maybe this would bring them closer.”
She continued, “How do you like, go back to normal civilization after, I always think about that. How do you go back into normal life after being in Jurassic World?”
Filming the thrilling sequences for Rebirth brought the cast many memorable experiences, with Audrina Miranda reflecting on the highlights of the shoot.
“For the hardest day, I’d say there weren’t too many hard days for us, but actually, in Malta, we were actually sailing the boat, the Meriposa, and so that was a little harder because it was super hot. It is a tiny boat, and so they couldn’t fit all the crew on that one single boat, but luckily, we had all the cast, and we all were just having fun there, too,” the actor confessed. “They’d give us some ice packs, some fans, and it’s just us on that boat, but if you look to the right, it’s so many boats with so many crew members. And I think that was a harder day for us to do.”
Despite the many stunt-oriented sequences, one of the highlights came from a chance connection with an iconic filmmaker.
“But one of the fun days, there’s were a lot. Actually, whenever we were running down the thing to go to the boat to try to escape from the D-Rex, that was cool because it was a night shoot,” Miranda confirmed. “And so, it’s like 11 p.m. at night, and we’re all tired at this point. And then Frank Marshall, the executive producer of this movie, was like, ‘Hold on, give me a sec,’ because he was talking to us, and pulls up. It’s Steven Spielberg on the phone. And we’re all like, ‘Hey.’ That was at least my first time meeting him on FaceTime. So, it was super cool, and I really felt like it boosted everyone’s mood. It was just super exciting because now we know that he was watching all our tapes, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I saw your audition.’ Definitely, he probably had to see mine, but just hearing it come out of his mouth that he watched my audition tape.”
Having delivered films in the Godzilla, Star Wars, and now Jurassic franchises, Edwards joked that he might have to stay away from major properties in the near future.
“I don’t look at the internet when I can. And [my girlfiend] shared with me this meme someone had made, or a comment someone had made, which was, ‘Gareth doing Godzilla, Star Wars, and Jurassic is the kind of greed that they warned us about in the Bible,’” the filmmaker teased. “And so I feel like I’ve got to step away and not do another one.”
Jurassic World Rebirth is now available for purchase on Digital.
What did you think of the latest chapter in the franchise? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!
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Image Courtesy of Ufotable
