“Jurassic Park” was by far one of the biggest film franchises of the 1990s. So it wasn’t a surprise when the 2015 reboot “Jurassic World” took the box office by storm, kicking off a whole new generation of big-screen dinosaurs.
With the release of “Jurassic World Rebirth” just around the corner, director Gareth Edwards (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) is opening up about the shooting process.
The bulk of the film is shot in the wilderness of Thailand which presents unique challenges that you won’t find on a soundstage. “I’m allowed to say this now that we’re on the other side of it, but we shot in rivers and these mangrove swamps,” Edwards explained to Entertainment Weekly. “When we were scouting them, we saw poisonous water snakes, massive ones that we had to catch. We kept it quiet from the actors as they spent a whole day wading through the same area. And there were giant spiders that were poisonous and stuff on the edge of the trees. You just wouldn’t point them out if you saw them. Just keep going!”
“Some water stunts” were filmed in a tank but the rest of the ocean scenes were shot in Malta. “It’s probably the last film I ever shoot in the ocean because it was very difficult,” the director admits. “I’m glad we persevered, but I think everybody, all the actors, went through as crazy a journey as the characters in the film, these very physically demanding, sometimes near-death experiences that had these high-reward factors if you managed to succeed.”
“Jurassic World Rebirth”
Set Five years after the events of “Dominion” where dinosaurs were hobnobbing with humans, these creatures are now dying out. The landscape in “Rebirth” is inhospitable for the prehistoric creatures, sans one small region in the tropics, where many are beginning to colonize. Three of the dinosaurs in this region have genetic material that is invaluable to a pharmaceutical company that plans to use their DNA to create a life-saving drug for humans.
Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), is a “special-ops, ex-CIA type,” contracted by this company to get into this area and extract this DNA. Alongside her most trusted ally, Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) who captains their team’s ship. The duo is accompanied by paleontologist, Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) who is “out of his depth in terms of the military element of the mission.” “He’s very comfortable on digs and expeditions but not the life-and-death risks that Kincaid and Zora are getting into.”
“Rebirth” will introduce a whole new cast to the franchise including Johansson, Bailey, Ali, and Rupert Friend. The fresh faces paired with the more aquatic sets feel like the start of a whole new series. “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 [who directed the first two movies in the franchise] 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.”
Spielberg’s Impact
In fact, Edwards set out to capture the essence of what he loved about Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park.” “Jurassic Park did lead the way with computer graphics, but I feel like we got lost along the way with the arms race to a spectacle,” he explains. “Jurassic actually only had just a few dozen VFX shots in it, and it’s such a powerful film. So, it was trying to go back to all those tricks and ideas that tease the audience, that creates suspense and tension that get you on the edge of your seat. I just wanted to create that feeling I had when I was young of being in awe of these things.”
“Jurassic World Rebirth” hits theaters on July 2, 2025. We’ll keep you posted on updates about the project as they become available.
