Director Gareth Edwards Calls Jurassic World Rebirth a "Love Letter to Spielberg"
Catch the dino-sized sequel on the biggest screen around beginning July 2.
Director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) is hoping to recapture the lighting-in-a-bottle magic of the original Jurassic Park film in this summer's Jurassic World Rebirth.
In a new behind-the-scenes featurette (shown below), Edwards states that the film, which rocks a new screenplay by original Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp, is "a love letter to [Steven] Spielberg." To that end, Edwards shot the entire blockbuster on film, in order to get "that naturalistic, cinematic quality," he explains. "It will have a lot of humor and be fun, but it also has a lot of very scary, very intense moments."
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"We've really gone back to basics," echoes star Scarlett Johansson.
Go behind-the-scenes of Jurassic World Rebirth in a brand new featurette
The new featurette also confirms the inclusion of a previously unadapted scene from Michael Crichton's original Jurassic Park novel, where the T. rex chases Alan, Tim, and Lex as they float down a river. When Spielberg — who is an executive producer on Rebirth along with Denis L. Stewart and Jim Spencer — tapped Koepp to write the new script, both parties agreed that the sequence should finally get its moment onscreen.
Set five years after Jurassic World Dominion (now streaming on Peacock), Rebirth follows an expedition to the island site of InGen's original research lab for Jurassic Park. It's a place chockfull of mutated rejects that have grown to gargantuan size. The mission — bankrolled by a major pharma company hoping to cash in on some of that sweet dino-DNA for supposed medical purposes — is led by mercenary Zora Bennett (Johansson) and her right-hand man, Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali).
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"It's an action-adventure story," Ali says. "And there's some new types of dinosaurs being introduced."
Rupert Friend (Asteroid City), Jonathan Bailey (Wicked), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer), Luna Blaise (Manifest), David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Audrina Miranda (Lopez vs. Lopez), Philippine Velge (Station Eleven), Bechir Sylvain (BMF), and Ed Skrein (Deadpool) round out the core cast.
When does Jurassic World Rebirth open in theaters?
Fans can return to the dino-sized universe when Jurassic World Rebirth opens wide Wednesday, July 2. Tickets are not yet on sale.
Curious where the franchise left off? Jurassic World Dominion is now streaming on Peacock!