Rogue One and The Creator director Gareth Edwards is set to begin filming on his Jurassic World sequel on the 31st July. More here:
In the face of at least one major production setback that we know about, Universal is keen to get going on the next Jurassic World (or Jurassic Park) movie.
In early February, The Fall Guy and Atomic Blonde's David Leitch was announced as director, only for him to depart mere days later. In his place comes Gareth Edwards, whose terrific sci-fi thriller The Creator – his first film since 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – has since been nominated for an Oscar.
It now looks as though a Jurassic filming date has been set by Universal – as spotted by World Of Reel, the Film & Television Industry Alliance’s website lists its start date as the 31st July, 2024.
The timing makes sense given that, for reasons best known to the studio, Universal is intent on getting a new Jurassic film into cinemas for the 2nd July 2025.
That doesn’t give Edwards a huge amount of time to put his own stamp on the project, which is said to be written by veteran screenwriter David Koepp. Nor do we yet know who’ll be running away from non-existent dinosaurs during this summer’s shoot; at present, it’s said that none of the cast from the Jurassic World or the Jurassic Park movies will be making a return, which implies we’re in for some sort of reboot.
Read more: Jurassic World Dominion review | Long, busy, short on bite
Edwards’ genre filmmaking experience makes him a logical fit for a Jurassic movie – he’s dealt with towering monsters before in, er, 2010’s Monsters as well as 2014’s Godzilla – though his recent comments to the French filmmaking magazine Technikart previously suggested he wasn’t in a rush to make another big, studio movie.
“The filming of most big blockbusters begins while the scripts aren’t finalised,” Edwards said in January. “This happened to me for my two big films [Godzilla and Rogue One].“
Edwards also added that he wanted to “concentrate on personal and original projects”. Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter’s story from a couple of weeks ago said that Universal producers were looking for a “filmmaker who was experienced with big studio productions, who could accept that the role would be more shooter than auteur.”
It’s a slightly surprising move on Edwards’ part, then, but at the same time, making another gigantic summer blockbuster could give the director the leverage to get a more personal film project greenlit.
A Jurassic movie shot with Edwards’ economical, grounded style could also give the franchise the boost it needs after 2022’s bloated Jurassic World: Dominion. Seriously, what was with all the locusts…?
