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038 OCTOBER 2015
Executive producer Steven Spielberg and director Colin Trevorrow were determined
to make Jurassic World more than just another walk in the Park.
The possibility of a fourth Jurassic Park
film had been gestating since the
opening of Jurassic Park III in 2001.
Steven Spielberg was keen to revisit the
franchise and over the next 14 years a number
of directors and screenwriters came and went
as the project continued to evolve. During that
period, however, fans never let Spielberg forget
that they, too, wanted to return to a world of
prehistoric predators running amok.
"A lot of people that I’d bump into whom I'd
never met before would remind me by simply
asking, 'When is the next Jurassic Park coming
out?' That accumulated after a while, and I
started to put some thought into it," Spielberg
recalls.
Unlike the first three films, which focused on
a small group of scientific advisers and civilians
being menaced by dinosaurs recreated from
fossil DNA, Spielberg felt that the fourth film
should feature a fully functioning theme park.
"Jurassic World is almost like seeing
Jurassic Park come true,” he says. “We
wanted to fulfil this dream in
Jurassic World: to have a
truly working theme park
that is devoted to this
miracle of creating
dinosaurs from DNA. This
is the realisation of Michael
Crichton's dream, which
then transferred to John
Hammond's dream. This,
hopefully, becomes
the dream that audiences have
always wanted to see."
Jurassic World was also a
dream come true for indie
filmmaker Colin Trevorrow,
who was chosen to direct
on the strength of his 2012
debut feature Safety Not
Guaranteed, which had
impressed Spielberg.
"I had seen Safety Not
Guaranteed and the very last scene was
what convinced me that Colin was the right
person to direct Jurassic World,” Spielberg
explains. "I flew out of my seat when I
saw the last scene of that movie… if
Colin was good in the meeting, he was
going to get the job. He was completely
enthusiastic, both as a filmmaker and
as a fan, but also had a story to tell. He
didn't just come in and say, 'I'd like to
render my services directing the fourth
instalment.'"
In addition to being a skilled storyteller,
Trevorrow was also well versed
in Jurassic Park lore, being part
of the generation who grew
up with the Steven Spielberg
original.
"I have a very specific
memory of Jurassic Park
coming out on the last day
of school, and there's a
feeling that goes along with
that," he says. "When everything
is behind you, everything is ahead
of you, and you have that moment
of being alone in a movie theatre and being
transported to where Jurassic Park takes you."
Trevorrow was also determined to approach
Jurassic World from a different perspective,
rather than simply repeat the formula that
worked for the first three films.
"The questions for us were, 'Why would
there be another instalment? What's a story
that we can tell and characters that we can
introduce that make all of this worthwhile?'
"We knew we didn't want another film
of people just running from dinosaurs and
screaming; that's been done before and
done very well," he says. "I felt that what the
audience wants, and I know what
Steven wants, is to take this
brilliant core concept and see
where else we can go with
it – to expand and open it
up, while taking audiences
back to a familiar place.”
Director Colin Trevorrow
Chris Pratt
Jurassic World is almost like
seeing Jurassic Park
come true