Life finds a way — and so did “Jurassic World Dominion” director Colin Trevorrow.
The filmmaker says it felt special to bring back actors Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in their first movie together since Steven Spielberg’s 1993 original “Jurassic Park.”
“I remember taking a picture, just on my phone, of the three of them in a Jeep together. I sent it to Steven Spielberg and it really moved him,” Trevorrow, 45, told the Daily News. “It was surprisingly emotional seeing the three of them back together again, and that made me feel like we’ve done something meaningful for somebody who I respect and care about.”
In theaters Friday, “Dominion” serves as the epic conclusion to Trevorrow’s “Jurassic World” trilogy and is the sixth film overall in the “Jurassic Park” franchise.
The movie picks up with dangerous dinosaurs — including some genetically enhanced species — living in civilization among humans after their island home of Isla Nublar was destroyed.
“This is a very different kind of film,” Trevorrow said. “It’s about these creatures having to coexist with humans on the planet, and genetic power having been wielded in a way that has had dire consequences, that could destroy life as we know it. We might go extinct just like the dinosaurs.”
“Dominion” was a long time in the making for Trevorrow, who directed 2015′s “Jurassic World” and has been a writer on all three of the trilogy’s films. He says he always had the final images of “Dominion” in his head as he worked on the franchise.
Shepherding the returns of Neill as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, Dern as paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler and Goldblum as mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm was “an honor,” says Trevorrow, but also “a huge responsibility.”
“I started by just having conversations with each of them, along with Emily Carmichael, my co-writer, and listening, and asking them where they felt these characters had been the past 28 years, how they feel about the new world that we’ve created since they’ve been gone from this franchise,” Trevorrow said.
“Then we built characters from there that reflected, in some cases, where they are in their lives.”
Neill, Dern and Goldblum each have prominent roles in the film alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, who play the main characters of the “Jurassic World” trilogy.
Trevorrow enjoyed balancing the characters’ journeys with action-packed dinosaur chases and exhilarating fight scenes, aiming to make the film feel as real as possible.
“We had many more animatronics than we’d ever had on any of the ‘Jurassic World’ films,” Trevorrow said. “We also used puppetry. We used partial animatronics, and then we built I think 112 sets, so all of the environments that we’re in are real places.”
Trevorrow was a 16-year-old aspiring filmmaker when he first saw “Jurassic Park.” He believes the movie’s legacy transcends entertainment.
“In real-world terms, there is a legacy of children seeking out careers in science, and paleontology specifically. So many young girls went on to be scientists because Ellie Sattler was their hero,” Trevorrow said. “It’s very rare when a movie can have that kind of impact, and really send people on a different path in their lives.”
Trevorrow doesn’t expect to make another “Jurassic” movie, but that doesn’t mean the beloved dinosaur franchise will go extinct.
“I think I’ve said what I have to say, but I would never want to be the one to say that a younger filmmaker who also grew up on dinosaurs, who has their own imagination they can apply to this, shouldn’t have the opportunity to do it,” Trevorrow said.
“We’ll never stop being fascinated by dinosaurs. ... I’m sure there’s more stories to be told.”
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