Hold on to your butts, and whip out the popcorn – today we have a very special episode of our Podcast, featuring director Colin Trevorrow! Colin took time out of his busy schedule to speak to us about The Book of Henry, Jurassic World, and of course, the Jurassic World sequel!
Not only did Colin join us and talk all things Jurassic, he brought in a very special surprise guest at the end (Spoiler: Jurassic World 2 director J.A. Bayona!)
So if you’re wondering if dinosaurs will be rampaging around London, how large of a role Hawaii will play, if animatronics will be more strongly featured, or if the sequel will be scarier, what are you waiting for? Give it a listen here!
If you’re not currently in a position to listen, don’t stress. We will be updating the article soon with all the highlights!
“It will be more suspenseful and scary. It’s just the way it’s designed; it’s the way the story plays out. I knew I wanted Bayona to direct it long before anyone ever heard that was a possibility, so the whole thing was just built around his skill set.”
“Film has become so cutthroat and competitive; it felt like an opportunity to create a situation where two directors could really collaborate. It’s rare these days, but it’s something that the directors that we admire used to do all the time—one writes and produces and the other directs, and the end result is something that’s unique to both of them. I’m in the office right now, I’ve been here every day since July working closely with J.A., listening to his instincts, and honing the script with Derek to make sure it’s something that all of us believe in.”
Jurassic World was built upon 12 years ideas from Steven Spielberg, but the sequel is fresh territory to go in whichever direction they [Colin Trevorrow and Steven Spielberg] choose.
“Jurassic World had to restart the engine. This movie has to prove it has a reason to exist”
Jurassic World 2 is “Built upon the concepts and stories that Crichton created with the novels.”
“A mistake made a long time ago just can’t be undone.” is a real world theme that plays heavily into JW2. “You can’t put it back into the box”
Dialog from the first book is in JW2. “It makes me feel like such a good writer (…) Look at me, that’s a hell of a sentence”
Crichton has the ability to make things completely bonkers feel real and motivated. That’s the goal with these movies, to make these large ideas feel part of our world.
This movie doesn’t need to be ‘bigger’. It’s not about ‘bigger better dinosaurs’ or ‘bigger action sequences’. Brings up Raptors in the Kitchen scene vs Indominus Rex Helicopter explosion, and how the simplicity of the former is just as effective – if not more.
“I think the lack of animatronics in Jurassic World had more to do with the physicality of the Indominus, the way the animal moved. It was very fast and fluid, it ran a lot, and needed to move its arms and legs and neck and tail all at once. It wasn’t a lumbering creature. We’ve written some opportunities for animatronics into [Jurassic World 2] – because it has to start at the script level—and I can definitely tell you that Bayona has the same priorities, he is all about going practical whenever possible.”
Budgetary requirements of JW also led to less animatronics. One of the rewards of success is they can make more with JW2. They will utilize the general animatronic rules of the franchise: best used when standing still, or with less complex actions.
Even when working with CG, it’s important to work with real effects as well. (For example: a model helicopter was built for JW crash.)
[ILM] are looking into using motion capture on real animals for JW2 – beyond traditional motion studies.
With JW he sometimes gave instructions to animate the Indominus like it was a animatronic
There are new dinosaurs in the movie which were real and existed. They are looking at existing paleoart, and defining the Jurassic Park version from there: there is a specific look to Stan Winston dinosaurs, and it’s important to stay true to it.
Colin is proudly ‘guilty’ of caring about the Dinosaurs as much as the people. They’re characters.
On feathered dinosaurs: Jurassic World addressed the issue of featherless dinosaurs with Dr. Wu’s speech. “Whether or not that will evolve or change over the course of the films? I cannot tell you. We will see.”
The Jurassic Park East Dock sign in Jurassic World was swapped out for the Research sign due to the latter alluding to more about the old park, further expanding the world.
“I feel like an idiot to say I did not expect it, but that’s the truth. None of us did.” Zara’s Death, Claire’s Heels. He hopes people can see his intention for the scenes, just as he can see their interpretation. “Claire wasn’t going to let uncomfortable shoes stop her from being a total badass and getting shit done”
“Zara was about surprising viewers with an unearned death (which is something we are dealing with a lot in the world now). It’s an Amblin thing… seeing something we probably shouldn’t get to see as a child
Hawaii is a primary location but not the only one. But yes, part of the story takes place in the familiar fictional territory Hawaii represents.
The movie does not take place in the UK, they’re only making the movie there. So, no dinosaurs rampaging through London.
On militarized dinosaurs in JW2 “I’m not that interested in militarized dinosaurs, at least not in practice. I liked it in theory as the pipe dream of a lunatic [Hoskins]. When that idea was first presented to me as part of an earlier script it was something that the character that ended up being Owen was for, that he supported, something that he was actively doing even at the beginning. Derek and I, one of our first reactions was ‘No if anyone’s gonna militarize raptors that’s what the bad guy does, he’s insane.'”
“Jurassic World War feels like a cartoon to me. I’d watch that cartoon with my kid, but I wouldn’t make it.” – It’s not the sequel, but don’t let that stop you from making the fun fanart!
Jurassic World 2 is about our relationship with animals, and how we share the planet with other living things. There’s mention of militarization in the sequel, but there’s also mention of open source and humans living along dinosaurs – he favors the latter for the sequels story.
On how much he had planned for the trilogy when making Jurassic World: “I knew the end. I knew where I wanted it to go.”
Kids who saw Jurassic World will be threes years older by JW2. A jump from 9 years old to 12 is huge. It’s about making the story grow up for them, and it’s why he’s bringing in a Spanish horror director.
The structure of Jurassic World was about getting bigger and bigger as the story progressed. JW2 is very inspired by the structure Jurassic Park (which had its biggest sequence in the middle and then funneled into a series of claustrophobic and intimate scenes towards the end).
J.A. Bayona on the sequel: “I was very surprised by the story.” He likes the idea of having a lot of things you do not expect, but also remain respectful to the tradition and legacy. “There are things you really don’t expect and it is very exciting”
Jurassic World 2 does have a title, but it remains secret, and they won’t share when it’ll go public
Colin Trevorrow: “Go see A Monster Calls to understand why he’s the right guy for JW2.”
We can’t stress enough how thankful we are that Colin Trevorrow took some time out of his very busy schedule to speak with us! We ran a little longer than we expected, but thankfully he didn’t set the Raptors loose on us to see things to a swift end.
