Director Colin Trevorrow talks Jurassic WorldPosted by Wilson Morales
June 9, 2015
Coming put this week is the fourth installment of the “Jurassic Park” series, Jurassic World.
The film stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Judy Greer, Ty Simpkins, Jake Johnson, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D’Onofrio, BD Wong, Omar Sy, and Katie McGrath.
The story picks up 22 years after the events of Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park”, and is set in a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, called Jurassic World. After many years, Jurassic World’s attendance rates begin to decline and a new attraction, created to re-spark visitor interest, gravely backfires.
For Trevorrow, who previously directed the sci-fi movie indie film Safety Not Guaranteed, this is a huge leap for the New England native. Doing a sci-fi film is one thing, but re-igniting a franchise that was started by Spielberg is a lot of pressure, especially when expectations are high.
Blackfilm.com recently spoke with Trevorrow on the excitement and challenges of bringing back a franchise film.
What was your biggest fear in bringing back this franchise?
Colin Trevorrow: My biggest fear was just making a fan film. Making something that was derivative and a carbon copy of Jurassic Park because that would be the trap to fall into. I wanted to make something that was about a current idea and not fall back into something that was safe and being known before. In the early Eric and I were trying to figure out what this movie is about and why does this movie exist. The answer that we came up with at the time and is in the film now is that the theme park exist and this new dinosaur exist and that Jurassic Park 4 exist. For a giant corporation to make a ton of money, no matter if it’s a good idea or not. We found that the humanisation of the quest for profit and how it compromises our ethics a little bit. We found some things that we wanted to write about and that we cared about.
Why go back to just the first film and start from the 3rd one?
CT: I don’t feel that we ignored those film as much as people perceived. The first film was about a beta test or a park that never opened. This film is about a fully functional one. Those other films were on another island and they weren’t about a theme park. They were about something else. To us, it was very natural that this connects directly to the series of events that begun in Jurassic Park. The references to the second and third film in this movie and those who are fans of the series will spit them.
Any concern to how much violence you wanted to display?
CT: I just followed my own set of jnstincts. I’m not a big horror movie guy. I don’t really like excessive gore. I showed the kind of danger and suspense that I like to watch in movies. I’m a big fan of children in peril and I think it’s something we haven’t done a lot in movies lately. Kids seems to get a pretty easy time of it so I wanted to put kids in horrible danger and eventually children who see this movie to have nightmares for a couple of days. I don’t want to scar them for the rest of their lives. A couple of days of nightmares is fine for me.
Can you talk the casting and having Chris Pratt in this big role?
CT: At the time, I was just casting the best character actors that were available and I felt had what it took to carry the human characters in the film. They are play opposite dinosaurs and that’s asking as lot from actors. All of the other films have used the best actors of their time. Chris Pratt was just a character actor when I hired him. Now, he’s become a massive movie star. I don’t know what the result of his status will be I hope it will bring more people to see the film, which is great because we made a great movie and I’m really proud of it.
How much did you want to throw in references from the previous films?
CT: I needed to make a movie for both and I felt that people who loved that first movie have certain things that they want to see and things I know will give them that certain feeling the they crave because they don’t get that much anymore when they go to the movies. I wanted to provide that for them but not in a way that would invade the experience for those who have not seen any of the Jurassic Park films. I had a lot of people that I wanted to service. These are one of the great shared experience where you get to laugh, be engaged and be awe and wondered and be incredibly scared. There are not a lot of films that have that recipe, so I wanted to make a film for as many people as possible.
As the co-writer, does it make easier being able to work with the script and make changes if need be?
CT: Rick Jaffa and I are a singular brand. We were able to build something that we both felt confident in, along with Steven (Spielberg), who was a crucial collaborator. Between the three of us, the level of creative automony that I was granted in this film, we didn’t have the studio breathing down our necks, watching every move and giving notes. They were extremely hands off and allowed the three of us to build something because they trust that Steven is not going to let thing go down the tube. He cares deeply about it. The most important thing for me was that if the movie is a failure than I am responsible for that failure. If it’s a success, then we can all share in that success, everybody.
Where there any scenes that were deleted?
CT: There’s really one deleted scene in the movie. There are a couple of little small moments and all that will be on the Blu-ray but I don’t have a 3-hour cut of this movie. My first cut was 2 hours and 10 minutes and the movie is 2 hours. There’s one scene that happened in the middle that will be on the Blu-ray and it’s actually really funny. It’s Chris and Bryce going through the jungle and he encourages her to cover up the scent of her vanilla lotion that she’s wearing and it works. I really liked it but it was a moment where we had to make a decision whether or not we were breaking one of own rules as we kept the tension between those two throughout the film and this scene would make it seem as if the stakes weren’t that high.Those are the decisions one has to make in the process.
What does this big film do for you, having done smaller projects in the past?
CT: It’s a great privilege for me to be directing a movie of this scope. If people like it, I may have an audience that I can take with me with the next project. It may be smaller in scope but I find it very interesting. I’m a pro-audience director. I want to entertain people. I don’t think I will challenge people with something that’s obtuse and difficult to embrace.
A lot of actors and directors like to use the phrase, “One for them and one for me.” What do you want to do next?
CT: I like to say one for me and one for me. Because I had such a great experience on this movie, you could argue that this was one for them, but it wasn’t. This was a personal film for me. The next one I will do is also personal and is much smaller. After that, a medium size film and then after, a big film. All of these things I consider my own. To me, there’s a bit of cynicism in that. I imagine it’s a product of reality for a lot of people. I think what studios want filmmakers to do is to care about these larger films that are being made. They don’t want them to be soulless and by-the-numbers films. Donna Langley, who’s Universal studio head and her mission is to make sure that the movies that are being made have real voices and you can see that they are doing that with superhero films. They are not just hiring random men and women. They are hiring folks who have something to say and that’s good for movies.
As director and co-writer, will you be involved with a follow-up? I read elsewhere that you said you won’t direct a sequel if greenlit.
CT: I’m going to be involved. I’m a part of this now. Just because i have chosen not to direct another one of these movies, and that was a decision made a long time ago between Steven and I and he understands the fact that I want a body of work and I want to make different types of films. I don’t want to make Jurassic Park films for a decade. If I had made five different films before this, I might feel differently. I will definitely be present creatively moving forward and I’m helping to guide the direction it’s going to go. I have some really cool ideas of directors who can make a very different Jurassic Park film than mine that will also be entertaining.
