Big lizard aficionado Gareth Edwards to direct Jurassic World sequel
Rogue One director Gareth Edwards will put his Godzilla training to good use in the next Jurassic World
Aux News Jurassic World
Returning to his roots, e.g., directing movies where a big lizard stomps around smushing humans and cars and stuff, Gareth Edwards will direct the next installment in the beloved, oft-quoted, and well-remembered Jurassic World series. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Universal and Amblin are looking to get this thing out the door and forgotten about by July 2, 2025, so presumably, someone had the bright idea to bring in Godzilla guy and took an early lunch.
Previously, it was reported that David Leitch, co-director of the original John Wick and the director of the upcoming Ryan Gosling movie The Fall Guy, was in talks for the role of Park custodian. It’s really just a matter of leaving a goat out for the T-Rex and making sure everyone leaves a Jurassic World movie disappointed but legally obligated to see whatever sequel Universal dumps on us next. But Edwards is an inspired choice for the role. For one thing, he knows big lizards (or [sigh] birds if you want to get annoying about it), as evidenced by his definitely pretty interesting Godzilla movie from 2014 and his debut feature, Monsters. Another thing, this guy is really good at scale. His science fiction epics, Rogue One and The Creator, generally leave audiences thinking, “Wow, that was a big-ass spaceship,” and they wouldn’t be wrong for thinking that. If there was ever a director who could give Dr. Alan Grant Spielberg Face, it’s Garreth Edwards.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that Leitch ended up walking away from talks because he would have minimal creative input because the film was being fast-tracked. That’s no problem for Edwards, who presumably knows a thing or two about bringing a complicated and imploding project over the finish line. Or, at the very least, is a collaborative player when production goes south. Nevertheless, Edwards is a solid, if exciting, pick in the difficult field of Jurassic Park sequels. We suppose it’s true what they say: life finds a way.
15 Comments
Fuck yeah, who doesn’t love big lizards–wait.
It’s been 35 years since that movie. Please stop re-booting (or whatever this is called) dinsosaurs, Star Fleet, Jedis, blue people, animated coyotes. Jfc, there are people out there with new ideas, new scripts. Can we please have some film and tv that don’t constantly remind us that we live in a gigantic theme part already?
If I could reboot any franchise, I would reboot one that wasn’t very successful and isn’t very well remembered, like Michael Bay did with Clonus. In fact I wouldn’t even do a reboot, I’d grab an old movie with lots of potential, clean it up and do new special effects. I guess what I’m getting at is that I want a Star Wars style “Trancers: The Special Edition.” What were we talking about? Oh yeah, Tim Thomerson. He’s so good! He made this awful post-apocalyptic biker movie called Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn. And guess what: The film ends on a cliffhanger. THEY DON’T DESTROY JARED-SYN! There’s your damn franchise right there!
There but for the grace of Charles Band go I!
People are hard wired to do this kind of thing. The story of Hercules didn’t start with 12 labors, that shit got built up over the life of the franchise.
Jurassic World made 1.671 billion USD, you think they’re going to stop after a couple more? LOL.
COMING SOON: Abbott and Costello versus the Godfather
Abbot and Costello Meet Ghidora the Three Musketeers
Sigh. All I want is Dinosaur with rocket launcher or machine gun, is that to difficult to make Hollywood?Joking aside. Despite how good Edwards version of Jurrasic Park, everyone will think the original is better. There’s always a detractor for his version of Godzilla and Rogue One despite the previous one (1999 Godzilla and TLJ/Han Solo) considered as the weakest one.
I still remember when the last one came out and they said “this is the last one, at least for a good while.”At least make this one actually about dinosaurs, not giant grasshoppers. A sci-fi disaster movie about a big shadowy corporation trying to assert absolute control over crop seeds could be really compelling, but not shoehorned into a franchise that’s about people running from dinosaurs.
The dream would be to have Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki heading up the Jurassic Park reboot, but obviously they’ve already got a Koepp script they apparently don’t wanna muck with.Gareth Edwards is probably the best case scenario for this project as it stands. I hope they find a way to make the dinosaurs interesting/exciting/scary.The one aspect of Jurassic World that I liked was that they actually managed to get a theme park opened and functioning for the general public — for a time. The juxtaposition of dinosaurs in a modern world is always fun to explore visually.
Agree, Edwards is a great fit here. The biggest problem with The Creator and Godzilla was the writing, but I think the direction was top notch. If someone other than Edwards is handling the story this could actually be good.
Let me guess the plot of the next Jurassic World movie:• Interesting dinosaurs are shown at the beginning of the movie, being well behaved.
• Something goes wrong that any responsible park operator would have anticipated.
• People get killed (but not the beloved main characters of course).
• An unlikely Deus ex machina happens at the end and saves the day.
even though the last 3 were shite, i’m still happy to see dinosaurs in the movies. if this is the only way we get em, so be it.i am already rolling my eyes at how many of these dinosaurs will be special breeds that universal can trademark, but whatever. as long as there’s no baby groot dino i’ll be happy.
I really like Gareth Edwards. He hasn’t always had the biggest box office smashes or the most critically-acclaimed films, but I feel like he could nail one with a little more time, planning, and script refinement. The Creator was so close. Rogue One is pretty good and has a devoted fan base, though I think it slogs in certain areas. I wish his next project was not Jurassic World “Bigger but not necessarily Better”. That franchise had its chance and flubbed whatever good will or nostalgia remained after the original Jurassic Park. Where do they go next? Space?