A new era has been born.
Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.
Written by original Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp and directed by visionary filmmaker Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Creator), Jurassic World Rebirth, anchored by iconic action superstar Scarlett Johansson, breakthrough talent Jonathan Bailey and two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, is an action-packed new chapter which evolves the series in an ingenious new direction.
As part of The AU Review’s extensive coverage of the film, Peter Gray first spoke with director Edwards about honouring original series director Steven Spielberg, how he calibrated a variety of genre tones, and just who is responsible for Jonathan Bailey’s “Slutty little glasses” virality?
One of the things I love about your movies is that they gravitate towards stories where humanity is dwarfed by something. Creatures, technology, systems…What drew you to Jurassic World Rebirth? And how did you make this world feel new whilst still honouring its legacy?
It’s weird, because if someone says to you, “How do you bring your own voice to a Jurassic film?” I’m like, “I was desperately trying not to!” I was desperately trying to do my best impression of Steven Spielberg. Turns out, Steven Spielberg is pretty damn good at what he does, and he’s very hard to copy. Every time I fail, that’s just my voice creeping in, and you can’t escape your own brain, right? So there’s stuff in there, and I’m not aware of it when I’m doing it, I was really trying to create a movie like the movies I’d grown up loving. Like an early 90s film or something. Essentially, we wanted (Rebirth) to feel like Universal Studios had found an old reel of film on the shelf somewhere, and dusted it off, and it said “Jurassic World Rebirth.” And they’re like, “We don’t remember making this.”
I wanted it to feel like it was something they’d forgotten they’d done and they’re going to release it this year, or something like that. I just wanted it to have all of those qualities of that kind of filmmaking. Then, inevitably, you try and do that, but half of it ends up with a modern, fresh take. Which I was also not trying to do. I was just trying to do a film like I loved back then. But I’m obviously not very good at it.
Watching it really brought me back to films that I grew up with. It had that sense of horror of a lot of those “kid films”, or films often aimed at families back then. They weren’t afraid to be a little bit scary. The original Jurassic Park walked that tightrope between wonder and fear. For you, did you have to calibrate an emotional tone, especially with audiences who are now desensitized to spectacle?
You made it sound really smart with that much intellect (laughs), but what I did do is watch the original Jurassic Park again and make notes. Honestly, if you sit there with a little clicker and you press it every time there was a joke or a bit of humour, every minute or so in that film there’s a little something. You would never walk out of the cinema and say “Jurassic Park‘s a comedy”, but it’s very funny. There’s some very great things in it. And you’d also not necessarily walk out and say “It’s a horror film”, but it’s really scary. What they did in (Jurassic Park) so well is they balanced it all out. It’s got stuff in it that’s more scary than some of the best horror movies. But it’s got really funny humour and really loveable characters, and a sense of adventure and fun. It’s all nicely balanced.
So, in the middle somewhere is a family adventure. But there’s going to be this whole section that’s scary as hell, you know? And you allow it, because there’s these funny things. I always felt like every time I made a joke I got a horror token. And so I was just collecting horror tokens from trying to make the film funny as it could be here and there, so that we could spend them all. I kept waiting for the studio to tap me on the shoulder and go, “You’re not allowed to do that.” And they didn’t. And it’s too late now, because the movie’s done.
Is there a specific scene or a character beat that you’re most proud of? Where performance and spectacle aligned in a way that felt truly unique to your vision of Jurassic World?
Wow, yeah. I hope so. It’s weird. My favourite bit? There’s lot of favourite bits, and I can’t talk about it because it’s a spoiler, but I really like the end of the film. Like, the very end. I’ll try and talk about it in the least spoilery way. We were in Abbey Road with Alexandre Desplat, and there’s this end music. I said to him, “Is there going to be a choral bit here? Like, with choir?” And he said, “Yeah, we’ll do that.” And then time got the better of us, and then there’s this ticking clock and essentially you can’t go over because you have to pay 100 people over time. So the clock’s going, and suddenly there was this moment where it’s like, “Oh, we haven’t done the very end bit.” This very beautiful choral thing, and it hadn’t been written either. We had 10 minutes. There was no way he was going to be able to write a score, and we give it to this choir and they record it in 10 minutes!
You just start scribbling, and there’s all these lines, and I don’t understand music, but he’s writing sheet music and he’s listening to the classic theme, and he’s trying to harmonize with it. He writes it. And they run it out to the guy who’s conducting the choir and he just shouts out the chords and to the choice, and none of it makes any sense to me. They just go and play the thing. They hit record, and it’s one of the most beautiful pieces of music in the entire movie. I’ve grabbed that piece of paper and I’m framing it on my wall at home, because it felt like it was a little symbol of our movie. When you have no time and you have a gun to your head, you can only do your first instinct. It can actually work out. This whole movie was done in half the time you’d normally have to do these kind of films, because of the release date, so, yes, it was super interesting.
And I obviously have to quickly ask about Jonathan Bailey’s spectacles. They’ve become a thing in themselves. Was that you’re doing? Was that his doing? Who gets to take responsibility for the “slutty little glasses” thing that’s going on?
I just think it’s jealousy. I totally understand. I think there’s a certain community online that I don’t disagree with, where they’re just jealous of anything that gets to spend time on Jonathan Bailey’s face. So they’re using negative connotations. But I think if he didn’t have the glasses and he had a hat, it’d be a slutty, slutty hat. I just think he’s cursed with this issue of people having sexual thoughts about anything touching him. I would love to take credit. It’s totally Jonathan’s doing. He’s a superstar and I would buy shares in him now if he was selling stock.
Jurassic World Rebirth is screening in Australian theatres from July 3rd, 2025. It will release in the United States on July 2nd.
