How jurassic world dominion found new life in familiar faces

Entertainment 0 Views

Placeholder while loading article actions

For so many people, the appeal of the Jurassic Park franchise isn’t just the dangerous dinosaurs or near-death escapes. It’s also the franchise’s beloved people who still continue to delight viewers nearly 30 years after the film’s first debut. And these are the reasons why the sixth film in the series has been hype not for its superb action, but for the return of its three original – and arguably most famous – characters.

“Jurassic World: Dominion,” out Friday, reunites Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), whose blockbuster roles in 1993 helped shape generations of memes and prehistoric-themed action movies.

But it was a journey to get here.

Originally a film directed by Steven Spielberg based on Michael Crichton’s sci-fi novel of the same name, the warning about reviving dinosaurs for a theme park has seen huge success, both critically and commercially. Two sequels followed over the next decade, though less than half were as good as the reviews. In 2015, Colin Trevorrow directed the first of the reboot trilogy, “Jurassic World,” starring Chris Pratt as Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing, a younger couple representing the new generation of dinosaur advocates. The film regained some of the franchise’s admiration, but the second in that series (directed by JA Bayona) failed to capture the same excitement.

Despite the franchise’s influence outside of moviedom – the films have also spawned video games, board games, comics, animated series, short films and, ironically, theme park rides in its image – “Dominion,” re -directed by Trevorrow, is trying quite an act: convincing us, despite the dinosaurs, to love again why we were all there in the first place: the trio of doctors who managed to save the world (or an island, at least).

“There was real value in letting everyone know that the characters they loved when they were kids would be okay,” said Trevorrow, who co -wrote for all three new films. “When we value these icons and we’re not sure where or how they exist in the world we show today, what is their opinion [or] the view here is… we bring them [back] to assure people that they have found a place of safety and contentment in their lives. That’s how we end most stories, so I like to treat it as a long story from the beginning. “

Although Goldblum starred as his chaos theorist mathematician Malcolm in the 1997 sequel “The Lost World” and appeared in 2018’s “Fallen Kingdom,” and Dern and Neill had a brief cameo as paleobotanist Sattler and paleontologist Grant in “Jurassic Park III” in 2001, “Jurassic World: Dominion” was the first time the three reunited on screen.

“I’m not interested in going back and popping up for some scenes,” said Neill, who was approached by Trevorrow in the summer of 2019 when the script was still being made. The director assured him that the trio’s reunion would be something deeper than quick, nostalgic cameos.

Trevorrow and his screenwriting partner Emily Carmichael wanted Sattler, Grant and Malcolm to be organic in the film along with Claire and Owen. The story, which takes place 30 years after the infamous opening of Jurassic Park, centers on a new park dedicated to conservation and development science in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains as dinosaurs roam freely (and often dangerous) on Earth.

“I made my choice early [to] make sure Ellie is the engine of this story, or definitely one of two similar stories going on, ”said Trevorrow of Dern’s paleobotanist character. “[Emily and I] first spoke to geneticists to ask them what a global crisis could cause an interference in genetic power that only a paleobotanist would notice. And that’s what’s in the movie. ”

In fact, the arch of the OG trio feels important to the plot-even if it’s filled with a few “Jurassic Park” moments like removing Malcolm’s shirt buttons too far, the beloved Indiana Jones-esque hat by Grant almost disappearing into a hungry dinosaur. , a Cretaceous creature chasing a Jeep and a scene where Malcolm uses a fire stick to lure a T. rex away from the group. But they stopped repeating actual lines-because people don’t do that, Trevorrow says-and because the goal is never to remove those callbacks as forced. The motivation for like-for-like visuals is rather a respect.

“It came from a place of recognizing how important these characters are to this story and to us as an audience, and then building it with them,” said Trevorrow, who believes his actors are authorities in their own characters than a director. ever can be. “It was a series of conversations with Laura and Sam and Jeff, asking them how their characters would feel about this new world. All of those choices were made as a collaboration.”

Malcolm was “still active in participating in modern science and math,” Goldblum said, “and because of the events we witnessed in ’93, I changed and I was older and smarter, but more than ever intensely involved. in fighting the good fight – especially against factions and people who will use the achievements of science for their own ignorant purpose.I think what Colin did is very clever, how [Claire and Owen] coincidentally together already [with us] because of their own passionate agenda that would have been opened up in this logical and organic and exciting way. “

For Neill, playing Grant was like wearing old shoes: “It’s comfortable and I know what to do with the shoes.”

“I think there’s some emotional growth” with the character, he says, before laughing out loud. “It makes me happy when I say it out loud – this fierce old man has finally awakened to his own inner, emotional life.”

Despite various receptions to Jurassic Park films, Goldblum said he has nothing but good relationships with the franchise. The collaboration with Spielberg on the first film was a life -changing and changing event, he says, as was the collaboration with Dern and Neill.

“[Laura and Sam] is the best person you expect to meet, ”Goldblum said. “And I tell you, as the song in‘ Wicked ’says: They left a mark on my heart. I would be someone else if I didn’t work for them. “

And while “Jurassic World: Dominion” is the end of the Jurassic World portion of the trilogy, Trevorrow has yet to call the film series extinct.

“Perhaps there will be opportunities in the future” to restore the original characters, Trevorrow said. “I don’t think this franchise has to sail at sunset.”

Source link