How does one go about emulating a film that amassed an eye-watering $1.67 billion at the international box office? That’s a task that has been assigned to Juan Antonio Bayona, The Impossible director who officially took the reins on Jurassic World 2 late last year.
Since his appointment, we’ve learned Universal’s blockbuster sequel will up the ante quite considerably, even featuring stronger ties to the original Jurassic Park – you know, beyond Jake Johnson’s vintage T-shirt. Rafe Spall and Sherlock‘s Toby Jones are among the new recruits, and with production now expected to begin in March, JoBlo caught up with Bryce Dallas Howard to discuss all things Jurassic World 2. Set to reprise as Claire Dearing – sans high heels – the actress touched base on the “surprising” story that Bayona, Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly have rustled up, and how the 2018 sequel is poised to venture into uncharted territory.
“That’s part of the story, that’s part of the journey. She definitely went through a lot and is permanently changed because of that. But she is also who she is. Chris [Pratt] and I are already having a lot of fun with that. We’re in that stage right now of figuring out the backstory and talking through all those beats, like everything that happened in between. That’s always such a fun time. You’re like, ‘No, she did that?! No way, he couldn’t have!’ It’s really, really fun, and then you step into the present moment and it becomes alive.
“I think what is tricky about doing the fifth movie of a franchise is how will you bring in new stuff and still pay tribute to what we all know and the legacy of the film. So, it’s the balance between the new stuff and the old stuff. I think Colin [Trevorrow] did a great job in the first one finding the balance between what people are expecting and what people are being again. I was kind of surprised when he pitched me the story because it leads the story to a place that we’ve never seen before and it brings some of the most important elements from the other films and makes something with them. I thought that was very interesting. It’s the second chapter of a trilogy so it gets the story to a place that wants you leaving more and more.”
That’s a story that will seemingly involve open-source dinosaur creation, as the park’s bleeding-edge tech begins to fall into the wrong hands. InGen won’t be the only human threat in Bayona’s follow-up, it seems.
Angled as the second entry into a bona fide trilogy at Universal, Jurassic World 2 will seemingly deliver a “more suspenseful and scary” experience when Bayona’s monstrous sequel stomps into theaters on June 22, 2018.
Published: Jan 17, 2017 01:31 pm