Character-Driven Jurassic World 2 Likened To “Spanish Horror-Thriller”

From the moment Juan Antonio Bayona was appointed at the helm of Jurassic World 2, everyone involved in Universal’s 2018 sequel – specifically the outgoing Colin Trevorrow, who vacated the director’s chair to pursue Disney’s galaxy far, far away and Star Wars: Episode IX – have spoken at length about how Bayona’s follow-up aims to be the scariest, most intense installment in the decorated series to date.

And who better to steer the seemingly nerve-shredding Jurassic World 2 toward the silver screen than J.A. Bayona? From The Orphanage to 2016 sleeper hit A Monster Calls – for the record, the Spanish filmmaker was briefly attached to direct World War Z 2 for Paramount Pictures – Bayona has already amassed an impressive body of work in a relatively short space of time, and though the shift over to Hollywood’s blockbuster scene no doubt presents challenges of its own, we’re quietly confident that the director can deliver on those heightened expectations.

Another staunch supporter of Juan Antonio Bayona is Colin Trevorrow, who helped develop Jurassic World 2‘s screenplay with Derek Connolly. While appearing on MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Trevorrow showered praise on Bayona’s vision once more, claiming that JW2 has been built in such a way that it evokes a “Spanish horror-thriller.”

It is thus far my favorite creative collaboration that I’ve ever been involved in. J.A. Bayona is a completely different kind of filmmaker and thinker than I am, yet we do have a lot of things in common so I was able to craft something specifically for another filmmaker that I admire. I built a Spanish horror thriller with dinosaurs in it that I probably wouldn’t have built for myself.

“I gotta tell you, man, I think that’s gonna be a better movie. I just do. It’s just deeper, it’s more character-based, it definitely leans into suspense especially in the second half. It does have the big action in the middle and there’s a sequence in the middle that I’ve been watching…I’ve started to see stuff come together and it’s just insane.

Not only that, but it’ll also hew close to the original Jurassic Park series. One way Universal plans to stoke the embers of nostalgia is through the return of Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, and it seems the actor came prepared with some suggestions of his own – suggestions that largely involve mining Michael Crichton’s source material for further inspiration.

You know, I did rely on [Michael] Crichton for a lot. I used a lot of Crichton dialogue. Maybe one of my highlights of this whole process is Goldblum. Jeff Goldblum called me – and I’m not going to do an impression – but he was like, ‘Look, I’ve added a couple of things, and I thought I’d perform it for you.’ [Laughs] Oh, great, okay. So, we sat on the phone for an hour as he ran these lines, and I talked about it. And, I mean, that’s – it was almost better than being there on set. It was great.

Also starring Toby Jones, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, Rafe Spall, Ted Levine, James Cromwell, and Bayona’s good-luck charm Geraldine Chaplin, Jurassic World 2 will be with us on June 22nd, 2018.