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[Vick]

Gareth Edwards "Dropped Everything" to Direct the New 'Jurassic World' Movie [Exclusive]

"This opportunity is like a dream to me."

collider.com

Things are ramping up once again for one of the biggest franchises in movie history. It was just announced that Rogue One and The Creator director Gareth Edwards would be taking the reins to direct the recently announced next film in the Jurassic World franchise, and it seems like he’s thrilled about the position, something that pulled him away from working on his own original projects in order to take on such an opportunity.


At Collider’s FYC event for The Creator last night, moderated by Steve Weintraub, Edwards was able to talk a little about landing the job, which puts him next to industry greats like Colin Trevorrow, J.A. Bayona, and Steven Spielberg. With the news coming out so fast, he says he attempted to warn his family before it hit the Internet, though that’s a tough task in today’s day and age. “I tried my damnedest to contact my mum and tell her before it got on the internet,” he says, “and I did the same with my sister. I woke my sister up to tell her. I've left a message for my dad, but because of the time difference he's asleep. So hopefully he won't look on the internet when he wakes up.”

Edwards Joins an Iconic, Global Franchise​

As every director usually does, Edwards also had great praise for original Jurassic Park director Spielberg, who he cites as “the reason [he] ever wanted to be a film director.” The chance to work on the franchise was one he jumped on immediately, even though he was set to step away from filmmaking for a while after the Oscars run for The Creator:

“I was about to take a break and I started writing my next idea for a film and this is the only movie that would make me drop everything like a stone and dive right in. I love Jurassic Park . I think the first movie is a cinematic masterpiece…so this opportunity is like a dream to me. And to work with Frank Marshall and Universal and David Koepp, who's writing the script, I think they're all legends. So I'm just very excited.”

Edwards is the second director to have his name attached to the new Jurassic World film, after The Fall Guy director David Leitch was very briefly in talks to helm. David Koepp, who was responsible for both the screenplay for Jurassic Park and its sequel, The Lost World, will be penning the script, and it seems like things are heading in a positive direction for the sequel, despite having a 2025 release date and no cast or filming window set yet. Spielberg is also set to produce the film through his Amblin Entertainment banner, alongside Frank Marshall, but no stars from either Jurassic Park or Jurassic World are set to return for the new sequel.

The as-yet-untitled sequel will mark the seventh entry in the overall Jurassic Park franchise, not counting the Netflix animated spinoff series, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. The last film in the franchise, Jurassic World Dominion, was released in 2022, was largely a financial success, grossing over $1 billion worldwide, featuring the (nostalgia-baiting) return of Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, starring alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, among others.

The new Jurassic World film is set to hit theaters on July 2, 2025. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Well this is big to me personally, first time I have actual faith in a Jurassic movie since the 90's.

If there's one thing I commend the new movies for is having none of the "modern audience" nonsense though, so let's hope this continues now that there's an actual writer and director on board.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

I'm starting to get long-running franchise fatigue.

I like Edwards, but I want something else from him. It doesn't have to be original, just something we haven't seen in the last 15 years.

 

[Badlucktroll]

A cool plot would be them finding DNA from a secret dinosaur that ingen discovered and hadn’t cloned yet and this dinosaur would have replaced humans as the dominant intelligent species of this planet if the extinction had not occurred

 

[Kilau]

Last movie was unintentionally hysterical. Just stop please.

 

[near]

Bringing back David Koepp is a good move, let's see how this one turns out.

 

[bitbydeath]

The first movie was good because it had horror-like tension. The others sadly did not.

 

[Trilobit]

A cool plot would be them finding DNA from a secret dinosaur that ingen discovered and hadn’t cloned yet and this dinosaur would have replaced humans as the dominant intelligent species of this planet if the extinction had not occurred

I see where you're going!

 

[Kacho]

Make a serious JP with horror elements for the love of god. The franchise has been bubblegum nonsense since JP3.

 

[Revolutionary]

Well, we can count on the next Jurassic Park to LOOK nice at least... Edwards is like Zack Snyder 2.0: he can create good visuals but his story ideas are vapid and full of plot holes.

puts him next to industry greats like Colin Trevorrow, J.A. Bayona, and Steven Spielberg.

None of these names belong in the same sentence as Spielberg.

 

[Billbofet]

Jurassic Park is like Alien and Terminator (excluding James Cameron's sequels) to me in that the more they make, the worse and worse they get.
Just let it go. It was a great concept for one or two movies, but how many more times can you show the rich guy thinking this time he'll control dinosaurs and then it all goes to shit.
Or...get James Cameron to do this!
I do like Gareth Edwards' visual style, but this franchise just has too much baggage at this point. Maybe a lower budget, sub-$100M horror take on this would work. Edwards does put every dollar on the screen.

 

[Sub_Level]

Jurassic Park is like Alien and Terminator (excluding James Cameron's sequels) to me in that the more they make, the worse and worse they get.
Just let it go.

I would agree with the sentiment let it go (I left after the 3rd movie lol) but from the perspective of us fans. It makes no sense for the studio to let it go when they make hundreds of millions of dollars in worldwide box office. Its just another Transformers or Fast and the Furious. People keep watching this shit.

 

[Represent.]

Last movie was unintentionally hysterical. Just stop please.

The last movie was bad because it had a shit director. The director changes everything. I guarantee this will be the best Dinosaur movie since the 90's.

Edwards know what he's doing

This isnt like Cameron slapping his name on some new Terminator movie by some trash director. He is actually directing here

 

[Kilau]

The last movie was bad because it had a shit director. The director changes everything. I guarantee this will be the best Dinosaur movie since the 90's.

Edwards know what he's doing

Oh yeah, the amazing director for Indiana Jones and the diarrhea of density really made all the difference. He never misses! The director does not change everything when the studio wants shit they get shit.

 

[Represent.]

Oh yeah, the amazing director for Indiana Jones and the diarrhea of density really made all the difference. He never misses! The director does not change everything when the studio wants shit they get shit.

Edwards has made 2 very good monster movies already, I have no reason to doubt he can do a 3rd.

 

[Kilau]

Edwards has made 2 very good monster movies already, I have no reason to doubt he can do a 3rd.

The franchise is in a laughable state after the last two movies and a good director can still make a bad movie. Just saying, it's not a guarantee either way.

 

[Vick]

It makes no sense for the studio to let it go when they make hundreds of millions billions of dollars in worldwide box office.

Fixed.

Release Date	Title	Production Budget	Opening Weekend	Domestic Box Office	Worldwide Box Office
Jul 2, 2025	Jurassic World Event Film
Jun 10, 2022	Jurassic World: Dominion	$165,000,000	$145,075,625	$376,851,080	$1,004,004,592
Jun 22, 2018	Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom	$170,000,000	$148,024,610	$417,719,760	$1,308,323,302
Jun 12, 2015	Jurassic World	$215,000,000	$208,806,270	$652,306,625	$1,669,963,641
Jul 18, 2001	Jurassic Park III	$93,000,000	$50,771,645	$181,166,115	$365,900,000
May 22, 1997	The Lost World: Jurassic Park	$75,000,000	$72,132,785	$229,086,679	$618,638,999
Jun 11, 1993	Jurassic Park	$63,000,000	$50,159,460	$415,404,543	$1,058,454,230
Averages		$130,166,667	$112,495,066	$378,755,800	$1,004,214,127
Totals		$781,000,000		$2,272,534,802	$6,025,284,764

Edwards know what he's doing

I have no reason to doubt he can do a 3rd.

Totally.

But especially all the more promising considering this:

He cites (Jurassic Park) as “the reason [he] ever wanted to be a film director.”

There's no doubt we're gonna get GREAT shit in this.

 

[SJRB]

lmao, sure why not. Aggressive mediocrity is the highest bar with this franchise for decades so why change that.

Gareth Edwards was on to something with Godzilla but he fumbled the execution, he hasn't made a legit good movie since. Go watch The Creator and you'll see why he fits right in with shit directors creating just dreadful movies of beloved IP's.

 

[Badlucktroll]

If anything they should fucking remake Congo. Make it more true to the book and gory like the book (the grey gorillas used stone tools). Make the jungle a living hell. Give it to a good horror movie director.

 

[jason10mm]

Edwards know what he's doing

This isnt like Cameron slapping his name on some new Terminator movie by some trash director. He is actually directing here

I'm with you in principle, but after The Creator I'm a little leery about his story ideas. Need yo know who is writing this before I get too excited.

 

[Vick]

Need yo know who is writing this before I get too excited.

Same writer of the the original movie's adaptation.
And first sequel by Spielberg.

 

[Kilau]

Same writer of the the original movie's adaptation.
And first sequel by Spielberg.

And: kingdom of the crystal skull, dial of Destiny, The Mummy 2017…

Please be excited.

 

[jason10mm]

Same writer of the the original movie's adaptation.
And first sequel by Spielberg.

So, 1 for 2?

 

[Vick]

And: kingdom of the crystal skull, dial of Destiny, The Mummy 2017…

Please be excited.

Well.. problem of Crystal Skull was the plot by Lucas, some ridiculous scenes by Spielberg, the usual fake as fuck Pablo Helman visual effects, and Janusz Kaminski going overboard with its usual cinematography. Not writing.

Dial of Destiny.. fuck, didn't know that. Damn you.

So, 1 for 2?

Nah, The Lost World writing is literal galaxies ahead of the new movies, dialogues are brilliant in it. Even deleted scenes are masterful.

 

[drganon]

Hollywood truly has run out of ideas.

 

[Shadowplay1979]

Can we just reboot this shit...everything after the first movie never happened.....its 30 years on from the events of the first movie. Everyone kept their mouths shut or werent believed....dinosaurs never get to the mainland...the park is still mysterious. Its now a wild biome.....the dinosaurs are animals again and not monsters who only want to chase tiny people around while large dinosaur corpses are on the ground.

Once too many people know of the existence of the dinosaurs it instantly becomes a boring story.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

I don't know how you tell a new story in the Jurassic Park universe, but I do know that an underground dinosaur auction that tops off at $10M and a genetically-engineered locust plague are not what I wanted to see.

Someone else mentioned Gareth Edwards is Zach Snyder 2.0, and I don't disagree. Their emotional storytelling is lacking, but they make incredible visuals. I'm interested to see how this turns out.

 

[IDKFA]

I don't know how you tell a new story in the Jurassic Park universe, but I do know that an underground dinosaur auction that tops off at $10M and a genetically-engineered locust plague are not what I wanted to see.

Someone else mentioned Gareth Edwards is Zach Snyder 2.0, and I don't disagree. Their emotional storytelling is lacking, but they make incredible visuals. I'm interested to see how this turns out.

I wouldn't compare Snyder and Edwards at all, especially when it comes to emotional storytelling (see Monsters)

Edwards is also a genius when it comes to special effects. He can make a film on a shoe string budget look incredible, but also easily blend into the natural environment. Snyder is the opposite with huge amounts of slow mo CGI.

Both are totally different in style.

 

[Pigenator]

At the very least, it would be a huge step up in the visual department.
All 3 JW movies looked like dogshit

 

[E-Cat]

”Industry great” like Trevorrow? Lmao he’s shit, yet to reach mediocrity

 

[Lunarorbit]

I don't know how you tell a new story in the Jurassic Park universe, but I do know that an underground dinosaur auction that tops off at $10M and a genetically-engineered locust plague are not what I wanted to see.

Someone else mentioned Gareth Edwards is Zach Snyder 2.0, and I don't disagree. Their emotional storytelling is lacking, but they make incredible visuals. I'm interested to see how this turns out.

Yeah I have zero faith. I'd be happy to be wrong but the best i can hope is that it's extremely mediocre.

The script needs to be more than a family unit is in danger and/or a strapping adventurer saves them and leads them to safety. It's SO played out. Just world war z with dinosaurs.

 

[mitch1971]

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

”Industry great” like Trevorrow? Lmao he’s shit, yet to reach mediocrity

The only great movie Trevorrow made was Safety Not Guaranteed

It's really disappointing to see how the rest of his career turned out

Same with Gareth Edward's. Only movie I liked from him was Rogue One but I heard he had lot of help in directing it

As someone else in this thread said, Hollywood is running out of ideas

All Hollywood does nowadays is milk their existing IPs whether it's Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, DC, etc

With the 70s, 80s and 90s we had bunch of original IPs that were successful.

Nowadays it's just adaptations of either comics, fantasy book series, Sci fi book series, videogame adaptations or anime adaptations

And most of the time they do a shit job at adapting them to a movie or show. Look at Boomerlands and Rings of Power

I find it funny how one of the most talked about movies of last year was Godzilla Minus One which isn't even made by Hollywood.

And one of the most successful shows in recent memory which is One Piece Live Action is due to the original creator Oda who was heavily involved to make sure the show doesn't suck. And again he's outside the Hollywood system and had to fight tooth and nail for full control. Even if the show is successful I bet Netflix is still gonna to still cause him issues

 

[CoreyFlawless]

Make a serious JP with horror elements for the love of god. The franchise has been bubblegum nonsense since JP3.

I say the first JW kinda had a bit in it.

 

[RagnarokIV]

Y