Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona (“Society of Snow”) is the frontrunner to direct the next installment in the “Jurassic World” franchise at Universal, TheWrap has learned.
“Rogue One” filmmaker Gareth Edwards, who was previously attached to direct, left the project citing creative differences.
“Rebirth” garnered $869 million globally last year and a script to the follow-up film has already been written by David Koepp. Stars Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey are expected to return. A search for a new director is underway.
According to an insider, the Jurassic franchise has always evolved with different filmmakers and cast, being led by five different core groups of actors/directors over seven movies to date. What has remained consistent are the core architects of Steven and Frank and Jurassic delivering audiences the wonder and terror of dinosaurs in our modern world. Those elements will sustain.
In his review of “Rebirth,” TheWrap’s Bill Bria wrote: “Rebirth” has a curious origin story, as it arrives a mere three years after the last entry in the series, “Jurassic World Dominion,” which was heavily marketed as, well, the last entry. Yet David Koepp’s script was deemed so crackerjack that “Rebirth” was fast tracked into production, and is now releasing just a year and change after it was first announced. While some thought this meant that the resulting movie would end up being a rushed mess, “Rebirth” proves that both Edwards and Koepp are excellent craftsmen, as it’s a delightfully thrilling summer movie adventure. It’s rather slight, and doesn’t provide any sort of bold new direction for the franchise, but as far as cinematic cheeseburgers go, it’s a tasty one.
TheInSneider first reported the news.
Universal had no comment.
More to come…