Ahead of Jurassic World: Dominion restarting principal photography this week, with a whole bunch of exhaustive safety measures mandated by Universal, Empire recently caught up with director Colin Trevorrow to get his thoughts on finally being able to get back to work on one of the biggest films of next year.
While the safety measures will undoubtedly take some getting used to as will the reality of working in the midst of a global pandemic, Trevorrow is doing his best to look on the bright side of things as among the positives to come out of this extended four-month production shut down is that it looks like he and the Jurassic team were able to get a considerable amount of post-production work done on some of the film's most VFX-heavy sequences. They had already completed about a month of filming, which primarily involved the dinosaurs and will now have a pretty healthy headstart on post-production when they return to set this week.
“For many of us, Dominion was already the biggest creative challenge of our lives, before the lockdown. The shooting schedule really worked to our advantage – the first four weeks we put to film were mostly sequences with dinosaurs in them. So that allowed us to get a head start on VFX and workshop some of the newer elements without the pressure of a looming deadline.”
Trevorrow went on to stress that he believes the safety protocols in place will indeed protect the cast and crew, but explains that the bigger challenge for him will be attempting to create a fictionalized reality that looks and feel dissimilar to the reality of the world we're all now living in. “I’m confident our guidelines will keep us safe. The hard part will be constructing a creative environment within all the precautions. Once the cameras roll, we have to forget our world and live in the world of the movie. That may take some practice.”
As his Jurassic family returns to set, commited to making the best damn film possible, Trevorrow expressed his gratitude for the strength and love everyone has shown each other these past few trying months. He says, “I’ve been really moved by the way everyone has shown support for each other. We’re all fired up to get back to work. This is what we do, and we’re all eager to get back out there and do it.”
The star-studded cast of Jurassic World: Dominion will feature Jurassic alums Chris Pratt (Owen Grady), Bryce Dallas Howard (Claire Dearing), 3x Golden Globe-nominee Sam Neill (Alan Grant), Academy Award-winner Laura Dern (Ellie Sattler), Academy Award-nominee Jeff Goldblum (Ian Malcolm), Jake Johnson (Lowery Cruthers), Omar Sy (Barry Sembane), Justice Smith (Franklin Webb), Daniella Pineda (Zia Rodriguez), Isabella Sermon (Maisie Lockwood), and BD Wong (Dr. Henry Wu).
Newcomers to the franchise include Mamoudou Athie (Sorry for Your Loss), DeWanda Wise (She's Gotta Have It), Dichen Lachman (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Scott Haze (Venom). Details on their roles are currently being kept under wraps. Campbell Scott (The Amazing Spider-Man) has also joined the cast as Dodgson.
Jurassic World: Dominion is tentatively slated to roar into theaters June 11, 2021.