Earlier this month, Universal's Jurassic World: Dominion became the first major blockbuster to resume production in the United Kingdom and just yesterday, during the Directors on Directing panel for Comic-Con@Home, Colin Trevorrow shared a promising update on how things are going and offered some insight on what's to come in his highly anticipated 2021 dino sequel.
Since the 1993 release of Jurassic Park, the series has been well known for its masterful use of digital and practical effects to realize their photo-realistic stars and it looks like Dominion will be no different, pushing the envelope even further as Trevorrow claims they film will roll out the most animatronic dinosaurs ever used in the franchise.
“We’ve actually gone more practical with every Jurassic movie we’ve made since the first one, and we’ve made more animatronics in this one than we have in the previous two. And the thing that I’ve found, especially in working in the past couple months, is that we finally reached a point where it’s possible to… digital extensions on animatronics will be able to match the texture and the level of fidelity that, on film, an animatronic is going to be able to bring. And you didn’t use to be able to really mix them. You could really see the seams. And so that part of it is very exciting for me.”
He went on to further elaborate on how the practical effects really help enhance what we'll be seeing on-screen next summer and credits Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona with helping him see a new way to shoot the sequel and achieve a whole new sense of realism when it comes to the main attraction.
“[Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director] J.A. Bayona really, he found the value in creating really photo-real, just beautiful lighting references that could be articulated just slightly. Just a head and a jaw that could move, but painted beautifully, hand-painted. And we do it for all of the dinosaurs now, so when we put it into a space, you can see how the light reacts to the skin. And even if they ultimately do make that a digital animal, there was always something there reacting to the light in that environment … just puppetry in general, just really simple puppetry is proving to be amazing.”
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.