Steven Spielberg’s classic blockbuster ‘Jurassic Park’ is a favourite of practically everyone's, so it was exciting to see a return to the world in the 2015 reboot ‘Jurassic World’.
Now, audiences will return once again for ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’, and no one is more excited than the film’s Director J.A. Bayona.
“It’s a great honour,” he exclaims. “I’ve been growing up watching these films, so from the very first moment it was a great honour.”
Set four years after ‘Jurassic World’, ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ sees former park manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) founding the Dinosaur Protection Group. It’s been some time since she last saw dinosaur trainer and love interest Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), but she needs his help. The park was built on a long dormant volcano that’s now ready to erupt and she needs his help to rescue the dinosaurs. Hesitant to return, Claire convinces him to join her to rescue his raptor Blue, who is still alive.
“The story is very different because for the first time it’s a rescue mission not to save people, but to save dinosaurs,” he says. “It’s also very challenging to be part of a sequel; this is the second movie of ‘Jurassic World’, but the fifth of ‘Jurassic Park’, so it’s very challenging to find that angle. We somehow pay tribute to the legacy, but at the same time we bring the story to a new level. I should admit that the first time Colin (Trevorrow, 'Jurassic World' Director) told me the story I was very surprised, gladly surprised, and I think it’s very exciting.”
Spanish director Bayona has an interesting filmography, including the Spanish horror film ‘The Orphanage’ and fantasy ‘A Monster Calls’. But it was his 2012 feature ‘The Impossible’ – about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami – that caught the attention of executive producer Steven Spielberg.
“Steven really liked ‘The Impossible’, he loved that film. But also Colin loved ‘The Orphanage’, which was the first movie I did. I think somehow you will find elements of both films in this one. It’s a big disaster movie with a volcano, but also there’s an element of suspense we’re bringing back to the saga.”
Returning for the sequel are Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, as well as new characters played by James Cromwell and Rafe Spall, and the return of ‘Jurassic Park’ alumni Jeff Goldblum as Dr Ian Malcolm. One thing about ‘Jurassic Park’ that excited a young Bayona is the way Spielberg mixed wonder and terror throughout; something he hopes to bring back.
“I think it’s a bit darker than anything that we have seen before,” he says. “My goal was somehow to go back to the first ‘Jurassic Park’ and I wanted to bring back that sense of wonder of being in front of a dinosaur for the first time, but at the same time this sense of the terror of being in front of a t-rex. I remember that scene of the velociraptors in the kitchen.
“We have always had that kind of suspense in the ‘Jurassic Park’ movies, like remember that scene of the truck hanging over the cliff in ‘The Lost World’? So, I wanted to bring back this Hitchcock-ian suspense that puts the audience at the edge of their seats and this is the kind of darkness and fear that we’re talking about.”
