A new theme park has been built on the original site of Jurassic Park. Using DNA samples from a few other dinosaurs, scientists have created a new dinosaur as a new attraction for the park, but it escapes from containment and goes on a killing spree.
Blaine: Colin Trevorrow was 15 when he saw the first “Jurassic Park” movie that Steven Spielberg had directed. He was grounded from seeing movies for weeks, but a friend of his who worked at a movie theater told him that there was going to be a midnight screening of “Jurassic Park” with just the theater employees and he wanted Colin to be his guest. So Colin snuck out of his house, saw “Jurassic Park" and seeing it was one of the best moments he ever had. When Colin was hired to direct the forth installment of the franchise, “Jurassic World”, he wanted to bring the spirit of “Jurassic Park” into that movie. He made “Jurassic World” a movie that is a lot of fun to watch. Producer Frank Marshall saw “Safety Not Guaranteed”, a small film that Colin had directed and Steven Spielberg saw it as well. They called him in and their conversation was about the “Jurassic Park” franchise and how everyone loves it.
Colin had a story in mind for a new “Jurassic Park” movie and Steven thought it was perfect. It was Steven’s idea to have a fully functioning theme park that Jurassic Park never was. Steven also thought of the movie being a bond between humans and dinosaurs. Like Chris Pratt’s character, Owen, being able to handle Velociraptors. Steven had high hopes for Colin and believed he was going to do a fantastic job in making a terrific “Jurassic Park” movie.
They cast Chris Pratt as Owen, the male lead. At the time Christ Pratt wasn’t a huge star yet, but Steven and Colin thought he was a terrific actor. They were taking a lot of risks with Chris, but they believed in him. Then “Guardians of the Galaxy” came out and made Chris a huge star and that made Steven and Colin feel lucky that they chose the right actor. Their thanks go to “Guardians of the Galaxy”. Chris Pratt’s performance in “Jurassic World” is one of his best. He is serious on the outside and funny, brave and a good leader on the inside. Chris thought it sounded badass when he found out that his character trains with raptors for military applications. He had to keep it a secret though. The biggest challenge for Chris Pratt was not to act goofy because he likes acting that way in real life, but he was ok with playing serious character.
Colin wanted to work with Bryce Dallas Howard because he knows how good of an actress she is and it was very exciting for him that she would be apart of this project. Her character, Claire, is one of the people in charge of the park. Claire starts off as someone who is devoted to her work and takes it seriously. Then she becomes the concerning type of person because he nephews, Zach and Gray, are somewhere in the park and she doesn’t know where they are and with a dangerous dinosaur wandering everywhere she fears for them. Claire’s looks also go from neat and tidy to jungle woman.
They knew that they needed a green environment in order to do the jungle work, so they went to Hawaii. They went over to the Kualoa Ranch where they shot the glass ball ride, the Gyrosphere. And then they built this big set out in the jungles of Kauai that was 150 yards wide and had walls that 90 feet high. The idea was that the new asset had to be way up country away from prying eyes and be held in this large containment.
Colin wanted at least one animatronic in “Jurassic World” because the first “Jurassic Park” had dinosaur effects that were animatronics and some directors, like Colin, think that animatronics are still useful. Colin thought that the animatronic would be useful for a moment of intimacy like the scene where the Apatosaurus is slowly dying. So they made this animatronic head of a Apatosaurus. It was an emotional moment for Chris Pratt because the creature was dying and it was emotional for Bryce Dallas Howard as well. They didn’t have to act much in that scene.
They went to New Orleans after that to continue shooting at Big Easy Studios, which is on a NASA campus. Co-writer Derek Connolly asked himself how a person could train raptors, how would it look and what building you could do it in. He had to describe the way it would look in the script like having a crisscross catwalk that is feet up above the ground. When Derek saw the set for the first time he was proud that it was exactly the way he described it in the script. It was built outside NASA because it had to be outside. There were certain scenes involving dinosaurs they did computer graphics so it would be clear to the actors how the scene was going to look.
There was an abandoned Six Flags theme park that they took over because it hadn’t been used after Hurricane Katrina flooded it with six feet of water. It had a parking lot that was about 10 football fields wide. They built this giant set for where the restaurants and gift shops would be. 800 extras would walk around that set.
Colin wanted there to be a dinosaur in the water because the previous “Jurassic Park” movies never had one and he thought it would be nice to show the audience one that hasn’t been shown before. When you see the Mosasaurus for the first time it eats a dead shark and that made Colin feel like he was making something like “JAWS” when he showed that to Steven.
Claire’s assistant, Zara, was in charge of looking after the boys until one of the Pteranodons grabs her, let’s go and she falls into the water. Colin thought that Zara’s death was the most epic death in a “Jurassic Park” film. The first time I saw that scene as soon as she went into the water I had a “JAWS” feeling because the Mosasaurus is in there and if she’s in there that means she’s going to get eaten. As Katie McGrath, the actress who plays Zara, and the boys were running around, the camera would circle around and while it wasn’t focussed on Katie, two men would quickly come in and attach wires to her. The camera would have Katie in the shot again and the wires would pull her up. Later the visual effects department would add Pteranodons in there to make it look like it was pulling her up from the ground. Katie would do her own stunts and she was brave enough to do them. There’s a shot showing the Pterosaur carrying her in the air before it drops her in the water and she was hooked up to wires attached to a crane. She would land on a giant airbag on the bottom. Katie then had to be in a tank and she wore wires for this too so that they could yank her up and down out of the water. A Pterosaur was later added in there to make it look like it is trying to carry her off.
They don’t show the T Rex until towards the end when it goes up against the new asset and that brings back the spirit of “Jurassic Park” because the T Rex has always felt that way.
My rating “Jurassic World” is five out of five stars
