Jurassic World Rebirth may mark the seventh entry in the Jurassic franchise, but Steven Spielberg is still hands on, 32 years after his original film.
At the movie’s New York premiere on Monday, Rebirth director Gareth Edwards noted that when it came to working with the famed filmmaker — who holds an executive producer credit on the newest flick — “Steven was very involved in the film. He developed the whole storyline with [writer] David [Koepp] and basically had major input, as much as me, as it started.”
And then, as filming began, Edwards recalled, “there was a certain point where he felt he’d set it all up really nicely and he was like ‘Gareth, go make your movie, it’s over to you now.’ A lot of pressure when someone like him gives you that freedom because he’s the reason I’m a film director.”
Rebirth, which stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, is set five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion and follows an extraction team racing to the most dangerous place on Earth — an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park.
“It was weird shooting a movie knowing that Steven Spielberg is watching everything you’re doing, it’s quite intimidating,” Edwards continued. “And then one day you’d get a text that would say something nice about the dailies from yesterday or something and you’d have so much relief and you’d share it with the cast and everyone would be high-fiving each other and hugging and we’d carry on.”
Co-star Rupert Friend added of the new film, “I think this is in many ways a return tonally to the first movie. It’s very much a love letter to Spielberg. We shot in 35 mm and Gareth, our director, has referenced pretty much every film Spielberg ever did, has done.”
Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters July 2.
Hilary Lewis contributed to this report.
