Jurassic World (2015)

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Twenty-two years after the original Jurassic Park failed, the new park, also known as Jurassic World, is open for business. After years of studying genetics, the scientists on the park genetically engineer a new breed of dinosaur, the Indominus Rex. When everything goes horribly wrong, will our heroes make it off the island?

Directed by: Colin Trevorrow
Screenplay by: Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver and Colin Trevorrow & Derek Connolly
Executive Producers: Steven Spielberg & Thomas Tull
Produced by: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley
Cinematographer: John Schwartzman
Music Composed by: Michael Giacchino

Runtime: 124 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1
Certification: PG-13 / 12A / M

Starring

Development & Production

In May 2001, Steven Spielberg had Amblin Entertainment commence development of ideas for Jurassic Park IV, which he planned to produce. Initially, Jurassic Park III director Joe Johnston was not interested in directing the fourth film. In 2002, William Monahan was announced as screenwriter, and a release date was set for mid-2005. Kathleen Kennedy would produce the film, and Spielberg would serve as executive producer.

An early story idea would partially involve dinosaurs migrating to the Costa Rican mainland. A team of experts, including Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ian Malcolm, would chart an expedition to an offshore island and discover the dinosaurs breeding freely. Part of the plot would involve the characters devising a way to restrict the spread of the dinosaurs and prevent an ecological disaster. Early concept art also depicted genetically engineered human-dinosaur mercenaries. Monahan’s first draft of the script was finished in July 2003; the story was not set in a jungle, as in previous films. Monahan subsequently left the project to work on Kingdom of Heaven. He was replaced by John Sayles, who wrote two drafts of the script. In one draft, a new character, a mercenary named Nick Harris, would be charged with training a team of genetically modified Deinonychus for use on rescue missions and to combat drug dealers. The concept of a human who trains dinosaurs came from Spielberg. By April 2005, the film had been postponed, as Spielberg was dissatisfied with the script revisions.

Frank Marshall would eventually join the project as a producer. Progress on the film stalled during 2005 as Marshall and Spielberg were busy with other film projects. Additional work on the film was expected to begin following the release of a fourth Indiana Jones film, which Marshall and Spielberg were working on. In 2006, Spielberg said Johnston would direct the film, but by April 2007, Johnston was no longer involved as director. A release date of 2008 was expected but was later delayed to 2009. By 2010, Johnston was involved with the project again and planned for the film to be the first in a new Jurassic Park trilogy. Johnston hoped to further develop the project with Spielberg after they finished other projects, including Johnston’s 2011 film, Captain America: The First Avenger.

In 2011, writer Mark Protosevich was hired. He wrote two story treatments, neither of which were approved. Spielberg and Kennedy felt that the film did not yet have an adequate story. In 2012, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver were hired to write the script. The writers incorporated three ideas from Spielberg: a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, a human who has a relationship with trained raptors (from Sayles’s earlier draft), and a human-eating dinosaur that escapes and has to be stopped. The concept of a dinosaur with a chameleon-like ability to render itself nearly invisible is a plot device from Crichton’s The Lost World novel that had not been used in the previous films.

In January 2013, Universal set a release date of June 13, 2014. Kennedy later left the project in February as she would be busy with the upcoming Star Wars sequel trilogy. A month later, Colin Trevorrow was hired as director, and Patrick Crowley was announced as a producer alongside Marshall. Trevorrow and his writing partner, Derek Connolly, rewrote the earlier draft by Jaffa and Silver, while retaining Spielberg’s three story ideas. The film’s release was delayed by a year to give the writers time to perfect the script. In September, Universal confirmed the film’s title Jurassic World, with a release scheduled for June 12, 2015. The film is set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park and is considered a direct sequel to that film; although The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III remain canon in the series, Jurassic World ignores their events as they occurred on a different island.

Between 2003 and 2008, several cast members from previous Jurassic Park films were expected to reprise their roles, including Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm, Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, and Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler. Attenborough retired from acting following a fall at his house in 2008. A statue of his character is featured in the film. Trevorrow and Connolly did not want to bring back the other characters unless there would be a good reason for them to be involved in the story; they considered Dr. Henry Wu, the scientist responsible for recreating dinosaurs, a logical choice.

Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson were cast as the child characters in October 2013. Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt were cast in the lead roles. Vincent D’Onofrio and Irrfan Khan were cast in early 2014, and BD Wong was cast to reprise his role of Dr. Henry Wu, marking the character’s first appearance since the original Jurassic Park film in 1993.

Principal photography began on April 10, 2014, in Hawaii. The budget was reported to be $150 million. Filming locations there included the islands of Kauai and Oahu. The Indominus rex enclosure was among the shooting locations in Hawaii. Filming continued in Hawaii until June before moving to Louisiana. The Main Street and boardwalk area of the fictional Jurassic World theme park was constructed in the parking lot of the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans park. NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans was also used to construct interior sets representing the Jurassic World park. Other sets constructed at the facility included a Mosasaurus feeding show and a raptor enclosure.

The film includes a scene in which Claire’s assistant Zara (portrayed by Katie McGrath) is carried off by several Pteranodon before falling into the park’s lagoon, where she is eaten by the Mosasaurus, marking the first female death in the film series. Trevorrow wanted to make it “the most spectacular death we can possibly imagine,” while also wanting to surprise moviegoers, stating: “Let’s have someone die who just doesn’t deserve to die at all.”

Stan Winston provided animatronic dinosaurs for the previous Jurassic Park films, and intended to do the same for the fourth film prior to his death in 2008. Instead, Winston’s former colleagues at Legacy Effects provided an animatronic Apatosaurus for the film. Maquettes were used to depict the velociraptors during certain scenes, and some dinosaurs were created through the use of motion capture. The remaining dinosaurs were computer-generated by Industrial Light & Magic. Filming concluded on August 5 the same year.

Dinosaurs

Behind The Scenes

The making of the fourth Jurassic movie was well documented and behind the scenes material can be found on the Jurassic World DVD and Blu-Ray collections. Such documentaries include “WELCOME TO JURASSIC WORLD: An in-depth take on the creation, look and feel of Jurassic World.”, “JURASSIC WORLD: ALL-ACCESS PASS: Chris Pratt and Director Colin Trevorrow discuss key moments in the film, supported by behind-the-scenes footage and VFX breakdowns.”, “INNOVATION CENTER TOUR WITH CHRIS PRATT: Chris Pratt gives a tour of the Innovation Center, a museum/exhibit, built just for the movie.”, and “JURASSIC’S CLOSEST SHAVES: Clips from all films in the franchise showing “near death” or extremely scary encounters with dinosaurs.”

Soundtrack

The musical score was composed by Michael Giacchino, who had previously scored the video games Warpath: Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. John Williams’ themes from previous Jurassic Park scores were incorporated by Giacchino, who said: “It was a really targeted approach, as to where to include Williams’s themes and where would make the most sense and where would we most appreciate it, as fans ourselves”. A soundtrack album was released on June 9, 2015, by Back Lot Music.

There are various instances throughout the score that contain hints to previous themes composed by Williams. These include the end of “Gyrosphere of Influence” which references the theme from Jurassic Park, as well as both “Costa Rican Standoff” and “Our Rex is Bigger Than Yours” that reference motifs used in Jurassic Park’s sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The track “Raptor Your Heart Out” also briefly features a cue composed by Giacchino for the video game adaptation of The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Tracklist

Visual Effects

From a visual effects perspective, there was an immense pressure to live up to the beloved, original film. ILM visual effects supervisor Tim Alexander and team consulted with visual effects greats like Dennis Muren and Phil Tippet as well as Legacy Effects to discuss the making of the original film. Ultimately, ILM’s approach was to shoot as much as possible in real world locations and to use maquettes and standins onset to represent the dinosaurs; a basic approach, but time proven and effective. Along the way they also integrated motion capture into the post production pipeline and it became the primary tool for raptor animation. 

ILM San Francisco, Singapore and Vancouver were among the five studios to contribute to Jurassic World’s 988 shots. Miniatures and physical effects were an important part of the process as they wanted the world to feel as grounded in reality as possible. They chose to build a 1/3 scale, 30 foot tall version of the jurassic world gates. Additionally, in an effort to make the dinosaurs unique, ILM’s muscle and skin simulations were heavily used. This allowed the dinosaur’s flex and slide movement to be seen in detail.

Toys and Merchandise

The release of Jurassic World sparked a wide range of merchandise, including toy lines, collectible items, trading cards, posters, and more. Hasbro maintained the Jurassic Park license.

You can find Jurassic World items at Entertainment Earth.

Where To Watch

Jurassic World is available to stream through Amazon Prime. You can get 20% off by using code JURASSICOUTPOST at Zavvi US and Zavvi UK. Or check out some options below: