How David Attenborough inspired the ‘awe and wonder’ in Jurassic World Rebirth

Filmmaker Gareth Edwards is back at the helm once more of a major franchise (although he hates that word, he tells me) sequel with Jurassic World Rebirth, following his foray into Star Wars with 2016’s Rogue One.

This time he’s fulfilling a childhood dream by working on one of the most influential ‘creature feature’ series of all time, working with Steven Spielberg – ‘I call him Steve,’ he grins, acknowledging the surrealism of that scenario.

Coming onboard to direct the next instalment in such a popular run of films Edwards, 50, did have lots of little ways he wanted to put his stamp on it  – but also one clear desire to ground the movie in reality, despite the fact it’s set ‘on an island in the middle of nowhere with dinosaurs on it’.

‘One of the great things about Jurassic was that it wasn’t that we’d gone back in time to see dinosaurs, it was that they’d come to our time, and so I wanted some iconography of some location that was now,’ he explains.

‘I wanted, at one point in the movie, there to be dinosaurs in something that was very familiar to us, like the kitchen scene in the original Jurassic Park. So I needed to somehow crowbar into this scenario some imagery that you would watch it and go, “I know that, that’s where I live” – even though it’s not.’

Without giving too much away before people have seen the movie, Edwards plays clear homage to that terrifying scene from the 1993 film with the hunting Velociraptors as well as plenty of fun Easter eggs from that era.

‘I think that’s important for people to relate to and feel like these things have come to us,’ he adds.

Edwards also reveals the way he was inspired by legendary broadcaster and biologist David Attenborough, 99, and wanted to bring his influence in Jurassic World Rebirth to another pivotal scene.

He admits ‘the way it was written probably wasn’t aspiring to this’ – but for the filmmaker it was clear.

‘Being from the UK, I grew up with David Attenborough documentaries, and on a Sunday night on the BBC or wherever, one of the great things is sitting and watching a natural history show, [where] there’s beautiful majesty and awe-inspiring nature,’ he recalls. ‘And I was like, to get through a Jurassic and not have this awe and wonder moment somewhere…’

That was obviously not an option for Edwards, and the result is glimpsed in the movie’s trailer when Scarlett Johansson’s mission specialist Zora Bennett and Jonathan Bailey’s palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis are seen glimpsing the 50-foot Titanosauruses for the first time.

It nicely acts as a throwback to the original film too, when Sam Neill and Laura Dern’s expert characters are thrilled to see their first live dinosaur (coincidentally accompanied by Sir David’s late actor brother Sir Richard Attenborough as Dr John Hammond, the owner of the park and the company that cloned the dinosaurs).

‘That’s what you’re trying to do, is just navigate it so that you feel like it’s that journey that you would want as an audience member.’.

Alongside his previous Star Wars responsibility, Edwards is known for original projects as screenwriter and director like Monsters and 2023’s The Creator. He appears comfortable switching between studio-led franchise blockbusters and more indie fare, ceding complete creative control for the prior.

‘There are certain franchises where I feel like I don’t know what I’d do with that, and also I think we’d all disagree about what that is. And there are other ones where you go, the best version of that, I think, is exactly what the studio would want as well.’

Jurassic World Rebirth fortunately fell in this latter category and Edwards was delighted to be surrounded by a team who ‘challenged’ him.

‘You want people who go, really? And double check what you’re saying and go, how about this? Or throw in new ideas. But you also want to agree on what’s a good film. And if they list ones that are your favourites, then you’re probably in a good place.’

That is something he fortunately found with screenwriter David Koepp too, who was returning to pen a Jurassic film for the first time since 1997’s The Lost World, after it was suggested that meeting with producer Frank Marshall and Spielberg wasn’t the conversation he should be most nervous about.

‘They said, “Oh, if you think this was tricky, wait ‘til you meet David Koepp – if you can get your ideas past him”.’

But it ended up a ‘blissful’ partnership Edwards says, from ‘the second we started talking’ on Zoom and found that they loved ‘exactly the same movies’.

Edwards also admits he was expecting the screenplay to be locked, with no way for him to suggest any of his own ideas and tweaks.

‘That’s what I thought was going to happen. And instead, it was like, “Okay, you know this scene where this happens – what if we did it in this location instead? And what if this happened during it?”’ he shared of his discussions with Koepp. ‘And he was like, “Great!”, and would write it and give it his own flourishes, and you’d go, “Oh, that’s better than what I would have written!”’

But there were also sections where Edwards felt Koepp had things ‘dead right’ and he didn’t want to touch it.

‘We were really on the same page.’

This was also of great benefit considering the condensed timeline of making the movie, with Edwards only announced as director in February 2024, before any casting was done, and filming beginning that June.

Star and producer Johansson even revealed to me that sound mixing conversations were still happening just days before the London premiere.

Even with such a tight turnaround though, they managed to assemble a cast including Johansson, Bailey, two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali and Rupert Friend, as well as Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer star, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.

‘You worry when you’ve got not much time that you’re going to get the bottom of the barrel, a lot of people that didn’t get a job!’ laughs Edwards of the situation. Luckily, the films are so definitive – and come with Spielberg attached (‘I think when he calls, people pick up the phone’) – that it wasn’t an issue.

‘I think if it had been another project, we might have been a bit stuck.’

Hilariously though, Edwards was not aware of Jurassic super-nerd Johansson and how she had already pitched herself to Spielberg.

‘I remember being in one of those early conversations at Universal, and there’s Steven Spielberg and Donna Langley and everybody, and all these actors [on pieces of paper] and all these names being said. And then Steven goes, “Well, if I don’t give it to Scarlett, she’s going to kill me.” And I’m just like, “What do you mean?” And he goes, “Scarlett’s a massive Jurassic fan and I went for a meal with her,” and he started saying how much she loved it and wanted to be in one. And I was like, “Hang on, why are we doing this meeting? Scarlett Johansson wants to do this film? Like, what are we talking about? Can you call her?!”’

With Bailey, too, Edwards recalls an enjoyably unsuccessful first meeting when he had been prepped with questions from the producers for the actor but instead spent the entire three-hour chat over a meal in LA just ‘joking around’ and talking about ‘random stuff’ before the Wicked star realised he had to go.

‘And so he left, and I hadn’t said a word to him about Jurassic. And then the producers were like, “Did he like the screenplay?” And I’m like, “Yeah, no, it’s all good, we’re all good, no he didn’t have any notes, he loves the character…” the director laughs of his bluffing.

‘But it’s the kind of movie. There’s only a couple of things like this where you just get everyone’s full attention. And it was a new chapter in it as well, so everyone felt they could come and put their stamp on it.’

Jurassic World Rebirth is in cinemas from July 2.

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