We live in a spoiler-phobic world, so it’s unusual to hear about a big-budget movie that isn’t in a state of paranoid lockdown about information leaks.
Admittedly, it sounds as if Colin Trevorrow, director of Jurassic World, found himself backed into a bit of a corner. Following a flurry of rumors about the movie, he decided to speak to Slashfilm and explain which spoilers are genuine and which are not -- despite the fact that this new Jurassic Park sequel won’t be released until 2015.
One of the most intriguing leaked spoilers was that the main character (played by Chris Pratt from Guardians of the Galaxy and Parks & Rec) was training “good” dinosaurs like Pokemon to fight back against the scarier ones. Trevorrow sets the record straight on this one, saying, “There’s no such thing as good or bad dinosaurs. There are predators and prey.” Rather than training the dinosaurs, Chris Pratt’s character is just a behavioural researcher.
Another rumor was that this movie would contain genetically modified dinosaurs, which sounds kind of “blah” unless you know that a while back, there were rumors of a plan to include part-human, part-dinosaur creatures in one of the Jurassic Park movies. This concept sounded like it would tip the franchise into schlocky B-movie territory, so fans will be happy to learn that Jurassic World’s GM dinosaurs are not nearly so bizarre.
“It doesn’t have a snake’s head or octopus tentacles,” says Trevorrow. “It’s a dinosaur, created in the same way the others were, but now the genetics have gone to the next level.”
Speaking more generally, he clarified that Jurassic World takes place in a fully functioning version of the park that was attempted in the first movie. “It sees more than 20,000 visitors every day. You arrive by ferry from Costa Rica. It has elements of a biological preserve, a safari, a zoo, and a theme park. There is a luxury resort with hotels, restaurants, nightlife and a golf course. And there are dinosaurs. Real ones.”
22 years after the first Jurassic Park was built and then quickly shut down, living dinosaurs are old news. “We imagined a teenager texting his girlfriend with his back to a T-Rex behind protective glass,” says Trevorrow. “For us, that image captured the way much of the audience feels about the movies themselves. 'We’ve seen CG dinosaurs. What else you got?' ”
As well as sharing this handful of new details, director Colin Trevorrow seems very aware of the pressures of making a new Jurassic Park movie, urging people not to pre-judge Jurassic World based on a few scraps of information. “I understand the risks of leaving the safe zone. We’ve all been disappointed by new installments of the stories we love. But with all this talk of filmmakers 'ruining our childhood,' we forget that right now is someone else’s childhood.”
Photo via Nerissa's Ring/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)