Director Colin Trevorrow couldn’t help himself but from taking home a metal prosthetic arm from the Jurassic World Dominion set.
ComingSoon joined Trevorrow in Malta ahead of the Jurassic World Dominion Extended Edition release on Blu-ray and digital. Among other topics discussed, Trevorrow revealed the inspiration for the thrilling raptor chase in Malta, his favorite animatronic dinosaur, and more.
Tudor Leonte: The Jurassic World Dominion Extended Edition features 14 additional minutes of never-before-seen footage and a new, exciting opening sequence. Was that the movie you envisioned from the beginning?
Colin Trevorrow: Absolutely. I mean, this was actually the movie up until very late in the process and we realized that we had to streamline it to get it down to under two and a half hours to release theatrically. We were in a position where we had to figure out what could go — one of the biggest editorial challenges of my life — like what could go and yet we would still be able to go on the journey and understand everybody’s arc. We did the best we possibly could, and it was, it was painful and challenging. Then, if you’re a filmmaker, someday you may have to face the same thing. Honestly, it might be a cool thing to watch and see what can go and what maybe you think should stay.
One of the best scenes in the movie involves Owen being chased by some raptors in St. George’s Square in La Valletta. How did you come up with that sequence and how is it for you to see an extended version of it?
Trevorrow: For me, it was knowing that we wanted to see dinosaurs in our world in a city, interacting with people. Yes, you can do it in New York, Chicago, or a big city, but I thought about the movie Ronin, which has this incredible car chase in Villefranche, France, and how the tight trenches made you feel like you were going at a high speed. A big part of dinosaur movies, the characters need to feel trapped. I feel like if you’re on giant avenues, you can always find a way to get away. I just want to create a scenario, especially surrounded by stones that look very old to us but are actually very new compared to dinosaurs.
It has been said that the Jurassic era is over, but still according, at least to me, Jurassic World Dominion opens a new and unlimited scenario. Do you see any new storylines that might be worth taking to the big screen?
Trevorrow: You know, I actually would like to hand that job off to somebody else and I would love to be here to help them and to make sure that they have all the resources they need. In the same way that I looked at the Jurassic Park trilogy and was able to go to Steven Spielberg and say, ‘Listen, I got an idea, what do you think of this?’ I would hope somebody would look at the world we’ve created, which I think creates a totally new set of opportunities. Now we aren’t telling movies with plots about dinosaurs. Now we can tell movies with stories about people who exist in a world in which there are dinosaurs. I think that’s a really key distinction. For me, that was the most important thing that I wanted to do to transition us out of, we’re going to an island, there’s dinosaurs on the island, they’re probably gonna eat ya, into let’s care about characters who are dealing with a world that is in turmoil and a dynamic.
Was it a dream of yours to see dinosaurs, and since you used a lot of practical effects, let’s say “real dinosaurs,” into our world?
Trevorrow: Yes, absolutely. If it’s something that people wanted to see, I just wanted to give people a taste of what that could mean in every way, especially in the finals and in the finished film, the extended edition. Now you see dinosaur hunters and poachers, and you see dinosaurs at a drive-in movie theater, you see them six, five million years ago. There were so many things I wanted to see, and I’m really proud of how they’re woven into that film. It feels very complete to me.
The Giganotosaurus was really amazing. Do you feel that actors reacted even better having that huge, massive dinosaur head in front of them?
Trevorrow: I know they do. I know they do. They’ll tell me that just having something tactile, something can reach out and interact with, makes them… They’re actors, they could do it otherwise, but I love having something really there.
It was such a great idea to use practical effects and animatronics. I’m guessing you’re a big fan of them. What’s your favorite dinosaur that you made as an animatronic?
Trevorrow: God, we had so many. There were so many working all at once, but there’s a lot of little subtle ones that you only see for a moment. There was a guy who had a Dimorphodon on his arm, a little patched away like blind eagles, so they don’t fly away. There’s a Baryonyx, the one that bites Delacourt’s head off that has like a metal prosthetic arm that he lost in another fight. So there’s a lot of details that we throw in there… I actually got it. I have it in my house, the prosthetic arm, one thing I took from this movie. I love the little details.
What about your favorite part of this extended edition?
Trevorrow: The opening sequence in the Cretaceous era. To me, that is one of my favorite things that I’ve ever been involved in. To be able to actually realize dinosaurs in our world shot practically in a real location. It’s not a bunch of CGI environments and the work that ILM did there, I think is absolutely extraordinary. It’s one of the things I wish more than anything that was in the film, so the Academy could see it because my God, it was unbelievable. Yeah, I would say the opening,
