David Koepp, screenwriter for Gareth Edwards' Jurassic World Rebirth, recently spoke to Variety about another film he recently wrote the screenplay for, Presence (which is now playing), but at the end of the interview he briefly touches on his work with Rebirth. Koepp didn't reveal any groundbreaking information, but did express excitement for starting over, while still drawing inspiration from the original novels.
Variety: You’ve returned to the “Jurassic” franchise to write “Jurassic World Rebirth,” which releases this summer. What was the impetus behind that homecoming?
Koepp: The first two movies were two of my favorite experiences ever. And Steven said, “What about starting over? Let’s try something all new.” I said, “Oh, that’s a cool idea. What if blah, blah, blah,” and then I threw an idea back. That’s it. It caught. You do that all the time with your friends and collaborators: throw ideas back and forth. And sometimes they catch, usually they don’t. There is pressure because it’s going to cost a lot of money and there are going to be big expectations and blah, blah, blah. But there was no pressure at first — just the pursuit of our ideas.
There isn’t even a source novel you’re pulling from for this one, right?
No. I reread the two novels to get myself back in that mode though. We did take some things from them. There was a sequence from the first novel that we’d always wanted in the original movie, but didn’t have room for. We were like, “Hey, we get to use that now.” But just to get back in that head space 30 years later — is it still fun? And the answer is yes, it still really is. Dinosaurs are still fun.
The scene from the original Koepp was referring to was recently revealed by another interview conducted by Vanity Fair, which involves a T-Rex pursuing fleeing characters in a swamp. The scene was briefly teased in the latest trailer.
Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters July 2nd, 2025! You can watch all the available movie trailers and TV spots for Rebirth here!
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