Jurᴀssic World Rebirth director Gareth Edwards reveals Steven Spielberg’s reaction to the latest installment in the Jurᴀssic Park franchise. Spielberg’s debut entry in 1993 brought dinosaurs back to life on the big screen, and the creatures have now returned in six blockbuster sequels.
Scarlett Johansson leads the Jurᴀssic World: Rebirth cast as Zora Bennett, the leader of an expedition into dino-infested territory to recover DNA for a medical breakthrough. Spielberg serves as an executive producer on the movie, which hit theaters on July 2.
During a recent interview with SyFy, Edwards discusses waiting for Spielberg’s reaction to the movie and just how stressful of an experience that was. Though the first reaction to notes about a movie may be to push back, the director reveals that getting notes from the original Jurᴀssic Park director was different. Check out his comment below:
“It’s a nerve wracking moment when you know Steven is about to call you to give you feedback on a film that you’ve shown him. It’s kind of like the moment you dream of and fear all your life. I remember the phone just sat on the coffee table of the edit suite, and my editor and I were just looking at the phone, just waiting for it to light up.”
“When someone gives you some notes, you can’t help it, but in part of your brain, you go, ‘Yeah, but what do you know? What have you ever done?’
“But with Steven, if you go, ‘What have you done?’ the answer is, every masterpiece you’ve ever loved. So, you sit there a bit like, ‘I’m just gonna do everything you say. Every single note you give, I’m doing it.'”
Edwards goes on to explain that Spielberg, after watching an early cut of the movie, had plenty of useful feedback, but there was one note, in particular, that really stuck with him:
“He said, ‘Making a film for the cinema, it’s like being a chef and making a meal. The only difference is that when you’re a chef for the cinema, the audience has to leave hungry. If they leave full, you’ve kind of failed.’”
“It was an interesting thing, because it goes against your instincts. You’re trying to please the audience and make them happy. And the audience — especially in a test screening — they’ll tell you what they want to be happier. But it’s not about that.
It’s about creating anticipation and surprise and, in a weird way, having them leave and want to go back and watch it again. Obviously, that’s where you have the big success like he has. And so I really took that to heart. It was super interesting.
And it’s that piece of advice where, the second you hear it, you go, ‘Oh, of course!’ Retrospectively, it’s obvious. But I’d never really thought about it like that. And so yeah, that was super useful.”
Starting with Jurᴀssic Park 3 (2001), Spielberg has served as executive producer on every new Jurᴀssic movie.
What This Means For Jurᴀssic World Rebirth
The Film’s Mixed Reception Explained
Taking on Spielberg’s advice hasn’t resulted in Rebirth being the best Jurᴀssic Park movie yet. Per Variety, the film is projected to have a strong five-day opening weekend of more than $137 million, but the reception has been somewhat muted overall.
The film earned only a B CinemaScore, marking the second-lowest of the franchise, behind Jurᴀssic Park 3‘s B-. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a lackluster 51% critics’ score and a lukewarm 72% audience score.
Jurᴀssic World Rebirth reviews from critics have called out the film’s familiar formula as a key criticism, with the film generally not offering up too much that feels genuinely new. Although Edwards evidently tried to take on as much advice as possible from Spielberg, the new film joins a long list of Jurᴀssic sequels that were less warmly received than Spielberg’s 1993 original.
Still, that doesn’t mean Rebirth will end up killing the franchise. Jurᴀssic World Dominion reviews were extremely poor and that 2022 film had only a 77% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it still managed to gross $1.001 billion. Rebirth is almost guaranteed to not reach this figure, but this franchise continues to show a great deal of resiliency.
Our Take On Spielberg’s Jurᴀssic World Rebirth Advice
Does Edwards Succeed?
Rebirth was seemingly put on the fast-track after Dominion‘s theatrical success, and it shows. The film arguably could have benefited from more time in the oven to ensure that it delivered a more novel experience for audiences and critics.
Though Jurᴀssic World Rebirth will likely end up being successful overall, it’s less clear whether it does as Spielberg says in terms of leaving audiences “hungry” for more. There will surely be another Jurᴀssic movie, but, more than 30 years later, this franchise continues to struggle to reach the heights of the original Jurᴀssic Park.
Source: SyFy
