Steven Spielberg was ‘deeply involved' in Jurassic World: Rebirth, says writer David Koepp
Jurassic World: Rebirth writer David Koepp has said Steven Spielberg was 'deeply involved' in making the movie.
The 78-year-old director helmed the original 1993 film Jurassic Park, its 1997 sequel The Lost Work: Jurassic Park and has served as an executive producer on the Jurassic World series ever since, and Koepp - who wrote the first movie and its follow-up - revealed one of the main reasons he returned for Jurassic World: Rebirth was because Spielberg was 'very involved' in it.
Speaking to Deadline about Spielberg, the 62-year-old scribe said: 'Oh, he was very involved.
'That was one of the reasons I most wanted to do it. Because Steven was deeply involved from the beginning, and for the six months that we were working on the script, it was really just him and me.
'I'd send him my ideas, and we'd work on them, and when you have Steven's full attention, the results can be pretty spectacular.'
Jurassic World: Rebirth - which stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali - follows a team of covert operatives on a mission to stop a rogue biotech organisation from unleashing weaponised dinosaurs around the world.
As the chaos escalates, the team uncovers a dark secret connected to the original Jurassic legacy.
Koepp previously said Jurassic World: Rebirth - which was directed by Gareth Edwards and releases on 2 July 2025 - would capture the 'spirit of the first movie'.
He told TheWrap: '[We were trying to evoke] the spirit of the first movie, which is the tone that we would like to get closest to.'
The writer added it was 'the idea of starting afresh' which convinced him to return to the Jurassic series.
He said: 'You don't often get that chance, where they give you very few guidelines, except there must be dinosaurs in it.'
Even so, before he agreed to come back for Jurassic World: Rebirth, Koepp had a list of demands he gave to Universal Pictures that the studio had to meet.
He explained: 'Number one was – the events of the previous six movies cannot be denied or contradicted, because I hate a retcon.
'[Number two was] all science must be real. [Third was] humour is oxygen.'
Reflecting on returning to the Jurassic series, Koepp said it was 'weird and trippy' for him to step back in time for Jurassic World: Rebirth.
He explained: 'It even smelled the same. It felt low pressure, even though Universal might be horrified to hear that.'
Looking back at Jurassic Park and The Lost World, Koepp said 'writing those first two movies were some of [his] favourite experiences in [his] career so far'.
He added: 'The combination of grand adventure and real science is right up my alley. And it was fun to be able to decide on a new tone, because every three movies seems like a good time to change tone and characters in a franchise.
'It was great to be able to work solely with Steven and make up a story and think of all new characters and all in a different tone.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
Bryce Dallas Howard had a huge crush on Colin Hanks
Bryce Dallas Howard had "a really big crush" on Colin Hanks. The Jurassic World star has revealed she was smitten with Tom Hanks' son after meeting him on the set of her dad Ron Howard's film Apollo 13 when she was 12 years old and Colin, who was 16 at the time, was working behind the scenes as an assistant. During an appearance on the Podcrushed podcast, she explained: "We all [the family] moved out to Los Angeles for that [ Apollo 13]. I was raised mostly in New York, and I got to be on set as an intern, basically ... "Colin Hanks was on set as a PA. He was 16, and he was working his butt off. He was working really, really, really, really hard. "And they sort of assigned me to him, and I had had a crush on Colin for so long. Like my whole life. My whole life ... "Just any time that I encountered him, I was like: 'Oh my God. Now that's a man'." Bryce added she had "no chance, no shot" with Colin and her director dad knew all about her crush. She said: "My dad knew for sure. For sure. I don't think his dad [Tom Hanks] knew, and I don't think he [Colin Hanks] knew. My dad totally knew ... "Colin, he was a really big crush. A really, really, really big crush." Bryce revealed she was also obsessed with actor Joaquin Phoenix when she was a child and later got a shock when she was cast as his love interest in 2004 film The Village. She said: "I had the biggest crush on Joaquin Phoenix when I was seven years old, and he was Leaf Phoenix, and he was in [1989 movie] Parenthood. "And it was insane being like: 'Oh, you want me to play a character who's been in love with this guy, like, her whole life? Sure'." Bryce went on to reveal she had her first kiss at a performing arts summer camp, saying of the experience but didn't start dating properly until she was 18. She said of her first kiss: "That was a lovely scenario. Didn't ultimately work out, not because of anything other than he's gay. So it was lovely. Everything was great, honestly." A year after Bryce started dating, she met Seth Gabel, who she married in 2006.
Perth Now
5 hours ago
- Perth Now
Steven Spielberg was ‘deeply involved' in Jurassic World: Rebirth, says writer David Koepp
Jurassic World: Rebirth writer David Koepp has said Steven Spielberg was 'deeply involved' in making the movie. The 78-year-old director helmed the original 1993 film Jurassic Park, its 1997 sequel The Lost Work: Jurassic Park and has served as an executive producer on the Jurassic World series ever since, and Koepp - who wrote the first movie and its follow-up - revealed one of the main reasons he returned for Jurassic World: Rebirth was because Spielberg was 'very involved' in it. Speaking to Deadline about Spielberg, the 62-year-old scribe said: 'Oh, he was very involved. 'That was one of the reasons I most wanted to do it. Because Steven was deeply involved from the beginning, and for the six months that we were working on the script, it was really just him and me. 'I'd send him my ideas, and we'd work on them, and when you have Steven's full attention, the results can be pretty spectacular.' Jurassic World: Rebirth - which stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali - follows a team of covert operatives on a mission to stop a rogue biotech organisation from unleashing weaponised dinosaurs around the world. As the chaos escalates, the team uncovers a dark secret connected to the original Jurassic legacy. Koepp previously said Jurassic World: Rebirth - which was directed by Gareth Edwards and releases on 2 July 2025 - would capture the 'spirit of the first movie'. He told TheWrap: '[We were trying to evoke] the spirit of the first movie, which is the tone that we would like to get closest to.' The writer added it was 'the idea of starting afresh' which convinced him to return to the Jurassic series. He said: 'You don't often get that chance, where they give you very few guidelines, except there must be dinosaurs in it.' Even so, before he agreed to come back for Jurassic World: Rebirth, Koepp had a list of demands he gave to Universal Pictures that the studio had to meet. He explained: 'Number one was – the events of the previous six movies cannot be denied or contradicted, because I hate a retcon. '[Number two was] all science must be real. [Third was] humour is oxygen.' Reflecting on returning to the Jurassic series, Koepp said it was 'weird and trippy' for him to step back in time for Jurassic World: Rebirth. He explained: 'It even smelled the same. It felt low pressure, even though Universal might be horrified to hear that.' Looking back at Jurassic Park and The Lost World, Koepp said 'writing those first two movies were some of [his] favourite experiences in [his] career so far'. He added: 'The combination of grand adventure and real science is right up my alley. And it was fun to be able to decide on a new tone, because every three movies seems like a good time to change tone and characters in a franchise. 'It was great to be able to work solely with Steven and make up a story and think of all new characters and all in a different tone.'
Perth Now
a day ago
- Perth Now
Jurassic World: Rebirth director Gareth Edwards reveals surprise Ridley Scott movie inspiration
Jurassic World: Rebirth was inspired by Sir Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, director Gareth Edwards has revealed. The 50-year-old filmmaker is helming the next era in the Jurassic era, and has now spilled Scott's 'visually stunning' 2005 epic Kingdom of Heaven was a big influence in making Jurassic World: Rebirth. In the July 2025 issue of SFX Magazine, Edwards said of Kingdom of Heaven: 'John Mathieson was the director of photography and the more and more I looked at it, the more I was like, 'This is perfection. There's not a bad frame in this movie.' 'I've always had this love for his work. When you start a film like this, you have a group of names you'd like to work with, and the studio have a group of names they would trust.' The Rogue One: A Star Wars Story filmmaker added it was important to him to bring in VFX veteran David Vickery - who served as the visual effects supervisor on 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and 2022's Jurassic World: Dominion - to help capture the right visual style for Jurassic World: Rebirth. Edwards explained: 'He's just brilliant and kind of like the world's best person at dinosaurs. But he was sort of done with doing dinosaur films. He didn't want to do another one.' Recalling how he persuaded Vickery to board Jurassic World: Rebirth, the filmmaker told the VFX supervisor: ''I don't want this to feel animated. I don't want it to feel like we've anthropomorphized these creatures.' 'I would love it if we could build a massive catalogue of natural history and essentially, every single shot in this movie is based on a piece of existing footage of a real animal really doing whatever it is that's happening.' Jurassic World: Rebirth - which stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali - follows a team of covert operatives who race to stop a rogue biotech group unleashing weaponised dinosaurs across the globe. As prehistoric chaos spreads, the group must confront a dark secret tied to the original Jurassic legacy. Edwards previously said he wanted to revitalise the Jurassic Park franchise's 'horror' elements with Jurassic World: Rebirth - which hits cinemas on 2 July 2025. He explained to Vanity Fair: 'Jurassic Park [the original 1993 movie] is a horror film in the witness protection program. Most people don't think of it like that. 'We all went to see it as kids. But I was scared s*******, to be honest, when I was at the cinema watching the T. rex attack. 'It's one of the most well-directed scenes in cinema history, so the bar's really high to come on board and try and do this.' The Creator director added: 'There's something very primal that's buried deep inside everybody. As mammals, we evolved [with] this fear of the bigger animal that's going to come one day and maybe kill us or our family. 'The second we see it happening onscreen, you're like, 'I knew it … We had it too good for too long.''
