EXCLUSIVE: Keep an eye on Juan Antonio Bayona as things heat up on the director front for Jurassic World 2. I’d heard his name way back in September, when it was denied, and then he attached to World World Z 2. After Deadline revealed last week that he exited that picture over timing, I am now once again hearing his name as potential director for the Dino sequel. Colin Trevorrow directed the Jurassic reboot, and after it grossed over $1.6 billion, he accepted the job directing Star Wars: Episode IX. Trevorrow wrote the sequel with Derek Connolly and they’ve waited to get a good script before looking for a director, but all this is going to get moving soon for a complex picture dated June 22, 2018. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard starred in the first one and are expected back.
“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” is a liberal message movie, yet it treats itself with even more sobriety. The dinosaurs, it turns out, have been targeted by Mills to be sold off to the highest bidder — yes, it’s the first cautionary dinosaur-trafficking movie — and at certain points you may find yourself ticking off the themes. Greed gone rampant among the globalized gilded class? Check. The sinister potential of genetic engineering? Check. The need to protect endangered species? Check. The privatizing of military action? Check. The eerie implications of cloning? Check. The danger of weaponized dinosaurs? Check.
Thing that really irritates me...why throw in all of this crap? Why not make a movie about dinosaurs and really use them as the focal point? Nobody cares about the pretentious political commentary, nobody cares about Chris and Bryce's dosmetic squabbles...kids want dinosaurs and yet again this series finds a way to bog them down, now in a prohibitively oddball scenario with preachy plot elements.
When you think about it, its kind of amazing. Here is a series that coasts along so much on the goodwill of the first movie and the dinosaurs themselves that its amazing its grossed so much while accomplishing so little...especially considering its batting average is so poor.
Under these new standards of PCness, if "Jaws" were being made today it would be loaded up with commentary on the shark as victim, man is the enemy and we shouldn't try to kill this creature etc.
Indeed! Surely Quint would be the "deranged Trump voter" as well.
It's also not the first time JP has done this, as THE LOST WORLD ended with that unforgettable interview between CNN's Bernard Shaw and Richard Attenborough's John Hammond.
I have to say those elements must be REALLY heavy handed for an outlet like Variety to criticize it along those lines too.