With Jurassic World Dominion now playing in theaters around the world, I recently conducted an extended interview with director Colin Trevorrow. During the wide-ranging conversation, Trevorrow talked about how he decided which dinosaurs ended up in the movie, the challenges of bringing to life the first feathered dinosaur in a Jurassic Park movie, which dinosaur is the strongest, the film's deleted scenes and Easter eggs, the future of Isla Sorna, what it was like filming a huge action sequence in Malta, and what would have happened if the original cast had said no to coming back. He also talks about if they ever thought about doing a post-credits scene, Michael Giacchino’s score, and the future of the franchise.
Jurassic World Dominion was written by Emily Carmichael and Trevorrow from a story by Derek Connolly and Trevorrow. The film takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed and dinosaurs are now all over the planet. Dominion stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, BD Wong, Omar Sy, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott, Justice Smith, Scott Haze, Dichen Lachman, and Daniella Pineda.
Watch what Colin Trevorrow had to say in the player above, or you can read the conversation below.
COLLIDER: This is a curveball to start things off, because I had some people mention this on Twitter. What was it like for you when people started talking about your Star Wars 9 script? Was it weird for you? Were you reading what people were saying? What was it like?
COLIN TREVORROW: We're going in hot, huh?
I'm not messing around.
TREVORROW: No, no, no. You're not. Gosh. Honestly, I haven't thought about how to answer that question. All I'll say is that I am so grateful for the opportunity to have told a story in that universe. And I am so proud of the story that we told.
I think that all of us as fans grow up having Star Wars stories in our heads and things that we want to see on screen. And everyone who's gotten the chance to work on a Star Wars film for however long is given that gift. I was given some other gifts. Like, I got to hang out with Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker. I got to meet George Lucas. I mean, these things I will carry with me for the rest of my life. And all of the work that we did on that movie came from a very deep place within me as someone who considers it a bit of a belief system, if we're going to be honest. And so it's laid out for all to see, what's within.
People really loved your version. The people that have reviewed it online have really loved your take on the material. Was that gratifying?
TREVORROW: You know what, I feel like talking too much about all of it makes it seem not real. It makes it seem like something that we ... That there's a bunch of people writing scripts and making movies. And I think there's a generation who deserves to feel like this is as real as we all felt it was. Right?
I mean, you sent your UPC symbols in to get a Boba Fett figure. And that was at that time, the closest we could ever get to it. And now I feel like we learn so much about what's going on behind the scenes and how these things are made. That what I don't want to do is take away that magic that kids have of actually believing this stuff happened a long time ago, very far away.
What do we need to do as fans to get Universal to make a two-hour Jurassic movie that just takes place 65 million years ago, and there's just dinosaurs walking around and enjoying life?
TREVORROW: Well, I got to do that in this movie and that's the beginning of the film. And for me, there's just these couple moments in my life that I've been able to do something that I never imagined would be possible. And in this case, having the absolute best animators on the planet and a real location and the resources to create the Cretaceous period in a way that feels, I think completely real. I think the work they did is just extraordinary. It's a highlight of my life, of my career, as you can imagine. So I can only look at it in the context of that, of just like, this is dream realization stuff for me.
I'm not joking when I say I want two hours of that. I loved that footage.
TREVORROW: I would watch two hours of that footage. Favreau did an amazing documentary. Not to advertise somebody else's thing, but it looks great. And I feel like this Apple TV piece that actually has Attenborough narrating it, might satisfy that need that all of us have to see these animals as they were. So I will be watching that. I'm going to go ahead and shill for somebody else's dinosaur piece.
There have been a number of Jurassic Park/World movies, and each one showcases what can go wrong. I do think it's just a matter of time before someone on this planet creates Jurassic Park for real. How long do you think before someone actually tries to do this and it ends in disaster?
TREVORROW: Well, we don't know they haven't already.
Sure.
TREVORROW: Right? We just don't know. The incident in Jurassic Park was a secret for a long time. So this could have already all gone down. I think that part of what we wanted to do with this film was to illustrate a bit more of a reality based way that wielding genetic power irresponsibly can threaten the whole planet. It is a sci-fi movie, but it's not a fantasy movie. And so for us, finding a way to acknowledge in a way that, if this really happened, if dinosaurs were released onto the world, how would that go down? What would would really happen?
I don't know that they would be fighting each other in the streets. I think that it would probably be hopefully a little bit more like what we've shown in that, if you happen to encounter one, tread carefully.
This is the closing chapter of this trilogy, but these movies are so financially successful for Universal that you know at some point, I don't know when, they will make another. When they eventually make another, would you rather them reboot everything and start again? Or would you rather them continue in this universe that has already been existing?
TREVORROW: This is just my own personal opinion. One of the challenges of this franchise is that to reboot it, you have to remake Jurassic Park. And I weep for whoever takes that on, because that is one of the greatest movies ever made. And so I think in a lot of ways, our only choice is to move forward and to expand. Because going back there and redoing Spielberg and Crichton, best of luck.
Yeah. It's impossible. It is a masterpiece. What dinosaur or dinosaurs ended up coming the closest to being in the film and why didn't they make the final cut?
TREVORROW: Ooh, there is a scene, and if people have seen the movie, by the time we talk about it, when we're in the amber clave market, the underground market in Malta. There is a scene where our Lystrosaurus, which is the animal that ends up in the fight ring with Chris Pratt sitting next to Kayla has a fight with an Oviraptor. And it's honestly one of my favorite things in the movie, and it's not in the movie. You'll get a chance to see it someday. But it's just one of those kind of moments that you can kind of tell that it's the 12-year-old who was allowed to make the film, coming forward and doing a sequence. So that one's pretty dope.
How did you decide which dinosaurs would be practical and which dinosaurs would be CGI and the mixture of both?
TREVORROW: That was actually a decision based on, if we couldn't make an animatronic, that would be the only reason why we didn't do it. If an animal needed to move a certain way, if it was a certain size, if it had to move at a certain speed, we would allow that to be animated digitally. If it was something that a human had to interact with tangibly, we would always make an animatronic or some kind of puppet.
In this movie we had this third way that J.A. Bayona really pioneered, that we just fully embraced, which is being able to always have a fully realized painted maquette, even if it was animated slightly, that could be a lighting reference to make sure that the digital creature looks flawless. And in this movie for the first time, we're able to have animatronics that have digital extensions for appendages. That's something that we didn't use to be able to do in the past, because the animatronic and the digital, just couldn’y match. Animatronic always looked better. But they're so good now that there are a lot of shots where you're looking at an animatronic and then elements that have been animated on it. And I know you can't tell the difference. It feels seamless.
You know what's interesting? If you re-watch Real Steel, that's what they did. They built those big robots and then animated parts of it. So you're mostly looking at practical and it looks fantastic. You know?
TREVORROW: I think what ILM did on this movie is unbelievable.
What was it like designing…I believe this is the first time there's like a feathered dinosaur in one of these movies.
TREVORROW: Yeah.
Am I wrong?
TREVORROW: We have four of them. And the one that really defined all the others was the Pyroraptor because we made an animatronic for it as a reference, and we actually used it a little bit. And the making of it involved all of these feathers to be gathered from all around the world. And I would go in and there would just be this table full of 150 different kind of feathers. And they would hold up four or five. And they're like, "Well, which one of these patterns do you like?" And you're like, "Okay."
So layering all those on top of each other and then seeing how they react to wind and to snow and to water, all of that was part of this really, really long development process that resulted in what we did. But never did I stop being kind of shocked that I get to stand next to professionals on that level, trying to figure out what a feathered dinosaur looks like underwater
Who took home the animatronic dinosaurs? Did you get to keep one? Or is it just crazy expensive and Universal's like, "No"?
TREVORROW: They deteriorate after a period of time. Because I actually wanted to use the animatronic T-Rex that we had built for Fallen Kingdom in this and they just don't. They're not able to hold up. And so we talk this time about finding ways to preserve them. Like you might have to like put something in a sealed box that is never opened again, which I think should be on the table. These things are amazing pieces of film history.
I do get to often keep...I don't collect props. I often ask for one thing. And on this movie, I asked for... The juvenile Baryonyx that's in the movie is missing an arm, but has a prosthetic arm with different claws and stuff on it. And I got the prosthetic arm.
On Twitter, I put I was going to talk to you. One of the things people wanted to know was how would you rank the power of the bigger dinosaurs? Who do you think is the most powerful? Can you sort of rank the power of the largest dinosaurs and what you think?
TREVORROW: Ooh, well, I think the story has told us that the Spinosaurus is probably the most powerful. That's the T-Rex killer. I think in this film, we see that the Giganotosaurus in a lot of ways is able to best the T-Rex in multiple periods, multiple eras. And to me, I think if I'm really going to, I feel like I'm just playing right into somebody winning or losing a bet. So I'm going to cost somebody some money.
To me, the Spinosaurus and the Giganotosaurus and the T-Rex are all apex predators of their era and of their area. If we were able to see all three of them fight, well, then someone will make some money off of that fight.
I want to read this question to you. It's another off Twitter. Can you confirm if the Spinosaurus in Camp Cretaceous is the same Spinosaurus as in Jurassic Park Three?
TREVORROW: My instinct is actually, no, because it sounds different, but I'm a nerd. So what I don't want to do is mess it up for everyone making Camp Cretaceous. I'm going to screw this up for them. I found it to be a slightly different animal, like on sight and on sound. But man, these are the kind of things that I can really...Believe it or not. I'm actually not the authority on everything. And so sometimes it's kind of what you want to believe. Is that all right?
Sure.
TREVORROW: You know?
Your imagination's always going to be the most powerful thing always.
TREVORROW: I don't want to dictate it to everybody because it's part of the joy of being a fan.
What would've happened if the original cast had said no?
TREVORROW: I don't know. I guess it might have hurt my feelings. I'm actually just a very sensitive guy who just ... I wanted them to want to come back, and I wanted them to trust me, which was the most important thing that.
I'm not Steven Spielberg. I will never be Steven Spielberg. And the last time Laura Dern had a lead in one of these movies, he was directing her. So to ask her to come back and trust that I'm going to honor this character, to respect this character, to listen to her and work with her, to make sure that the Ellie Sattler of 2022 feels like a natural progression and the same person as the one from 1993, that was the trust that had to be built, and with each of them individually and as a group.
But look, I don't feel like I can ever be an authority on any of those characters. The actors who played them are the authority. So for me, I just listened and we collaborated. And I think the result is something that it comes from all of us. It's not just for me.
What was it like behind the scenes? Had you guys decided, "Okay, let's go after the original cast and then we're going to write the script," or were you writing the script and then going after the original cast? What was that dynamic like?
TREVORROW: It was a little more fluid in that we had had ... I had worked with Jeff Goldblum a little bit, and then I sat down with Laura, and I sat down with Sam. And they were all aware. And so there's all there's the Hollywood deal making of it all. But then there's also this look each other in the eye and say, "Listen, if, if I can do something that feels worthy, will you come and join us?"
And I had that from each of them. Then at that point, it was a process of Emily and I really digging in and having conversations with each of them about what we were doing. We don't hide our scripts. Everyone who's in our movies knows exactly what happens in every scene. And I think that's important. Because ultimately when you watch this movie, I hope that when you get to the end, you'll feel that each of the characters have been honored, the new ones, the legacy ones, all of them. And that came from us doing it together, partially because we were all living in a hotel together, and we're hanging out on weekends. But it was also the same philosophy that I applied in my first film, the smaller film. Safety Not Guaranteed was a similar kind of setup. We were just in there doing it together.
So the filmmaking on this, certainly not in scope or scale or cost, but in process was closer to Safety Not Guaranteed than anything that I've done since then.
If you could go back in time to the days you were filming Jurassic World, would you have added anything to that movie that would've helped you with the sequels in terms of paying off something? Do you know what I mean? Because when you were making that you didn't know ultimately where Two and Three were going to go.
TREVORROW: I don't have a specific, but I would probably say that more about Fallen Kingdom and this movie. And that was a movie that we built, and then I really gave it to another filmmaker who I respected to put his own stamp on it. And I wanted to honor that relationship and my respect for a fellow filmmaker. And so the process of J.A. making the movie resulted in a film that then I needed to go in and make sure that if you watch all three of these movies in a row, they're going to feel like one long story. Even though I was making some adjustments for some of his creative instincts, which I was super down with and I thought were awesome.
And so in the end, if you're able to pivot a little bit and you're able to make sure that you're not ignoring choices, but following them to their logical conclusion, hopefully we end up with something that if a kid born today sits down and watches all these movies in a row, which I know is going to happen, they'll feel like they saw one long narrative.
Did you have any alt titles besides Jurassic World: Dominion or was it always that?
TREVORROW: That was the first one that kind of stuck. When I first came in, I wanted to change the title each time, which in retrospect was probably crazy because we live in a society. But I wanted to say it was like Jurassic World, Jurassic Earth, Jurassic Kingdom. I just kept changing it. And I think part of it's because I want to make original movies. I wanted to feel like they're each their standalone event. And perfectly happy with the way it turned out. And I know that I already changed the name of this franchise once. So I probably got to chill on that.
Because one of the things about this movie is that you have to balance telling your story, getting all these cast members to get along, you got to make the studio happy. And let's be honest…these movies sell a lot of merchandise. Universal merchandise or consumer products is probably weighing in a little bit in terms of some of the stuff. What is it like behind the scenes trying to balance all of that and also make the best movie you can make?
TREVORROW: Honestly, the toys part's the easy part and that's because I love it. I really get into making sure that we have everything that Mattel needs for kids to be able to go off and continue to tell stories to themselves away from the screen is something that matters to me. And so hopefully, people who collect toys and also kids who play with them will recognize how much time and effort and care we've put into to the toys we've making.
Make it a great movie is what's hard and making a movie that is going to serve the needs of multiple generations and recognizing that there's some things that I'm going to do to serve the generation that grew up on Jurassic World that might bump a bit for Jurassic Park fans and vice versa. I think I've learned a lot over the years and hopefully this is a movie that…you can't satisfy everyone, but can make everybody feel like they've been heard and that I'm telling a story for them too.
But you're right. It's something that it's almost impossible to do it alone. So having that input from everyone else can sometimes be helpful because everyone's an individual. Everyone has a different perspective. And in the end, this is a billion people who are going to have a perspective on this movie over its lifetime, unless nobody sees it, but I think people are going to go.
Yeah, I'm confident at least five people are going to see thus one.
TREVORROW: Please come, show up to our movie. We worked hard.
When people are watching the movie, are there any Easter eggs or moments that maybe they should pay attention to on screen?
TREVORROW: Well, I trust our innate understanding of every single second of Jurassic Park for people to be able to spot the Easter eggs on their own. I try not to do it. There's not a lot of intentional nostalgia in this movie because I know it's naturally going to happen anyway. It's in my blood. And so you almost can't help yourself. And so I just trusted, except for one or two things, which you can't really miss, that just by the nature of being a Jurassic Park fan, this thing is just going to be woven with references. So if anything, I try to push back against it.
Is one of the references a hat?
TREVORROW: Yeah, sure. Yeah.
I think people might see it. So, as you know, I love talking about the editing process because it's where it all comes together. Did you have a much longer cut of the movie? Did you have an assembly cut that was like three something hours. How did that all work?
TREVORROW: We didn't ever have an assembly cut that was three ... I actually, I don't watch the assembly. I just go in, I work on it in reels. So I'll just watch the first reel. And we'll work on that together. And then the second reel, I feel like the movie has to ... I have to earn the movie's ability to be watched in its entirety.
So in that process, our first cut together, my editor and I, Mark Sanger, it's a little more streamlined and kind of closer to where we're going to end up. There's I would say about 14 minutes of footage that isn't in the theatrical release that people will very likely have a chance to see someday. But also at the same time, it is already a long movie. We're two hours and 26 minutes. And it's already 20 minutes longer than any other Jurassic movie has ever been. So we had to find a balance when it comes to bringing people out to the theater after all of this time that they haven't been out to the theater. Hopefully, these versions will be able to live on in ways that if you're really interested in going deeper into it, we're going to give you that opportunity. And if you love the movie that we're about to release, then you'll always have that too.
What was the last thing that you cut out of the film before you picture locked and why?
TREVORROW: Ooh, well, I know what it is.
And I would like to know what it is too.
TREVORROW: There is a scene between Ramsay Cole, Mamoudou's character, and Campbell Scott, Louis Dodson. There's no dinosaurs in it. It's just a piece of performance. And it's these two actors, someone who's playing someone who had great trust for this man who feels betrayed by him and a man who's revealing a side of himself that this younger man has never seen before. And it also does a lot to go further into understanding the intentions of Biosyn when it comes to this ecological disaster that's been created all around the world, the mistakes that were made and why this character actually only cares to cover up his mistakes and move on.
I love those two actors so much. So this is just more me as a director than a dinosaur fan. But that was kind of the last thing. And I know people will get a chance to see it, but every little bit hurts.
Was it a minute or two, or was it a longer scene than that?
TREVORROW: It's probably like a two and a half minute. It's a good little chunk of movie. And it's just one of those I'm sure every... And this isn't...There's no studio gun to my head. It's not one of those scenarios. It's where we just recognize like, look, this needs to be streamlined in a certain way in order to make sure that people who want the richer, hopefully more fulfilling experience. But what do I know?
I think oftentimes movies can feel a little long. So I think it's something that everyone's going to have their own opinion on. I think the movie we have moves in a way that doesn't feel like it's a two hour and 20 minute movie. And that's what's most important. It's not the length of the movie. It's the experience you have while watching it and the pace of it while you watch it. I'm very proud of the movie. And yet I'm also really excited that we have more stuff to share with people.
Well, the thing is, you have a lot of main characters. If this movie was an hour and fifty minutes, I think a lot of people would feel short changed because that means it's only so many scenes with each of these people.
TREVORROW: Yeah. Every character needed to have a beginning, middle and an end. And that really was if anything, like things that went away might have been, the character had two middles. So in that process, I believe that when I get to the end of watching this movie, I can look at each of the characters. There's a point where they're all lined up next to each other and I can look at all of them. And I know why each of them was absolutely necessary in order for the story to reach its conclusion. And that's the challenge, especially when you have nine people who all deserve to be honored and respected.
Did you guys debate having a post-credit scene?
TREVORROW: No. I mean, look, I think post-credit scenes are very much the purveyance of Marvel and they're pretty exciting whenever they happen. It's the promise of the future, which is almost part of the experience now with those movies. And they excite me as well, but it's never really been something that we've done.
We're different. We make a movie every three to four years. I hope that one of the things that'll bring people out to the theater is that they haven't seen Jurassic in a really long time and that it'll feel like a new kind of experience. And it's all we can do.
Another question from Twitter. As this trilogy closes, do you think Isla Sorna might be something that gets explored in a future movie?
TREVORROW: Well, I can't say no. We do mention it in this movie as you'll see. And we understand a little bit more about where some of the dinosaurs went. But I don't know if I can comment to that at this point. I would never say no to anything. Because look, I was given an extraordinary opportunity to be the custodian of this for the past seven or eight years. I think there is another young filmmaker out there who deserves that opportunity as well. So if anything, I wouldn't want to tell them what it's going to be. They should tell us what it's going to be.
One of the things that this movie does is it has an action set piece that is not on the island or in the theme park, if you will. It's in Malta. It is outside in the real world. Can you sort of talk about crafting something like that and what you were looking to accomplish with that action set piece?
TREVORROW: There are a lot of different moments of dinosaurs in our world, in this movie. And yet to me, that one, it's where our filmmaking language changes in the franchise a little bit. Steven Spielberg, who made this extraordinary film with a very specific kind of grace to the way the camera moves, the way that he shoots is something that all of us to a certain extent have emulated, or created films that can stand alongside that as best they can.
Malta, we have a handheld sequence, and we have something that feels like ... Or if there's a guy on the back of a vehicle that he's just trying to capture these dinosaurs and he just captures a piece of them. So to me, being able to go a little bit more down and dirty with it and to shake that up a bit, it was exciting and hopefully something people embrace. And again, yeah, I'm just like, I hope you like it.
Sometimes when you're making a movie and you want to film in a location, or you want to do something, often people might say no. Is it easier for people to say yes when you say, "Yeah, but it's a Jurassic World movie"?
TREVORROW: Oh yeah, yeah. For sure. Well, one of the reasons why we got to shoot in Malta so extensively is that we're the first movie to ever actually shoot Malta for Malta in modern day, and just say, "This is a city. This is what it is." And they were thrilled about that. So they gave us a tremendous amount of support. And I actually got to go back and see a bunch of people who care about Malta very much, watch the Malta sequence. Maybe it was on my laptop and I shouldn't have done it. And I shouldn't say it out loud, but it's possible that some of the people we worked with, not just like people walking on the street, but some of the people we worked with got to see it. And it was amazing for them to ... They see every single landmark, and they're so proud of their city and how it's featured in this movie. So I now by proxy have a little hometown pride for Malta.
You worked with Michael Giacchino on all these Jurassic World movies. What is it actually like hearing his music for the first time? How does it work? Does he send it to you? Are you in the room? And what is it like hearing that music for the first time?
TREVORROW: What's interesting is that the first time you hear it, it's like a MIDI, right? You're not hearing the orchestra play it. And I'm with him, and he's seen the movie. And then he goes through, and he creates a set of themes. I usually just listen to the themes first. And then he shows me how he's woven them into different sequences, but there's ... It never feels the way that it does when the orchestra plays it.
And so there's always this two-tiered level of astonishment from probably any filmmaker, I can only speak for myself, but it's hearing the themes and feeling like, "Yep, that's the intention. That's what we're all trying to do. And oh, that surprised me. I didn't think of it like that, but yes, let's definitely do that."
Then you're at Abbey Road, and they play it. And you're like, "Oh my God, I can't believe I get to be here." You got to be there. I remember. It's absolutely just one of the coolest experiences. And in this case, that orchestra hadn't played together for a long time. It was COVID. And they all got to come back together and play their instruments as a group for the first time in at least a year, and it was very emotional for all of them to do that. I was there and Michael was remote in California. So we were all still wearing our masks and we had to do it that way, but it was very emotional for that reason. We all felt like, "Oh, well, we might make it through this."
On that note, sir, I'm going to say, congratulations. I wish you nothing but the best and good luck with all the other interviews you're doing over the next few days.
TREVORROW: Thank you.