Steven Spielberg’s No-Nonsense Notes on JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH and Wanting To Avoid Self Reference

Steven Spielberg may not be in the director’s chair for Jurassic World Rebirth, but make no mistake, his fingerprints are all over it. As executive producer, the Jurassic Park mastermind had some clear, uncompromising guidance for screenwriter David Koepp, who returned to the franchise after penning Jurassic Park and The Lost World.

While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Koepp revealed that Spielberg wasn’t interested in nostalgia bait or safe, crowd-pleasing callbacks. Koepp recalled of Spielberg’s notes.

“That it should be scary. We should see some things that we’ve never seen before. Let’s make the science as close to real as we can. And something that is important to him with everything — but in this movie in particular — he really wanted to avoid anything that was a self reference.

“He does not like to quote himself. He’s allergic to it. If you put something in that rings too familiar, he’ll say, ‘Didn’t I already do that? Don’t do that.’”

Spielberg also pushed Koepp to think about the legacy of the franchise and where it could meaningfully go next. Koepp explained:

“He [Spielberg] is the one who started this [franchise]. It’s his. So I think he felt a certain care and responsibility to ask, ‘How can this go on? What would make it really good?’”

The result is Jurassic World Rebirth, a post-Dominion tale set five years later, where Scarlett Johansson leads a squad of mercenaries and scientists on a dangerous mission to harvest dinosaur DNA for medical breakthroughs. Of course, the dinosaurs aren’t exactly on board with the plan.

I loved the film and think it’s the best in the franchise since Spielberg’s original movie. I had a a lot of fun watching this one, and I think audiences will enjoy it as well.

Directed by Gareth Edwards and now playing in theaters, Jurassic World Rebirth stars Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Ed Skrein.