Only time will tell if Colin Trevorrow gets “Jurassic World” right, but I think at this point it's safe to say that he gets Twitter right.
I'm impressed by the way he handled the leak of the early story details. Instead of going into defensive mode, he steered right into it, and he seemed happy to confirm some things while denying others. More than anything, it felt like he was clarifying because he knows what it's like to be a fan who is soaking up every little tiny bit of information that comes out about something.
What I'm most curious about with “Jurassic World” is what happens when someone who was driven to filmmaking by the first “Jurassic Park” in 1993 ends up behind the camera for what is effectively going to be a re-introduction for the series. More than anything, I'm willing to bet it's that passion that won Trevorrow the job. Right now, Spielberg is busy looking for ways to bring a number of the films he's been associated with as both producer and director back into pop culture in new forms. I've heard some of the plans that are being hatched for things like “Gremlins” or “Goonies,” and it seems like the plan with most of them involves treating them like sequels, not reboots. He seems fond of the idea of creating continuity between new films and the films that came before, and I like that. I don't want to just see the same story told over and over, and if they're going to bring these properties back, telling new stories in the worlds we already love is, in my opinion, always a better way to go.
Last week, there were some official photos released from the film, and they were basically just character shots to show off some of the human cast. Trevorrow got playful yesterday, though, tweeting out the following:
Nights. pic.twitter.com/LflniGjxmJ
– Colin Trevorrow (@colintrevorrow) June 17, 2014
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
One of my fondest memories of my time as a tour guide on the Universal lot was working there during production on the first “Jurassic Park,” doing everything I could to catch a peek at the full-sized Stan Winston dinosaurs that we all knew were on the soundstages. We also got a number of glimpses of the cast, including Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern having a full-on shouting match outside a stage one night just as the tram went by.
Seeing Trevorrow imply that there are actual physical on-set dinosaurs is a nice sign of what the film might be. Hopefully he'll use every trick in his toolbox, all in the service of trying to create a sense of reality and wonder.
We'll find out when “Jurassic World” hits theaters on , 2015.