New Jurassic World movie nabs Godzilla director

The next Jurassic World movie finally has its director, and he’s a visual effects powerhouse.

Gareth Edwards has reportedly signed on to direct the next Jurassic World film. And he had better get his skates on because it’s currently pencilled in for a 2025 cinema release.

This follows reports earlier this month that David Leitch, of Deadpool 2, Bullet Train and Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, would direct.

The pressure is on, but Gareth Edwards sounds like an even better fit for the job than Leitch.

Welsh director Edwards has, over the last 15 years, directed four action films. And all four are epics: Monsters, Godzilla, Rogue One and The Creator.

World beater

Edwards excels at putting a production budget to great use. The Creator was one of the most expensive-looking films of 2023, but was made for $80 million, less than a quarter the budget of that year’s priciest blockbuster, the $340 million Fast X.

Variety published an interesting piece about how Edwards likes his sets as stripped back as possible around the release of the film.

This is not how today’s Jurassic World movies are made, though. Estimates place Jurassic World Dominion’s budget at anything up to $328 million but, despite poor reviews, it went on to just crack a billion dollars in takings.

IMDb currently has the next movie’s budget pegged at $265 million.

A lot rests on Edwards’s shoulders here, though, as the next Jurassic World is expected to serve as a complete reboot of the franchise.

That means no Chris Pratt, no Bryce Dallas Howard — a brand-new cast is on the cards. This may explain why previous director pick David Leitch left the project. There’s an awful lot to decide with this one.

It also makes the July 2025 release date sound all the less likely. Still, the project has promise, and will reportedly be based on a story by David Koepp, who wrote the screenplays for the first two Jurassic Park movies and, more recently, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

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