There used to only be two things that were guaranteed: death and taxes. But let’s add a third. No matter how many times things go south, greedy businessmen will bring back dinosaurs from extinction, thinking they have it under control this time.
The formula has worked at the movies to the tune of over $5 billion in unadjusted worldwide grosses, so you can be sure that a Hollywood studio (in this case, Universal) would not let the coronavirus pandemic get in the way of the next iteration. And after many public delays Jurassic World: Dominion director Colin Trevorrow has shouted, perhaps muffled a bit behind a mask, “that’s a wrap!”
In a conversation with Deadline, the director said he was unable to put his feelings into words, and simply congratulated his cast and crew. “[They have] been so resilient,” he said, adding, “all [the] producers have worked around the clock to make it the best it can be. It has been inspiring.”
Universal’s Filmed Entertainment Group Chair Donna Langley said she was “so proud of what this team was able to accomplish.”
The $165 million shoot lasted 100 days, staggered out over 18 months, much of it at London’s Pinewood Studios. A private medical facility managed the production’s safety requirements, at an estimated $6-8 million.
The cast and crew isolated in a bubble, and roughly 40,000 COVID tests were taken. The shoot maintained a “greenzone” where all workers were temperature-tested each day. Stations for temperature checks were built at each end of Pinewood, which could monitor up to a thousand crew over two hours. Each station was detailed with doctors, nurses, and isolation booths. Additionally, there were 150 hand sanitizer stations placed throughout Pinewood, plus 60 extra sinks. (When coronavirus is over, it’ll be 60 times easier for British crews to fill up a tea kettle.) In the evenings the facility was hit with antiviral fog.
During production, only .25% of crew associated with the film or Pinewood, approximately 100 people, tested positive for coronavirus. Deadline says some of them were false positives.
Jurassic World: Dominion has a release date set for Summer 2022, which allows plenty of time for post-production and for moviegoing, hopefully, to normalize. “It’s important to us [that] the world is able to experience the film in movie theaters,” Trevorrow said.
This next chapter in the Jurassic saga is the first of the relaunched films in which Sam Neill and Laura Dern will return to the franchise. Jeff Goldblum had that cameo in the last one, in case you forgot.
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