‘Jurassic World Rebirth' Is a Love Letter to the Original—Here's When You Can Stream It
The dinosaurs are back. Over three decades (and several sequels) after Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park first roared onto screens, Jurassic World Rebirth arrives as a bold new chapter in the beloved franchise. Directed by Gareth Edwards (Rogue One, Godzilla), the film revisits the chaos of dino resurrection through a standalone story that honors the original while introducing a new generation of characters—and creatures. The film premieres in theaters today.
Set five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, Rebirth opens in a world where most dinosaurs have been pushed into isolated zones along the equator. Among them are three genetically modified giants whose DNA may hold the key to a revolutionary new drug. That premise sends a team of operatives, led by Scarlett Johansson's Zora Bennett, on a high-stakes mission to a remote island once home to InGen's most secretive lab.
'I saw Jurassic Park when I was 10 years old in the theater,' Johansson said in an interview with Today. 'It was so impactful—I was completely transfixed, mesmerized, carried away, terrified, all of that stuff, and it's part of the formative part of my childhood.'
For Johansson, the role is a longtime dream fulfilled. 'It turns out that if you harass Frank Marshall enough, you could get a job,' she joked, referencing the longtime franchise producer.
The cast also includes Jonathan Bailey as museum paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis, Mahershala Ali as government operative Duncan Kincaid, and Luna Blaise as Teresa, a girl whose family vacation gets interrupted by the prehistoric beasts. 'It's a whole new band of characters that nobody's seen before,' Blaise told ELLE of the film. 'It's a new story and a new chapter.' She added of her co-star Johansson, 'Seeing Scarlett man the troops and be the captain of our ship was awesome.'
Edwards, who grew up admiring Spielberg, leaned into the original film's feel. 'Jurassic Park is perfect pure cinema,' he told NBC. 'I never thought I could beat what Steven did. But I do hope we've made a film that's worthy of it.'
Rebirth was shot on 35mm film and filmed on location in Thailand and Malta. 'Thailand had some pretty serious creature critters,' Johansson noted to Today, recalling a jungle shoot interrupted by cockroaches and scorpions.
But the film's real monsters are the new hybrid giants. Among them: the Distortus Rex, or D-Rex, a terrifying blend of T-Rex DNA with influences from other movie monsters. 'There's a little bit of the Rancor from Star Wars, and some of H.R. Giger's alien in there,' Edwards told Collider. 'But there's also this empathy—we wanted you to feel slightly sorry for it.'
Not yet—but it's coming. Jurassic World Rebirth is currently playing only in theaters. However, as a Universal Pictures release, it will likely be available soon for digital rent or purchase.
When it comes to streaming, Rebirth is expected to arrive on Peacock after its theatrical premiere, following the Universal Studios' standard release pattern, though no official date has been confirmed.
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In the meantime, fans can revisit the full Jurassic saga from the beginning.
All six previous films in the franchise—Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III, Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom, and Dominion—are currently available to stream on Peacock. Whether you're a newcomer or just want to rewatch Jeff Goldblum say his iconic 'Life finds a way,' now's the time to dive in.
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Yahoo
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- Yahoo
The ‘Jurassic' rebirth that never happened: How an Oscar-nominated screenwriter almost took the franchise in a wild new direction
Jurassic World: Rebirth stomps into theaters this holiday weekend, looking to sink its teeth into the July 4 box office and revitalize a franchise that even the most dedicated dino-heads would agree is starting to feel a little prehistoric. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali, the seventh film in the Jurassic series unfolds on a new island where dinosaurs roam freely... and humans are prey. While the Rebirth reviews are mixed, the movie posted a $28 million opening day, with a projected $127.5 million gross over the four-day weekend. The Rotten Tomatoes audience scores are also coming in a smidgen higher than the Tomatometer, indicating that these digitally enhanced dinosaurs continue to be a big summer movie draw. More from Gold Derby Kesha's 'Period': What critics are saying about the singer's first independent album Michael Madsen remembered: All his Oscar-nominated films, from 'WarGames' to 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' But Jurassic still seems like a franchise in need of some fresh creative DNA. And, as it happens, a bold new direction emerged in the early 2000s from an unlikely source — Oscar-nominated screenwriter and pioneering independent filmmaker John Sayles. In the wake of 2001's underwhelming Jurassic Park III, the writer-director of critically adored dramas like Eight Men Out, Return of the Secaucus Seven, and Matewan was hired to pen Jurassic Park IV, and the wild result — which you can still find online — remains one of the greatest "what ifs?" in Hollywood blockbuster history. Here's a look back at how the Jurassic series was nearly reborn in a very different way two decades ago, long before Rebirth. At first glance, Jurassic Park would seem to have little in common with the thematically weighty adult dramas that were Sayles's stock in trade. Starting with 1980's Return of the Secaucus 7, the Schenectady, N.Y.-born filmmaker won acclaim and awards attention for films like Baby It's You, City of Hope and Limbo. His Oscar track record included Best Original Screenplay nominations for 1992's Passion Fish and 1996's Lone Star. But in between passion projects, Sayles made a living as a writer and script doctor for hire specializing in genre fare. His first credited screenplay is producer Roger Corman's Jaws rip-off, Piranha, and Sayles also penned Alligator and The Howling and later did punch-up drafts on Apollo 13 and Mimic. In the early '80s, he was hired by Steven Spielberg to flesh out a script called Night Skies that, according to Hollywood legend, was the early genesis for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Spielberg, of course, went on to launch the Jurassic franchise with 1993's inaugural entry and its 1997 sequel, The Lost World before handing the third installment to The Rocketeer's Joe Johnston. As development began on Jurassic Park IV, screenwriter William Monahan — who later won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Departed — was brought on to offer his take. But Spielberg seemed to think that the next installment would require a little bit of the genre art and science that only Sayles could provide. The Sayles draft of Jurassic Park IV takes audiences back to where it all began — the island of Isla Nublar, where Wayne Knight's duplicitous smuggler Dennis Nedry lost that can of shaving cream hiding John Hammond's propriety reptile DNA while walking through the jungle in the rain. (Cue up Weird Al's "Jurassic Park" anthem now.) Eager to get those samples back, Hammond dispatches mercenary Nick Harris on a search-and-recovery mission with the intention of creating a new strain of dinosaurs that can't reproduce, but can serve as a check on the marauding giant lizards that have already escaped their confines. Harris locates Nedry's missing shaving cream, but also discovers that he's not alone on Isla Nublar. The island is now in the control of the Grendel Corporation, which has its own designs on that DNA. The mercenary is eventually captured and flown to a remote castle in Switzerland where he learns Grendel's endgame — creating a squad of lethal soldiers that are made up of dog, dinosaur, and human genetic material. Faster than you can say "lizard people," though, that army turns on their creators as Nick aids them in bringing the Grendel Corporation down. In the closing moments, Harris announces that he returning the missing embryos to Hammond as a loose dino chomps down on the last remaining bad guy. 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And much of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom unfolds in a secluded estate housing a cavernous research facility where new strains of battle-ready dinosaurs are being engineered and sold to the highest bidders. In a 2016 interview with Indiewire, Sayles spoke briefly about his brush with Jurassic and his approach to genre fare in general. "Genre can be used for all kinds of purposes," he noted. "Sometimes you can just do straight genre ... and other times, you can kind of subvert it a little bit. I'm more interested in the ones that are a little more self-conscious." "They could probably shoot the script that I wrote today and it would different enough from what they did make," Sayles added. With an eighth Jurassic film likely already in development, here's a second chance for Universal to make an installment that has an Oscar nominee's fingerprints all over of Gold Derby Everything to know about 'The Batman 2': Returning cast, script finalized Tom Cruise movies: 17 greatest films ranked worst to best 'It was wonderful to be on that ride': Christian Slater talks his beloved roles, from cult classics ('Heathers,' 'True Romance') to TV hits ('Mr. Robot,' 'Dexter: Original Sin') Click here to read the full article.
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‘Jurassic World Rebirth': Instant Oscar odds
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This new adventure movie will win the weekend box office. Watch the trailer here
Last weekend, F1: The Movie stood atop the box office podium, but this weekend a very different movie will steal the spotlight. Jurassic World Rebirth is expected to rake in between $80 million and $100 million on its debut weekend in North America, according to a forecast from Boxoffice Pro. Watch the trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth at the top of this page. Jurassic World Rebirth landed in theaters on Wednesday and has already been attracting plenty of interest from families looking for some midweek entertainment. 'A new cast led by Marvel icon Scarlett Johansson and Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali lends an element of star power that will surely entice even those most critical of Jurassic Park: Dominion,' Boxoffice Pro said, adding that 'the lack of Chris Pratt or any of the legacy players (Dern, Goldblum, Neill, et al) could be perceived as both a liability and a plus in this instance.' As per the movie's logline: 'Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet's ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures across land, sea and air within that tropical biosphere hold, in their DNA, the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.' Jurassic World Rebirth sees an extraction team — Johansson, Ali, and Jonathan Bailey — race to the most dangerous place on Earth, an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park, 'inhabited by the worst of the worst that were left behind,' Universal Pictures says of its new adventure movie. In his review, Digital Trends' Anthony Orlando describes Jurassic World Rebirth as 'a sequel that brings some life back to the exhausted franchise.' While the review praises fabulous performances from Johansson, Ali, and Bailey, it adds that the script is 'occasionally held back by on-the-nose, expositional dialogue.' Orlando concludes: 'This movie is far from the best in the Jurassic Park saga. But it's a decent blockbuster nonetheless.'
