In this article I cover an exclusive new interview with Jurassic veteran script writer David Koepp, who has given new insight into the development of Jurassic World: Rebirth, and the important commandment list the Jurassic franchise must abide by.
In the Discourse podcast host Mike DeAngelo interviews David Koepp on his film writing history, which includes added information on Jurassic World: Rebirth and the upcoming UFO film with Steven Spielberg. You can listen to the Discourse podcast episode on Spotify below.
David Koepp on Jurassic World: Rebirth
David Koepp shared the following about the Jurassic franchise and how he set out to create a list of nine commandments that Jurassic World: Rebirth and any future Jurassic films would need to adhere by. As covered on the Playlist.net.
Koepp said that “Jurassic World: Rebirth was the chance to write a streamlined script in a familiar world. “That was a ball. I had such a nice time on it,” he said about writing “Rebirth.”
I hope people like the movie because the series tended to change after three, and it felt like, ‘Okay, so let’s change our tone.” Steven [Spielberg] and I were interested in a tone that was maybe more akin to the very first movie. I saw it early on as a mission movie. I like things that are driven by bottles, by containment, you know?”
“I actually wrote a list of our nine commandments, which was inspired by Chuck Jones, who had written nine commandments for the Roadrunner cartoons – like all adventures must take place in the American Southwest, gravity is always the coyote’s worst enemy, all products must come from the Acme corporation,” Koepp said.
“And so, I made a list of things that we had to abide by – one was the events of the previous six movies that cannot be contradicted or denied because I don’t like a retcon. Those are no fun. Two, Humour is oxygen. Science must be real. You know, all the things that we wanted our movie to be. And I just had a great fun doing it with Steven and then with Gareth [Edwards].”
This is exciting to hear that the Koepp wanted the story to be focused from the start. It seems there was no pressure from Universal or any expectations other than dinosaurs being included for the story treatment.
From what Koepp shares it seems he had free reign to write the story of his choice with little input from the studio as to the story development or character characterisation for the film.
This is quite refreshing to hear, as some Jurassic fans had wondered whether Rebirths development was a result of the mixed reception to Jurassic World: Dominion. It is well documented that Jurassic World: Dominion had a lot of script writing feedback during that film’s development.
It seems that both Koepp and Spielberg wanted to be on the same page in terms of Jurassic World: Rebirths story and the films goals in terms of where it will take the franchise going forward.
The fact Koepp states that he saw Jurassic World: Rebirth early on as a mission movie. That he likes situations to driven by bottles, by containment suggests a more claustrophobic and contained approach to dinosaur encounters and peril in this latest chapter in the Jurassic World franchise saga.
David Koepp and Steven Spielberg knew what they wanted to create with this new Jurassic World film, to go back to the tone of the original Jurassic Park. I must admit I am quite surprised by how open Koepp has been about all this in this in this podcast interview.
The emphasis on science being real is also something that is important. I wrote an article about this very story focus a while back on Exploring scientific questions in the new Jurassic World film, it is well worth a read.
It will be interesting to see how science is used in more depth in Jurassic World: Rebirth. There should be lots of opportunities for science story beats outside of the collection of dinosaur DNA by the covert operations team, so it will be interesting to see how Koepp and Spielberg bring these story beats to the forefront in the Rebirth script.
The information provided by David Koepp in this interview is a massive positive considering we have not heard much about the development of the film behind the scenes.
Koepp up until this point has been quiet on the development of Rebirths story, so I am thrilled we have insight from him as to how he approached the film and his thought process in the story’s overall scope. I am more excited than ever now to not only see a potential trailer but learn more about Jurassic World: Rebirth as we lead into its upcoming release in the summer of 2025.
David Koepp has done a lot of past interviews discussing his script writing history. In July 2022 he took part in this hour long interview with the University of California discussing his writing work on Jurassic Park.
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