Principal photography on JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION, the sixth film in the JURASSIC PARK franchise, began on February 24th… and then on March 13th it was announced that production on the film had been put on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The cast and crew are now waiting to hear when it will be safe to return to set, and during this wait director Colin Trevorrow has decided to offer a teasing glimpse of what they managed to film before the hiatus began.
Trevorrow shared a picture on his Instagram that shows a still frame from JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION, and while there's nothing in it aside from a kid sitting on a bike, it is interesting to see how dark and moody the image is.
Filming had wrapped in the city of Merritt, British Columbia and the crew had moved over to England for three nights of filming in Hawley Common and Minley Woods before the production was put on hold. When filming resumes, locations will include Hawaii, Malta, and Pinewood Studios in England.
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, Mamoudou Athie, DeWanda Wise, and Dichen Lachman.
Neill commented on the COVID-19 shutdown in a piece written for Variety:
Suddenly, here we are. We have been cryogenically frozen, and “Jurassic World: Dominion” is on hold. Insects in amber. And like virtually every actor in the world right now, I’m not working. Dammit.
But we will return. We will. And what joy it will be to be back on a set, doing what I love best, with just the kind of people I love: other actors and all the remarkable people it takes to make a movie. That rare privilege. And to put things into perspective – there are many many worse things than a suspended movie.
… It’s ironic that about the most helpful thing those of us who are unessential can do right now [ and I never met an essential actor ] is just stay at home, and stay the f— away from other people. We are all in this together, but we are better apart.
I still miss going to work though.
Written by Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael (from an idea Trevorrow crafted with his JURASSIC WORLD / JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM co-writer Derek Connolly), JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION will deal with the fact that the ending of FALLEN KINGDOM set dinosaurs loose into the countryside of mainland America.
Trevorrow recently made a short film, BATTLE AT BIG ROCK, that shows dinosaurs in the American wilderness and is set between FALLEN KINGDOM and DOMINION.
A collaboration between Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, DOMINION is being executive produced by Trevorrow and Steven Spielberg, with Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley producing. Sara Scott, senior vice president of production at Universal, is overseeing the project for the studio.
The film is set to reach theatres on June 11, 2021. That date may change if production has to remain on hiatus much longer.