JURASSIC WORLD 2 (not its official title) is currently deep into pre-production with principal photography scheduled to begin this March, and I have good news for fans who weren't too keen on JURASSIC WORLD. Director J. A. Bayona wants to keep things practical, at least as much as he can:
Obviously you don’t have real dinosaurs — sometimes you have people playing dinosaurs — but we love animatronics and we’re trying to do as much with them as possible.
It’s complicated because the audience now is so used to seeing CGI that they’re sometimes reluctant towards animatronics. But at the same time, I think animatronics bring soul and reality to it. We’re trying to find the balance between animatronics and CGI in order to cheat the audience so they don’t know what they’re seeing.
If JURASSIC WORLD 2 can get closer to Spielberg's expert blending of CGI and animatronics in the original JURASSIC PARK rather than just another CGI maelstrom, that should certainly entice many more old-school fans back to the franchise.
The sequel will be moving into very different, darker register, with Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard reprising their roles from the original. They will be joined by British thespians Rafe Spall and Toby Jones. The film is being directed by THE ORPHANAGE's J. A. Bayona from a script by Trevorrow and Derek Connolly.
JURASSIC WORLD 2 is scheduled for a June 22, 2018 release.