By Kristian Brunse
LONDON (Reuters) – Casts old and new return for more dinosaur misadventures in “Jurassic World Dominion”, in a final outing concluding the second trilogy of films in the popular franchise.
The movie is set four years after the destruction of the remote island of Isla Nubar, and dinosaurs roam the entire world, living and hunting among humans.
“Jurassic Park” actors Laura Dern and Sam Neill reprise their roles as paleobotanist Dr Ellie Sattler, now a soil and climate change scientist, and paleontologist Dr Alan Grant, reuniting with their castmate from the 1993 movie Jeff Goldblum, who plays mathematician Dr Ian Malcolm.
The movie sees them join forces with Chris Pratt’s animal behaviourist Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s activist Claire Dearing, who have helmed the more recent “Jurassic World” trilogy of films.
“Both of them (Dern and Neill are) terrific friends… and changed my life for having known them for all these 30 years… We were in a movie that got people’s attention and entertained people,” Goldblum, who featured in 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”, told Reuters at a London press event for the movie on Friday.
“And now, for the first time, being reunited on screen and getting a chance to work together under these interesting circumstances with this new cast… what a parade and a cobb salad of lucky teammates for me.”
The film, which begins its global cinema roll-out on June 1, features plenty of stunning visual effects showing the dinosaurs living alongside humans. Soon enough, threats emerge.
“What I’m so grateful for and why I felt privileged to come back as Dr Ellie Sattler is it has a deeply rooted environmental message as the entire franchise does, because ultimately it’s about corporate greed and previous extinction,” Dern said.
Howard, whose character was former operations manager at the now closed dinosaur park in the first “Jurassic World” movie, said wrapping up the trilogy which began in 2015 was emotional.
“I cried so much,” she said.
“There was some of the actors on my flight home, and they messaged everyone going like, ‘Bryce cried the entire 10 hours home.’ I’m like, ‘I know’.”
(Reporting by Kristian Brunse; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
