The Wacky Story Behind How Gareth Edwards' Girlfriend Helped Get Him The Jurassic World Rebirth Directing Gig
This is certainly one way to land a Jurassic movie.
Only a select few filmmakers have had the opportunity to direct one of the Jurassic Park movies, like Steven Spielberg or Colin Trevorrow. The latest to join their ranks is Gareth Edwards, who helmed the newly released Jurassic World Rebirth. Directors can come by gigs in a myriad of ways and, sometimes, that happens by way of sheer luck or happenstance. Edwards has a particularly wild story about what led him to join the Jurassic family and, believe it or not, it involves his girlfriend, as he revealed to CinemaBlend.
Gareth Edwards has directed some massive movies, like the MonsterVerse’s inaugural entry, 2014’s Godzilla and the acclaimed Star Wars spinoff Rogue One. Those credits didn’t make him a shoo-in for the job, though. However, Edwards has long held affection for the Jurassic universe and, as discussed with CinemaBlend’s Hannah Saulic, he channeled that into a four-page analysis of the OG film. Edwards explained that in doing that he was “trying to take the essence of the story and tell it like it was like a thousand years ago.”
The Creator director went on to reveal that his “campfire story” was actually written a day before he received word about the job. It turns out his girlfriend, who knew that he’d written the paper, found out that another Jurassic World movie was being made and swiftly took action:
She saw this news article the next day about Universal looking for a director for Jurassic. And she just, I was on the phone to a friend and my phone went [buzz] you know, and I kind of looked and it was just this link to the article, and I copied and pasted it in a sense, to my agent and just wrote, ‘Is this stupid?’ Hit send.
During that same day, Gareth Edwards heard from his agent, who told him that Universal Pictures and producer Frank Marshall reached out to inquire about him directing. Edwards’ agent originally said he wasn’t interested because, as the director previously revealed, he intended to take a break. However, as you can guess, Edwards dropped “everything” to take on the job, leading his agent to reach back out. So I’d say the moral of the story here is to find a partner who’s got your back!
To say that the director had a massive task before him after signing on the dotted line would be putting it mildly. His goal – and those of his collaborators was to infuse the film with the best elements of the franchise. Returning franchise writer David Koepp even compared the movie to Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film in several respects. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, Rebirth revolves around a covert team who venture to an island to obtain blood samples from dinosaurs for medical purposes. Their expedition is shaken up, however, when they cross paths with a vacationing family and dangerous dinos.
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The Jurassic saga is available on Peacock, and fans should consider grabbing a membership. A subscription costs as little as $7.99 a month, but you can also pay even more to receive Peacock Premium. With that, you can enjoy ad-free streams as well as the option to download titles to watch offline at a later time.
With a strong cast and seasoned crew (which included Ridley Scott collaborator John Mathieson as cinematographer), Gareth Edwards had plenty of help in pulling this all off. Due to their combined efforts, Rebirth was met with positive reactions from viewers who screened it early. This all amounts to the realization of a dream for Edwards, who later told CB that “this is what [he’s] always wanted to do.” I’d say his passion and hard work are what landed him the gig though, of course, his girlfriend deserves her share of credit as well.
Fans can take their own significant others and/or friends and family members to see Jurassic World Rebirth, which is now playing in theaters and is one of the biggest titles on the 2025 movie schedule. The other six films in the series are also available to stream with a Peacock subscription.
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Erik Swann is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He began working with the publication in 2020 when he was hired as Weekend Editor. Today, he continues to write, edit and handle social media responsibilities over the weekend. On weekdays, he also writes TV and movie-related news and helps out with editing and social media as needed. He graduated from the University of Maryland, where he received a degree in Broadcast Journalism. After shifting into multi-platform journalism, he started working as a freelance writer and editor before joining CB. Covers superheroes, sci-fi, comedy, and almost anything else in film and TV. He eats more pizza than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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