Ridley Scott’s fingerprint can be seen on pretty much every great sci-fi movie that has come out since his 1979 space horror film Alien changed the game. Many filmmakers have been influenced by his movies over the years, including Gareth Edwards, whose upcoming Jurassic World: Rebirth is about to make another addition to the Jurassic Park franchise. However, it wasn’t Alien that inspired the new sequel.
Ahead of the premiere of one of the biggest releases on the 2025 movie schedule, Edwards sat down for a chat with SFX Magazine (via ComicBook.com) to discuss his upcoming sci-fi thriller and where he took inspiration from to bring the dinosaur blockbuster to the big screen. During that conversation, the Godzilla and Rogue One director revealed that it was Scott’s 2005 historical drama, Kingdom of Heaven, that inspired him greatly, specifically when it came to the director of photography:
John Mathieson was the director of photography, and the more and more I looked at it, the more I was like, ‘This is perfection.’ There’s not a bad frame in this movie. I’ve always had this love for his work.
Mahieson, who first worked with Scott on the 2000 Best Picture winner Gladiator, has collaborated with the famed filmmaker multiple times over the years, including most recently with Gladiator II. His work on Kingdom of Heaven, a great movie that somehow flopped at the box office, is honestly some of his best work.
Based on Edwards’ comments, he really wanted to work with the man who gave Kingdom of Heaven such a captivating look and feel, but he had to work with Universal to get the ball rolling, as he revealed:
When you start a film like this, you have a group of names you’d like to work with, and the studio have a group of names they would trust. Then there’s Steven [Spielberg] as well in the middle of that. There was this one little overlap where they all intersected, and everyone agreed on Mathieson.
Luckily, everyone agreed on bringing in Mathieson to serve as the director of photography for Jurassic World: Rebirth. Though it’s unlikely there will be any flashbacks to the new mutated Distortus Rex (which was inspired by Alien) fighting off waves of Crusaders, it will be interesting to see how the two-time Academy Award nominee and prolific music video cinematographer handles the latest dinosaur movie.
With the release of Jurassic World: Rebirth right around the corner in theaters on July 2, 2025, it will be interesting to see what other tidbits of information about the movie and its influences Gareth Edwards and others share with us all. If anything, I'm curious to see what those claims that the movie will honor the series’ canon mean for the big blockbuster.
In the meantime, all six previous Jurassic Park/World movies are streaming with a Peacock subscription. And while Kingdom of Heaven isn’t currently streaming anywhere, it’s worth seeking it out for the epic’s 20th anniversary.
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