Jurassic World Rebirth Director Gareth Edwards Had One 'Secret Weapon' During Filming [Exclusive]

For a movie that came together as quickly as "Jurassic World Rebirth," it helps to have an ace up your sleeve to help keep things on the tracks. In many ways, Gareth Edwards is the perfect kind of director to bring in on a blockbuster like this, one that's heavy on visual effects, requires a dizzying sense of scale and awe, and takes direct inspiration from genre giants like Steven Spielberg. For the guy who helped put his stamp on franchises like "Godzilla" and "Star Wars" in recent years, well, taking the plunge into the "Jurassic" sandbox felt like the natural next step. Luckily, he didn't have to go it alone. In fact, he had the benefit of arguably the biggest creative force in the franchise outside of Spielberg himself.

The final results of "Rebirth" may not have lived up to the pre-release hype, as I wrote in my review for /Film here, but you can't say that Universal Pictures spared any expense. The studio brought back original screenwriter David Koepp to form the backbone of the story this time around, and his direct involvement — as opposed to his uncredited work on many of the sequels — certainly paid dividends. Edwards explained as much during a recent interview with /Film, the full and expanded version of which will be debuting on the site in the days ahead. It's not always a given that a screenwriter will actually be present and accounted for on set during the shoot, but Koepp was a major exception. Yet even on the days when he wasn't physically there, Edwards found a way (to use a "Jurassic Park"-ism) to take full advantage of the "Kimi," "War of the Worlds," and "Spider-Man" writer's talents.

According to Edwards, he kept Koepp on speed dial throughout production and ended up soliciting all sorts of punch-ups ... even minutes before filming various scenes.

What a world it'd be if more filmmakers were blessed with the ability to contact the writer of 1993's "Jurassic Park" at will and request last-minute additions while on the set of the latest "Jurassic World" sequel. As it so happens, that's exactly the kind of dynamic "Rebirth" director Gareth Edwards forged with David Koepp after joining the production. While sitting down for an extensive interview, the filmmaker told /Film that he was fortunate enough to hit it off with the screenwriter right from the start of production. Humorously, though, Edwards wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the acclaimed writer going in. As he explained:

"What was also super interesting was David Koepp. People were — you read a script and you go, 'Okay, I'd like to do the following things,' and they're a bit like, 'Good luck getting that past David.' And so I thought, 'Oh no.' So my first meeting with him was on Zoom and as soon as the Zoom appeared, behind him was a poster of 'King Kong,' the original. I was like, 'Oh, you like 'King Kong?' We just started talking about 'King Kong.' And then talking about monster movies.

I don't know how [much time] went by — half an hour, an hour — and just realized we had exactly the same taste in films. I think that was so helpful in the short time we had, because everyone wants to make a great film. That's all anyone wants to do. The only conflict ever is, what is a great film? And so if you can agree on that, you are halfway there."

A compelling, fully-formed script is always a boon for a director joining a project, and doubly so when a fast-tracked movie like "Jurassic World Rebirth" came with so little time for prep. As much as Edwards clearly liked Koepp's work, however, there's always room for improvements and touch-ups — particularly when problems arise on the day of filming. Luckily, Koepp was only ever a quick message away.

As far as having a "secret weapon" goes, Gareth Edwards' ability to text the writer of 1993's "Jurassic Park" whenever he wanted pretty much ranks at the top of the list. The "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" director is certainly well-versed in the challenges of a blockbuster shoot on a deadline, but his latest film came with a built-in security blanket that he never had previously. And Koepp's skills were required even after shooting commenced on the newest "Jurassic World" movie. When asked about the writer's contributions to the film even after his screenplay was locked, Edwards literally pulled out his phone to illustrate just how integral Koepp was to the film:

"David Koepp is my secret weapon in that, on my phone, I can text him any time of the day. And I would ask him questions, or I would ask him to invent some different dialogue or something. It was like having this uber ChatGPT app. There'd be these little moments where you'd go, 'I just need to fill this — when they walk from here to here, they need to say this thing.' And I'd type my bad version, just as a framework, and then I'd hit send thinking, 'If he doesn't write back, we're about to shoot it, if he didn't write back in half an hour, we just have to go with my bad version.' Then suddenly my phone, like a minute later, would go [text sound] and then I'd look.

And it was really depressing because it would be so well-written. And it'd be the perfect balance of a little arc, it was thematic, had a joke in it or something. And I'm like, 'How do you do that?' He's really good at the things I struggle with. It's like getting blood out of a stone with me, things like that, so I really had a good time with him. I think it was great."

In case anyone's still wondering why movies or shows filmed during the writer's strike seemed a bit off, here's a case study on the importance of writers rewriting and reshaping things on the fly. Stay tuned for the full interview to come, but in the meantime, catch "Jurassic World Rebirth" in theaters July 2, 2025.