One of the weirdest choices made in the previous three Jurassic World films was not to lean on John Williams’ iconic score from the original Jurassic Park. On the one hand, you understand the score elicits emotions very specific to that one movie and won’t always necessarily line up with the story being told. But, on the other hand, it’s a Jurassic Park movie; hit us with that John Williams goodness.
Jurassic World Rebirth, which opens in theaters July 2, makes use of Williams’ themes at several points in the movie, but it was not a decision that was made lightly. io9 spoke to director Gareth Edwards about the decision, which of course also involved the film’s composer, Alexandre Desplat.
“You play the game where you go, ‘Okay, do we not do it at all?’ And we tried a version of that,” Edwards told io9. “We tried a version where we took it out completely, and it just didn’t feel right. As a fan, it felt some magic was missing. And so then it was like, ‘Okay, we play it once. Where are we putting it?’ And that was a problem for me, because I wanted the end credits to have the theme… the way the end credits were in Jurassic [Park]. Then you go, ‘But then we’re not really playing it in the movie,’ which is a shame. So we go, ‘Okay, let’s play it twice,’ and so it ended up in these two places. But then there are obviously two themes, there’s [Edwards hums this one] and there’s [Edwards hums this one]. So I felt like, ‘Okay, we get another token. We can play that one somewhere else,’ and so they’re all in very strategic moments.”
But that’s not all. Desplat used some of Williams’ work more subtly at other moments too. “There are little hints of [the themes] that Alexandre did himself over some certain character moments, where he just slightly goes to hint at it and goes away,” Edwards said. “That was really Alexandre. And the whole reason he wanted to be a composer was because of John Williams, so we basically would always have competitions about who’s got the most pressure, because he was having to compete with John Williams, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I’m having to compete with Steven Spielberg, so get over it.'”
Hear Williams’ score, as well as Desplat’s, when Jurassic World Rebirth comes to theaters July 2. And check back later this week for much more from Edwards.
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