David Leitch In Talks To Direct Next Jurassic World Film

David Leitch

by James White |
Updated on

UPDATE: Not so much. Like the asteroid that sent the dinosaurs into extinction, talks have apparently led nowhere for Leitch and the studio, so the director will not now be making the movie. According to Deadline's sources, it was an amicable difference of vision. So Universal is once more hanging the Director Wanted sign on this one.

Universal certainly doesn't seem to be waiting around when it comes to getting a new entry in the Jurassic World franchise up and stomping across screens. With word just a couple of weeks ago that Jurassic Park writer David Koepp had been hired to take the films in a new direction, Deadline brings the news that Bullet Train and Atomic Blonde director David Leitch has started talks to make it.

What exactly the new film will focus on remains a secret known only to Koepp, the studio and the various producers involved (including Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall). All we know so far is that it likely won't include any of the established actors such as Chris Pratt or Bryce Dallas Howard. But Leitch's potential hiring points to a new tone for the films, one that lends itself to even more spectacular set pieces.

Leitch, of course, has an established relationship with Universal, having made the aforementioned Atomic Blonde plus Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shawand the upcoming The Fall Guy, which stars Ryan Gosling and has apparently gone down very well with the studio.

Assuming he does actually make a deal to direct (there are other projects he's been considering, but this one clearly has the edge), he'll be on quite the timetable, as Universal has now planted a flag in 2 July, 2025 release for this one, so expect things to get moving as quick as a raptor soon.

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