Washington DC [US], February 7 : Filmmaker David Leitch is in talks to direct the next instalment in the 'Jurassic World franchise, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Universal Pictures announced recently that the dinosaur-focused picture will be released on July 2, 2025. THR reported last month that David Koepp, who wrote Jurassic World's original 1993 blockbuster 'Jurassic Park' and its 1997 sequel 'Jurassic Park: The Lost World', is scripting the follow-up to 2022's 'Jurassic World Dominion'.
Spielberg is set to executive produce the new movie through his company Amblin Entertainment. Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley, who worked on Jurassic Park, will also produce with Leitch and Kelly McCormick of 87North.
Universal executive VP of production development Sara Scott and creative executive of production development Jacqueline Garell will oversee the film on the studio side.
Sources previously informed THR that the upcoming film will usher in a "new Jurassic era," implying that Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard's characters from Colin Trevorrow's 2015 Jurassic World will not be involved. 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom', directed by J.A. Bayona, came out in 2015. The characters played by Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum in the original Jurassic Park franchise are unlikely to return in the fourth Jurassic World film. The three actors appeared alongside Pratt and Howard in the film Dominion.
Leitch, who established himself as a major action filmmaker with films like 'Bullet Train', 'Deadpool 2', and 'Atomic Blonde' has become a go-to for Universal. He helmed 'Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw' for the studio, and the negotiations take place as Universal prepares to release The Fall Guy, starring recent Oscar contenders Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, on May 3.
The dino film series launched in 1993 with Spielberg's Jurassic Park, adapting Michael Crichton's best-selling 1990 novel of the same name. The franchise that hails from Universal and Amblin comprises six features that have together surpassed $6 billion worldwide, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
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