The 2015 film 'Jurassic World' was undoubtedly a triumphant return to the 'Jurassic Park' franchise that stemmed from Michael Crichton's book and Steven Spielberg's 1993 film adaptation. The original films depicted the difficulty and possible futility of making and maintaining a theme park with living dinosaurs, while 'World' depicted a successful venture operating for a full decade, only to fail epically when the creative minds behind it tried to overextend and mess with the creative process too much. A sequel was put into production with the powerful dream team of Universal Pictures, Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and Legendary Pictures, with most of the actors from the film reprising.

Filming started last February and, as of the latest production update, it has just wrapped up.

Things get darker

J.A. Bayona, director of 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' has just announced on Twitter this Sunday, July 9, that the production team has finally completed their filming. His tweet was accompanied by a GIF of the movie's lead star Chris Pratt doing a funny dance in costume as his character from the film. Bayona described the shooting schedule as a journey and extended thanks to everyone involved in the production that made its completion possible. "This is a wrap for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom!" he exclaimed in the tweet.

Previous statements from Bayona, Pratt and the cast have shed some light on the general direction of 'Fallen Kingdom'.

A far cry from the bright and optimistic tone of the previous 'Jurassic World' film (at least before it fell into chaos with the rampaging dinosaurs), the sequel is being presented as being much darker and edgier. Bayona equates the mood shift as being like that of 'The Empire Strikes Back' in the 'Star Wars' franchise, or the second 'Star Trek' movie 'The Wrath of Khan'.

Faces old and new

'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' is said by J.A. Bayona to take the concept of cloned dinosaurs to a truly global scale, with minimal time spent on the theme park (which, if the tie-in website is to be considered, managed to recover from the events of the film). It also features two major Hollywood actors, one new and one returning.

James Cromwell is debuting on the movie series in the role of Benjamin Lockwood, an old research partner of the original Jurassic Park creator John Hammond, who was played by the late Sir Richard Attenborough.

Meanwhile, Jeff Goldblum is reprising his 'Jurassic' franchise breakout role as chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm from the first and second films. 'Fallen Kingdom' will now go into a lengthy post-production period until its eventual release on June 22, 2018.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED