JA Bayona is directing JW2.

While technically a couple weeks old, seems like something that'll we should continue to discuss.

I've never seen Bayona's work, his upcoming film looks interesting, and I've heard lots of praise on some of his previous stuff. I'm pretty happy a horror director is getting a shot though. I know Universal has limits, but I hope he is allowed to push them to give us some terrifying scenes.

IMO, the guy gets Jurassic Park more than Trevorrow ever did. Trevorrow wanted cool dinosaurs all over the place. Bayona wants a story and to bring the terror back that permeated the novels. It would be nice for Jurassic Park to return to the more teen/adult demographic that were the novels and first two movies. I've also noticed Bayona seems more interested in sharing his process. He's more straightforward than Trevorrow. He talks about what he wants to do and how he's going to do it, rather than sending cryptic single worded tweets with images of irrelevant video games. Bayona is very good at atmospheric movies too, and it looks like he's bringing in a lot of his regulars, which should bode well for JP5.

Can't wait to see how good he directs the film.

Best director we have had for the franchise since Spielberg I feel. Better fit than Johnston & Trevorrow.

Who's keen to see 'A Monster Calls' before then? It's looking really good.

Aegyptiacus3 wrote:

Who's keen to see 'A Monster Calls' before then? It's looking really good.

trailer looks very good

I'm interested to see where he takes the franchise.

A Monster Calls looks like a great movie at this point, and I hear he's directed episodes of Penny Dreadful, a show which my brother says is amazing. From what I can see, the guy understands atmosphere and that is incredibly important in Jurassic Park and ultimately a reason why JW didn't succeed and feeling like a Jurassic Park movie.

I'm very excited for "A Monster Calls" also, looks similar to "Pans Labyrinth".

CT-1138 wrote:

IMO, the guy gets Jurassic Park more than Trevorrow ever did. Trevorrow wanted cool dinosaurs all over the place. Bayona wants a story and to bring the terror back that permeated the novels. It would be nice for Jurassic Park to return to the more teen/adult demographic that were the novels and first two movies.

See, I completely agree with everything you said, which is why I'm still very concerned, because Trevorrow and Connolly are back for the screenplay. My only hope is that they took the criticisms to heart and actually tried to learn from the experience, and/or the studio gives Bayona enough leeway to propose script changes should he have any significant concerns.

Having watched The Orphanage and The Impossible, it's clear Bayona knows how to create atmosphere and suspense while never sacrificing the story. Despite my doubts, I hope they give him the power to do that here.

CT-1138 wrote:

IMO, the guy gets Jurassic Park more than Trevorrow ever did. Trevorrow wanted cool dinosaurs all over the place. Bayona wants a story and to bring the terror back that permeated the novels. It would be nice for Jurassic Park to return to the more teen/adult demographic that were the novels and first two movies. I've also noticed Bayona seems more interested in sharing his process. He's more straightforward than Trevorrow. He talks about what he wants to do and how he's going to do it, rather than sending cryptic single worded tweets with images of irrelevant video games. Bayona is very good at atmospheric movies too, and it looks like he's bringing in a lot of his regulars, which should bode well for JP5.

This. 100x this. Also, loved The Orphanage. This bodes really well for JW2.

Hope he knows what to do and has more freedom (something I doubt he'll have).

Its strange to think that even though Bayona is a highly respected director, not a lot of people outside of our fan community really see his addition as any kind of good news, they just think he'll just be another "director for hire" and just keep pushing the franchise into even more outrageous and nonsensical territory like human/dino hybrids of militarized dinosaurs.

If JW2/JP5 is a success with fans and critics (and not just kinda divisive) what becomes of Trevorrow in retrospect? I still believe the guy deserves a little respect for getting the series back on the rails, but with a potentially more thoughtful and suspenseful Jurassic film on the way, will he just be remembered as say "Joe Johnston 2.0" rather than "Spielberg's protege"?

I have seen some hype surrounding Bayona being the director, but i expected more. I guess it is because he is not so well known. People just seem to distracted by marvel and star wars, prob doesnt help that this film is not coming out in a while.

I've never even heard of this director before.... what other films has he done?

FoxHound4690 wrote:

I've never even heard of this director before.... what other films has he done?

the orphanage, the impossible, and his most recent work was a monster calls. All of them had good reviews and 2 of them almost made me cry.

Herrerasaurus wrote:

FoxHound4690 wrote:

I've never even heard of this director before.... what other films has he done?

the orphanage, the impossible, and his most recent work was a monster calls. All of them had good reviews and 2 of them almost made me cry.

He's such an interesting choice even though I don't LOVE him. I'm just so interested to see what a JP film from someone less "Hollywood " will be like.

JA Bayona is probably the main reason why I'm pretty sure JW2 will be better than JW

Troyal1 wrote:

Herrerasaurus wrote:

FoxHound4690 wrote:

I've never even heard of this director before.... what other films has he done?

the orphanage, the impossible, and his most recent work was a monster calls. All of them had good reviews and 2 of them almost made me cry.

He's such an interesting choice even though I don't LOVE him. I'm just so interested to see what a JP film from someone less "Hollywood " will be like.

I still wish James Cameron had of gotten the rights to the first film... his Jurassic Park would have been totally badass =P

FoxHound4690 wrote:

Troyal1 wrote:

Herrerasaurus wrote:

FoxHound4690 wrote:

I've never even heard of this director before.... what other films has he done?

the orphanage, the impossible, and his most recent work was a monster calls. All of them had good reviews and 2 of them almost made me cry.

He's such an interesting choice even though I don't LOVE him. I'm just so interested to see what a JP film from someone less "Hollywood " will be like.

I still wish James Cameron had of gotten the rights to the first film... his Jurassic Park would have been totally badass =P

I'd love to see a sequel from him but now he's obsessed with the blue people. 

Oh sh*t maybe we could interest him in Blue? XD

I know it's still too early, but so far, I'm very glad that J.A. Bayona was picked as the director. The fact that he stood his ground and forced Universal to put in more animatronics and ordered some re-writes means that he knows what he's doing and is more then wiling to fight the higher-ups. I like that in people. I hope he makes JW3/JP6, but if not, then I hope the next director is able to do all things like Bayona has.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

I know it's still too early, but so far, I'm very glad that J.A. Bayona was picked as the director. The fact that he stood his ground and forced Universal to put in more animatronics and ordered some re-writes means that he knows what he's doing and is more then wiling to fight the higher-ups. I like that in people. I hope he makes JW3/JP6, but if not, then I hope the next director is able to do all things like Bayona has.

Back in 2015 when Colin announced his intent to leave the directing of the Jurassic World sequel to someone else, he made an analogy to the Original Star Wars Trilogy in that a director would helm one film in the trilogy and then another would take his. Ironically, in this situation I think that not only was his analogy correct for the franchise at this very moment but its in a better position than Disney's Star Wars right now by virtue of having a story all mapped out. If one takes this analogy to its logical conclusion, that kinda makes Trevorrow the "George Lucas" of the Jurassic sequel trilogy.

But back to your final point, if the film is another financial hit and is better received all around, I think Bayona's chances of directing the final movie would have increased, just like how Matt Reeves' success with the second Planet of the Apes film ensured he would direct the third, and we could see a situation in which the torch is proverbially passed from Spielberg to Bayona to finish what he began.

I would almost guarantee that we see a better critical reception for Fallen Kingdom. It could be of the same quality as JW, but have better reviews and a higher RT score simply because Bayona has such credibility within the film community compared to Colin, who everyone assumed was just a "yes" man so Spielberg and Universal could cash in on an old franchise. Truthfully, the jury is still out on Colin's filmmaking prowess. Everyone already knows how accomplished Bayona is.

NolaJP wrote:

I would almost guarantee that we see a better critical reception for Fallen Kingdom.  It could be of the same quality as JW, but have better reviews and a higher RT score simply because Bayona has such  credibility within the film community compared to Colin, who everyone assumed was just a "yes" man so Spielberg and Universal could cash in on an old franchise.  Truthfully, the jury is still out on Colin's filmmaking prowess.  Everyone already knows how accomplished Bayona is.  

Brad Bird is also a very accomplished film Director, yet Tomorrowland got bad critical reception. The film just needs to be solid. Direction wise I think we're fine, writing wise I think it could be shakey. I hope it does well with moviegoers and critics though. Jurassic Park is too good of a concept to not get critical acclaim.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

I know it's still too early, but so far, I'm very glad that J.A. Bayona was picked as the director. The fact that he stood his ground and forced Universal to put in more animatronics and ordered some re-writes means that he knows what he's doing and is more then wiling to fight the higher-ups. I like that in people. I hope he makes JW3/JP6, but if not, then I hope the next director is able to do all things like Bayona has.

He ordered re-writes? Where did you find this info?

BarrytheOnyx wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

I know it's still too early, but so far, I'm very glad that J.A. Bayona was picked as the director. The fact that he stood his ground and forced Universal to put in more animatronics and ordered some re-writes means that he knows what he's doing and is more then wiling to fight the higher-ups. I like that in people. I hope he makes JW3/JP6, but if not, then I hope the next director is able to do all things like Bayona has.

Back in 2015 when Colin announced his intent to leave the directing of the Jurassic World sequel to someone else, he made an analogy to the Original Star Wars Trilogy in that a director would helm one film in the trilogy and then another would take his. Ironically, in this situation I think that not only was his analogy correct for the franchise at this very moment but its in a better position than Disney's Star Wars right now by virtue of having a story all mapped out. If one takes this analogy to its logical conclusion, that kinda makes Trevorrow the "George Lucas" of the Jurassic sequel trilogy.

But back to your final point, if the film is another financial hit and is better received all around, I think Bayona's chances of directing the final movie would have increased, just like how Matt Reeves' success with the second Planet of the Apes film ensured he would direct the third, and we could see a situation in which the torch is proverbially passed from Spielberg to Bayona to finish what he began.

I'd love it if Matt Reeves came on for the third film.

Six-Foot Turkey wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

I know it's still too early, but so far, I'm very glad that J.A. Bayona was picked as the director. The fact that he stood his ground and forced Universal to put in more animatronics and ordered some re-writes means that he knows what he's doing and is more then wiling to fight the higher-ups. I like that in people. I hope he makes JW3/JP6, but if not, then I hope the next director is able to do all things like Bayona has.

He ordered re-writes? Where did you find this info?

That seems to be the implication i got from colin's more recent interviews. Colin did say he was on set almost everyday to change anything bayona needed. Matt Reeves is who i also had in mind for the third film. Bayona is great director but im not a big fan of how brown his movies look. I hope that with this film, the color correction and style is more similar to jp and tlw but that first pic with lucy looking at a skull seems like a great start of whats to come.

Matt reeves hasnt disappointed me yet personally. I think he'd make a great film. Unfortunately I think he'll probably be tangled up in something else when the time comes. 

I want Alfonso Cuarón personally. I think he'd make beautiful film.

Troyal1 wrote:

Matt reeves hasnt disappointed me yet personally. I think he'd make a great film. Unfortunately I think he'll probably be tangled up in something else when the time comes. 

I want Alfonso Cuarón personally. I think he'd make beautiful film.

wow i'm surprised that i did not think of him but i'd be down for that choice. deep down i still have this hope that spielberg would return but he probably does not have the passion for these films anymore, i guess these new directors would be the way to go from now on.

Herrerasaurus wrote:

Troyal1 wrote:

Matt reeves hasnt disappointed me yet personally. I think he'd make a great film. Unfortunately I think he'll probably be tangled up in something else when the time comes. 

I want Alfonso Cuarón personally. I think he'd make beautiful film.

wow i'm surprised that i did not think of him but i'd be down for that choice. deep down i still have this hope that spielberg would return but he probably does not have the passion for these films anymore, i guess these new directors would be the way to go from now on.

Yes I also would like him lol.