The latest entry to the long-running franchise was filmed closer than you think. Here’s what we know about Jurassic World: Rebirth being filmed here in Thailand.
The Jurassic Park franchise has been known to revisit the same group of islands with every title. Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna are a couple of the names familiar to fans of the franchise. Evidently, they don’t exist in real life, so Hawaii has been used as the filming location for most of the franchise.
This time around with Jurassic World: Rebirth, the setting is not in any of the familiar islands of past titles, and so director Gareth Edwards chose a different country to film in: Thailand.
[Hero image: Jurassic World/Facebook]
Jurassic World Rebirth makes Thailand the stand-in for its island
Filming in Thailand began last June and lasted for a month, while the entire movie officially wrapped last October. The crew utilised a number of locations in the country for filming like the Hat Chao Mai National Park in Trang, Ao Phang Nga National Park in Phang Nga, Khao Phanom Bencha National Park in Krabi, and Sunset Beach on Ko Kradan. Initially, the producers were looking at different locations to shoot at, but when Edwards came onboard as director, he suggested Thailand due to his experience shooting another movie here.
“When we did the research and saw the landscapes, it felt like this would be perfect for our new Jurassic world,” producer Patrick Crowley said. “We sent pictures over to Steven Spielberg, he said, ‘We’re done! That’s the place.’”
Though many of the scenes have been altered with VFX and spliced with footage of different locations, sharp-eyed moviegoers familiar with the Land of Smiles can easily spot which scenes were filmed in Thailand. Case in point, the scene in the trailer of a boat sailing towards an island was filmed in Krabi.
Though filming the movie in Thailand certainly gave producers the look and feel they were looking for, it also came with its challenges. Director Gareth Edwards shot the movie in 35mm film to invoke the same feel as the original 1993 movie. But that meant dailies had to be shipped to England to be processed.
Jurassic World Rebirth is the seventh film in the franchise and the fourth Jurassic World film. It serves as a stand-alone sequel to 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion and takes place five years after that movie. Rebirth follows a team that ventures into Ile Saint-Hubert, an island once used as a dinosaur research facility by InGen. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali, and will be released on July 2.
This story first appeared here.
