Jurassic World Dominion Director Talks About Getting Back To Work During COVID-19 Pandemic

Jurassic World Dominion is about to start filming again in the UK, becoming one of the first major studio movies to resume production amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Only two weeks into filming back in March, Universal pulled the plug and announced that production would stop due to ongoing concerns about the global pandemic. With filming set to begin again this week, director Colin Trevorrow spoke to Empire about the challenges of getting back to work under new health protocols.

Even before the lockdowns, Dominion was the "biggest creative challenge of our lives," Trevorrow said. He clarified that the VFX team was able to stay working on the project during lockdown for the scenes that were filmed before the production paused.

"The shooting schedule really worked to our advantage--the first four weeks we put to film were mostly sequences with dinosaurs in them," he said. "So that allowed us to get a head start on VFX and workshop some of the newer elements without the pressure of a looming deadline."

Universal is said to have spent $5 million on new health and safety measures for Dominion, and Trevorrow said he feels "confident our guidelines will keep us safe." The challenge, he said, will be to find ways to allow the actors and other key creatives to express themselves in this new environment.

"The hard part will be constructing a creative environment within all the precautions. Once the cameras roll, we have to forget our world and live in the world of the movie. That may take some practice," he said.

"We're all fired up to get back to work. This is what we do, and we're all eager to get back out there and do it," Trevorrow added.

Before this, star Bryce Dallas Howard spoke about how she feels confident going back to work given the extra precautions that are in place. "They are going above and beyond. We would never go back to work if we didn't feel safe. And, you know, we’re taking it a day at a time and I'm very grateful to have a job," she said.

In addition to Howard, Jurassic World: Dominion brings back Chris Pratt in his starring role, while the stars of the earlier Jurassic Park movies--Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum--are returning in major roles as opposed to cameos. In addition, the character Dodgson is returning, but with a new actor.