The movie that “exceeded” Steven Spielberg’s expectations
Ever since he made his first few movies in the early 1970s, it’s fair to say that Steven Spielberg has enjoyed a career that he might never have believed was possible. As soon as 1975’s Jaws was released, followed up by Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it was clear that Spielberg was bound for a future of directing excellence.
Simply one of the greatest American cinema auteurs of all time, Spielberg has handled some of the most impressive films ever made. Take, for instance, the likes of Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report and Lincoln, each of which proves his greatness in the director’s chair.
Seeing as Spielberg has created some of the most visionary worlds in the history of cinema, it’s only natural that some of his fellow filmmakers have taken on his mantle and explored them in more detail. When it comes to Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, it was Colin Trevorrow who continued the science fiction action with his 2015 film Jurassic World.
The first part of the Jurassic World trilogy and the fourth in the wider Jurassic Park franchise, Trevorrow’s film stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and BD Wong and takes place 22 years after the events of the first Jurassic Park movie, focuses on the now-functioning theme park of cloned dinosaurs.
In an interview with Time, Spielberg once spoke of how impressed he was with the wild box office that Jurassic World garnered, standing up to some of James Cameron’s biggest works. “It’s number three behind Avatar and Titanic, and it’s about to become number four when Star Wars comes out,” Spielberg noted.
In fact, Jurassic World surpassed any preconceptions of success that Spielberg had in mind for the film. “It exceeded not only my expectations but the people whose job it is to prognosticate,” the director said. “It exceeded the studio’s expectations and Colin Trevorrow’s expectations.”
Prior to handling Jurassic World, Trevorrow had directed the 2004 documentary Reality Show and the science fiction comedy Safety Not Guaranteed. It was Jurassic World, though, that announced the director as a commercially successful mainstream filmmaker, with Spielberg noting, “Who could have expected this mega-success on his first non-Sundance film?”
Tom Hanks, who had also been part of the Time interview, spoke of how Trevorrow’s career would unduly change after the success of Jurassic Park.” Now that guy’s got problems as far as his next job goes,” the actor said. “He’s gotta accept the fact that he ain’t gonna top it. All he has to do is turn in a good movie and he’ll win, man.” Up next for Trevorrow was 2017’s The Book of Henry, which, as Hanks predicted, did not bring in anywhere near the same box office as Jurassic World.
Spielberg had served as an executive director on Jurassic World and admitted that he had largely put the idea of actually directing a movie set in the universe behind him. “I can’t live on an alien planet my entire career,” he said. “I’ve got to find things that are earthbound that make me glad to be on this planet and experiences, when I’m making films, that have relevance and have kinship to actual events in history.”
Spielberg added, “That fills me up; that makes me actually happier in this stage of my life than even a success like Jurassic World.” The same year of the film’s release, Spielberg had delivered the historical drama Bridge of Spies, showing that, even though Trevorrow’s film was a success, he had moved on to more “earthbound” ventures.
