Jurassic World Rebirth roared onto the CinemaCon stage with star Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and director Gareth Edwards.
The presentation was brought to life at the start by a full orchestra performing a live rendition of the franchise’s familiar theme music, originally composed by John Williams. “That theme always gives me goosebumps — and live,” praised Ali.
The group brought plenty of jokes with them. Johansson told the crowd, “It has been a lifelong dream to be in a Jurassic movie for the last 15 years.” Edwards quipped, “She was too expensive.”
“It was the honor of the lifetime,” Edwards noted of making the movie, saying he was proud to have worked with an Oscar winner in Ali. This led the actor to jokingly add, “Two.” Edwards replied, “Sorry, two-time Academy Award winner.”
Ali noted, “Filming in Thailand was incredible.” He said that Edwards would ask him to run through the jungle filled with wildlife and added, “You think to yourself, ‘There’s no effing way I’m doing that.’”
Johansson emphasized that the team wanted to “put the scares back in Jurassic.”
When Edwards went to introduce the footage, Ali revealed he had already seen it, and Johansson claimed to have been in the dark. “How come Mahershala got to see it and I didn’t?” she asked, leading Edwards to supposedly show her the footage on his phone.
The action-packed footage shows the characters on a boat in the jungle, with Johansson’s character warning, “Maybe we should make this quick, huh?” The trailer also teased an adorable baby dinosaur being taken to safety.
Edwards’ movie also stars Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain and Ed Skrein.
In Jurassic World Rebirth, only a limited number of dinosaurs remain and reside in specialized biospheres, and three of these creatures hold the key to a potentially life-saving drug. Covert operations expert Zora Bennett (Johansson) attempts to secure the genetic material from the dinosaurs but ends up stranded with a civilian family on an island that holds a secret being kept from humanity for decades.
The new feature takes place five years after the events of filmmaker Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World Dominion, the franchise’s previous installment that hit theaters in June 2022 and starred Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard alongside Jurassic Park returnees Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill. The film series launched in 1993 with Steven Spielberg‘s smash Jurassic Park, based on author Michael Crichton’s 1990 science fiction novel of the same name.
Edwards (Rogue One) helmed Jurassic World Rebirth from a script by David Koepp, who worked on Jurassic Park and its 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Hailing from Amblin Entertainment, the new film is based on characters created by Crichton.
CinemaCon is the annual event for exhibitors and Hollywood studios that runs this year from March 31 to April 3. It is presented by Cinema United (formerly the National Association of Theatre Owners).