One could argue that there is a dinosaur stronghold due to Jurassic Park, at least, that is what the directors of 65 think. In an interview with Polygon, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the duo who co-wrote both A Quiet Place movies, talked about what they feel is a “monopoly” on the ancient animals.
The film follows an astronaut (Adam Driver) who crash lands on a mysterious planet that turns out to be Earth 65 million years ago. He must survive with one other survivor (Ariana Greenblatt). It delivers sci-fi weapons, Driver fighting dinosaurs, and more.
65 co-director Woods felt there must be some sort of dinosaur “monopoly” that Universal and Steven Spielberg must have, referencing the classic Jurassic Park. It led to the filmmakers having a new take to break the “debilitating fear” that the industry has had to compete with the original adaption of the Michael Crichton novel.
“It’s impossible to escape Jurassic Park‘s shadow. It’s one of the best movies of all time, and one of the best executions of visual effects creatures in cinema history. I think all we were trying to achieve here was breaking past the debilitating fear that apparently all of Hollywood has had since Jurassic Park came out: that you can only have one dinosaur franchise.”
65 directors talked about the dinosaur “monopoly” that Jurassic Park holds
Seeing a dinosaur in a movie beyond Jurassic Park or 65 is a rare sight. In 2015, Pixar released The Good Dinosaur, which was the studio’s first box office bomb. To no surprise, the industry has been hesitant when there have not been any strong competitors. The Chris Pratt sequel trilogy, Jurassic World, grossed over $3 billion worldwide. The last entry, Dominion, was one of the highest-grossing movies of 2022.
Sci-fi dinosaur movie 65 will have a lot riding on it. As a new IP, the bar is set lower than for a Jurassic Park movie. It will have an uphill battle as Scream VI releases on the same day (March 10), which is predicted to have a franchise record for its opening weekend. With a budget of roughly 91 million means that it will have a good height to reach to be profitable to prove itself to the industry.