@Photo by Scott Garfield – © Sony Pictures Entertainment
Universal Pictures has announced that filmmaker David Leitch is being considered for the job of directing the next Jurassic World installment, which is scheduled for release on July 2, 2025.
An article in The Hollywood Reporter also noted that David Koepp would be writing the script. Koepp had penned Steven Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park movie back in 1993, as well as its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, which debuted in 1997. The Jurassic Park franchise emerged from an adaptation of Micheal Crichton’s eponymous 1990 novel. Its six features have grossed $6 billion worldwide.
Spielberg, via his Amblin Entertainment venue, will also be executive producer of the new release, as yet untitled. Leitch will also take on a producer’s role along with Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, and Kelly McCormick.
Sources had earlier told The Hollywood Reporter that a “new Jurassic era” was in store with the new film, leading to speculation that a few the characters in some of the earlier Jurassic episodes would not be returning.
Leitch is regarded as a major player in the action-film genre, via a credit portfolio that includes Bullet Train, Deadpool 2, and Atomic Blonde. He was not credited as the co-director of John Wick, a 2014 film he worked on with his colleague Chad Stahelski. Together with Stahelski, the versatile director/performer had opened 87Eleven, an action design production company, in 1997. Leitch also directed several other Universal properties, including Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw and The Fall Guy. The latter film stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, and is scheduled for release on May 3.
The 48-year-old Leitch also served as a stunt double five times for Brad Pitts five and twice for Jean-Claude Van Damme. He also shared a 2008 Taurus World Stunt Award with Kai Martin. Leitch also wrote and starred in the 2009 film, Confessions of an Action Star, a parody of the genre.