It seems that when you came aboard, it finally started to move.

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Yeah, I was very determined to make it work.

That was in March of 2013.

It was about three and half months out of production they were going to start shooting in June.

They had a screenplay I was hired before I was able to read it!

I didnt know how I could direct it.

Im gonna do a bad job, because I just dont get it.

So Steven said to Derek [Connolly, writing partner] and I, Oh really?

Well then, you write a better one.

Weve been trying to do this for 14 years now!

Show me what you’ve got the option to do!

Using just those ideas, we built the film you see now.

It was a screenplay that got him energized and we started to see it.

Lets get it right.

In retrospect, I dont even know what movie we would have seen.

So that years what really made it work.

Was that last 10 percent maybe some of the character quirks you had inSafety Not Guaranteed?

Because those quirks are what made that film so different, and they feature inJurassic World,too.

All of that comes in at different stages.

I would apply that to bothSafetyand to this movie.

There are moments we found on set that are some of my favourites.

Like the moment with Jake [Johnson mild spoiler redacted] we found that right there.

But that can be where the most real stuff comes from.

I remember you saying Hal Ashby was an influence when you made the last film…

Specifically in relation to that film, Hal Ashby was definitely an inspiration.

I love Woody Allen too.

Quite John Ford, I thought.

We have a big John Ford shot at the beginning, likeThe Searcherswhen he goes out through the window.

I shot this 2:1, which people havent really seen on a big screen, really, ever.

As far as framing multiple characters in windows, I did that a lot inSafetyas well.

Its just a style I found.

Its all very instinct-based I dont know why.

And he goes, With a camera.

[Laughs]

Thats fair enough!

Theres a gleeful sense of anarchy in this, I thought.

Almost Joe Dante, with the pteranodons and Star Bucks… And also the notion that we spend so much time looking at the world through mobile phones.

Theyre standing right in front of a dinosaur, but theyre cutting it down to size with their lenses.

Some of that comes from my wife, actually.

It means I can poke fun at very particular things about us.

Really, its both what the movie is about and why the movie exists in the first place.

ThreeJurassic Parkmovies isnt enough!

Were going to make this one bigger!

It reminded me as well that Spielberg was such a pioneer of family horror.

FromJawsonwards [and thinking about it later,Duelas well].

Whats best left suggested?

Again, I was instinct-based as I could be.

The how much blood thing is something you usually figure out in the editing room.

I did know that I wanted to start it in a very mundane, familial environment.

At the beginning of this movie, the kids are just going on vacation, its snowing outside.

Were heading into sci-fi in a very subtle way.

What was your approach to that?

Did you storyboard extensively?

Each of them had a visual hook to it.

I can choose to look at any one thing.

Then [something unexpected happens], and it starts to subvert peoples expectations based on assuming their intelligence.

Yeah, about that sequence.

Did you show it to a test audience?

I assume you must have with a film this size.

Uh, we never tested this movie with anybody, no.

Actually, your theatre might have been the first audience to ever see the movie here in the UK.

[Chuckles]

Wow.

That was the only crowd that ever saw it.

And then we locked it.

I believe here in London was the first.

I just wondered if youd seen that sequence with a crowd, and what you made of their reaction.

Um, pretty horrifying.

By that time, theres so much being thrown at you.

But you know what I love about it?

But in this one, people are really, really minutely engaged in every little thing that happens.

you might see their reactions.

I mean, the beginning ofJawsis justhorrifying, what happens to that poor girl.

Ill never forget the first time I saw that.

Yeah, you never forget it!

you could imagine it happening to you.

What did you expect?

And you spent too much time staring at your phone as well.

The producers I worked with on the day were Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley.

I think the more he liked it, he got more involved.

He would never do it otherwise he would have stepped in if things were going poorly.

And the studio would be the same way they were completely hands-off.

I didnt have a studio guy on set giving me notes.

I was given far more creative freedom than I ever should have had.

Now I think about it God, they really took a giant risk, didnt they?

Youre doingBook Of Henrynext.

So isFlight Of The Navigatorstill happening?

I think its moved on.

Derek and I did a script of that, but Im not sure where they are with that one.

ButThe Book Of Henrys my next one.

Its a smaller film, but its something Im really passionate about.

I love it very much.

Its a brilliant, brilliant story.

So Im on a mission right now.

Theres another film calledIntelligent Lifethat Im doing with Amblin.

Well, best of luck with everything.

Colin Trevorrow, thank you very much.