The majestic landscapes seen in Jurassic Park have become familiar to moviegoers — the iconic images of massive creatures again roaming the Earth set the bar high for the production team behind Jurassic World. For the team, returning to “Isla Nublar” meant returning to Hawaii, where the green environment and majestic mountaintops substituted for Costa Rica. The crew discovered that the majority of the original locations were relatively untouched, affording the ability to step back into that visual world seamlessly, without extensive CGI to replicate settings.
For producer Frank Marshall, returning to Hawaii decades later felt like stepping back in time. “It was magical to be in some of the same locations,” he says. “Being in that valley surrounded by those iconic mountaintops really brought it home that we’re in Jurassic World.”
Production for Jurassic World began on April 14, 2014, on the island of Oahu at the Honolulu Zoo, which was magically transformed into Jurassic World’s petting zoo. Paying homage to the sacred lands on which the company would be filming while in Hawaii — and to garner some aloha spirit for the complicated shoot ahead — the crew participated in a spiritual blessing ceremony on the first day of principal photography. Producer Patrick Crowley shares why they were adamant about participating in this ritual: “When filming Jurassic Park, there was a hurricane that destroyed all the sets, and we wanted to make every effort to make sure that didn’t happen again. The cast and crew were very respectful. It’s easy to assume that a crew of movie people who have worked all over the world would be jaded, but they really listened to the thoughtful words and took them to heart.”
For the numerous and massive interior sets, the filmmakers needed a singular location with ample space, security and infrastructure, all of which they found at Big Easy Studios in New Orleans. Residing on a portion of NASA’s Michoud Assembly campus, which was left vacant after the cancellation of the space program, Big Easy’s expansive structures were converted to stages capable of housing a production of this size.
Although the daily rainfall and the formidable mud that followed were a significant challenge in Hawaii, the team was particularly wary of filming in New Orleans in June. “During those first few weeks in New Orleans, we were shooting all exteriors on Main Street — with very few cover sets — which was nerve-wracking,” recalls Crowley. “When it rains here, it pours for hours on end…with extensive lightning. When the weather in Louisiana is bad, it’s biblical.” While the team was hit with several significant rain and lightning storms and dark, the weather ended up, for the most part, cooperating.
Jurassic World is available beginning Oct. 20 on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.
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