David Leitch has explained why he turned down the opportunity to direct a Jurassic World movie.

In February, it was revealed that The Fall Guy filmmaker was in talks to direct the next instalment in the Jurassic World franchise. However, it was reported days later that he had dropped out of the project.

During Thursday’s episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the John Wick director explained why it didn’t work out.

“To be asked to be in those worlds, you want to always take the conversation seriously,” he said. “And I think, you know, we are creative and can find our ways into a lot of things. So it was a really great conversation to have, and like, to be in talks with Steven (Spielberg) and Frank (Marshall) about that franchise that’s so dear to us. It was really a beautiful time.

“Ultimately, you have to do what’s best for the movie at hand and do what’s best for you as an artist to make sure that you could make the same movie and you could do it with the parameters that you needed to do. And at some point, we just said, you know… We wanted to give that answer quickly because they have to go make this movie that everyone’s excited to see.”

Leitch admitted it was “kind of surreal” to have that conversation with famed director Spielberg and then turn the opportunity down.

“I believe we’ve earned this position… We’re able to choose the movies we want to make and we want to make sure we can have the creative freedom to make those movies the way we need to make them,” he noted.

His producer wife Kelly McCormick added that they felt they were “finally acknowledged in the business” when Spielberg approached them and that they felt “so fortunate” to have spent time with the Jurassic Park director, who is producing the new film.

Leitch addressed the movie’s new director, Gareth Edwards, saying they “love and respect” the “brilliant” filmmaker.

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