Jurassic Park screenwriter explains why he won't return to the franchise
David Koepp reveals why he's moving on from Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones.
In the time since the original Jurassic Park film was released back in 1993, the series has become one of the biggest film franchises of all time - with five movies already and another one on the way.
But screenwriter David Koepp, who wrote both the original film and its 1997 sequel The Lost World, has said that he doesn't think he'd be tempted back to the franchise in the future - explaining that he prefers to try his hand at different projects and genres.
"I did the first two, and it was great fun and I was lucky to be a part of it," he told RadioTimes.com. "But I think that's enough. I have a lot of ideas and once you do something you want to do something else."
He added, "I think anyone who really loves movies wants to try and work in every genre and do something... for example I'd like to do a musical!
"And I've always tried, especially as a director to exercise my directing muscles to the point of failure, I want to try something to see if I can do it. I think if you try to do the same thing all the time it gets very boring."
Jurassic Park isn't the only mega franchise Koepp has been involved in - his extensive career has also seen him write the scripts for Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and the very first Mission: Impossible film, while he was also responsible for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
And he very nearly returned for the upcoming Indiana Jones 5, having written a few drafts before the producers opted to go in a different direction.
"I did a couple of drafts, a couple of different versions with Steven [Spielberg] when he was involved as director and they didn't come together for whatever reason," he said.
"And when Steven stepped aside and James Mangold came in, clearly he needed his own vision. Because if you come in as the director of something, the last thing you want is a previous director or writer hanging around with his arms crossed, shaking his head every time he tried to change something.
"So I stepped aside - and I'm sure James Mangold will do something great!"
For his latest project, Koepp has written and directed You Should Have Left a new horror film starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried which is based on Daniel Kehlmann's haunted house novel of the same name.
The film follows a couple who travel to a secluded countryside house in Wales with their child on holiday, but it soon transpires that everything is not what it seems in the apparently luxurious property.
It's not the first time that Koepp has worked in horror, and he says that the genre has become an increasingly great way of telling interesting stories with complex and relevant themes.
He said, "The great thing about the horror renaissance that has been going on for the last decade is that you are allowed to tell many different kinds of story within that genre provided you do one thing - which is be scary.
"I believed this was a chance to tell a marital drama in the pattern of a scary movie," he continued. "So it's not a terrifying movie, it's not a bloody movie but I hope it is at least an unsettling movie because that's what I was going for.
"The challenges are, you do have to come up with ways to scare people, you have to find something to scare yourself - and jump scares are fine but you need more than that, you need something that is going to unsettle people on a deeper level."
You Should Have Left is available on VOD, Blu-ray & DVD from Monday 12th October. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
