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The two-time Oscar winner will join Scarlett Johansson in the latest installment of the dino-mighty Universal movie franchise.
By Borys Kit
Senior Film Writer
Mahershala Ali, the two-time Oscar winner who was last seen in Netflix’s hit thriller Leave the World Behind, is in talks to join Scarlett Johansson in Universal’s new Jurassic World feature.
Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo are already on the manifest for the project that is stomping toward a production start in mid-June in London with Gareth Edwards in the director’s chair.
The studio is keeping plot details hidden in a can of Barbasol. David Koepp, the original screenwriter of Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), penned the script for the new installment.
Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley, who have shepherded the modern Jurassic franchise, will produce through Kennedy/Marshall. Steven Spielberg, who kicked off the franchise with Jurassic Park, is exec producing through Amblin Entertainment.
Universal has set a theatrical release of July 2, 2025, which means it will be hustling like a velociraptor in postproduction.
Executive vp production development Sara Scott and creative executive Jacqueline Garell are overseeing the project for the studio.  
Locking in Ali would be a get for the picture, as the actor tends to avoid Hollywood blockbusters and has cultivated a reputation of being selective. He would also bring a certain amount of gravitas to the new Jurassic World as he is known for his serious-minded roles. He won Oscars for starring in Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in 2017 and then again in 2019 for Peter Farrelly’s Oscar-winning Green Book.
Last year, he voiced a key character in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and then closed out 2023 starring with Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon and Ethan Hawke in Netflix’s Leave the World Behind. The Sam Esmail thriller is currently the fifth-most-watched English film on the platform.
He is repped by WME, Cognition and Sloane Offer.
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