Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow has come under fire after suggesting that female film-makers fail to secure high-profile Hollywood movies because they lack the “desire” to tackle more commercial projects.

Trevorrow, who last week was hired to direct the forthcoming Star Wars movie Episode IX, entered a Twitter storm after he replied to a follower’s assertion that he might not have been given the same chances in life had he been a woman.

“I want to believe that a film-maker with both the desire and ability to make a studio blockbuster will be given the opportunity to make their case,” responded the director. “I stress desire because I honestly think that’s a part of the issue. Many of the top female directors in our industry are not interested in doing a piece of studio business for its own sake. These film-makers have clear voices and stories to tell that don’t necessarily involve superheroes or spaceships or dinosaurs.”

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Trevorrow, who was asked to direct the $150m-budgeted Jurassic World after making just one relatively obscure indie feature, 2012’s Safety Not Guaranteed, went on to say that he did not believe the lack of female directors at Hollywood’s top table was a “simple case of exclusion within an impenetrable corporate system”. He added: “It’s complex, and it involves a component that I think is rarely discussed — very high levels of artistic and creative integrity among female directors. Maybe this opinion makes me naive, but as an employee of two companies run by brilliant women, I don’t think I am. There is a sincere desire correct this imbalance at the highest levels of our industry right now. And yes, it does make me feel terrible to be held up as a symptom of a social injustice. I’m a person. Nobody wants to be part of the problem.”

Trevorrow’s comments immediately drew anger in social media. The Sin City actor Jaime King wrote: “As the next director of @starwars & the rad Jurassic World @colintrevorrow, it’s unfortunate that you believe this.” The director replied: “I believe that there is an imbalance in our industry that needs to change, and it will. If I’m muddling my point, I apologise.”

Trevorrow, who was also at the centre of a sexism row over the treatment of Bryce Dallas Howard’s dino park manager Claire Dearing in Jurassic World, was also taken to task by blogger Angie Han of Slash Film. Referencing up and coming female directors such as The Bababook’s Jennifer Kent and Selma’s Ava DuVernay, who recently turned down the chance to direct superhero epic Black Panther for Marvel Studios, Han wrote: “Is it theoretically possible that the studios have approached some of these women, only to be shot down? Sure. But the fact that their names never crop up in the rumours or shortlists that circulate before any big announcement is telling.”

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Trevorrow emailed a response to the article, telling Han: “The last thing I’d want to communicate is that I don’t acknowledge this problem exists. I think the problem is glaring and obvious. And while it does make me a little uncomfortable to be held up as an example of everything that’s wrong, this is an important dialogue to have, so let’s have it.

“Would I have been chosen to direct Jurassic World if I was a female film-maker who had made one small film? I have no idea. I’d like to think that choice was based on the kind of story I told and the way I chose to tell it. But of course it’s not that simple. There are centuries-old biases at work at every level, within all of us. And yes, it makes me feel shitty to be perceived as part of this problem, because it’s an issue that matters so much to me. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t talk about it in the first place.

“I do stand by the idea that a great many people in the film industry want this to change. I have made attempts at every turn to help turn the tide, and I will continue to do it. When I got the script for Lucky Them, released last year, I advocated hard for my friend Megan Griffiths to direct. She did, and she made a wonderful film (see it please). On my next project, Book of Henry, nearly all of my department heads and producers are women. Will I give a female film-maker the same chance Steven Spielberg gave me someday? Let’s hope that when I do, it won’t even be noteworthy. It will be the status quo.”

A study for the Sundance film festival found that only 4.4% of the top-grossing Hollywood films were directed by women between 2002 and 2013.