Sam Neill: Hi Dan.. so you've been running the JP3 page, huh?

Dan Finkelstein: Yeah, have you ever seen it?

SN: I haven't, no, I don't um.. have a computer.. but I've been told its very very good..

DF: Yeah, well, I try.. You're everyone's favorite character...

SN: Oh, cool..

DF: I just wanted to start by asking a crazy question off hand.. I know you have a winery there in New Zealand called "Two Paddocks"

SN: Yeah?

DF: Did you name that after the t-rex paddock?

SN: Ehh.. no.

DF: (laughs)

SN: I've forgotten that was a paddock! In America, paddock means something different.. it's normally where horses are kept. But I guess if you were running a dinosaur park you'd have paddocks as well..

DF: So I guess it's just a coincidence?

SN: Yeah... the reason it's "Two paddocks" is because one of my friends here, Roger Donaldson, who directed "13 Days" and "No Way Out".. he has a paddock next to my paddock, and we planted our grapes together.

DF: Oh..

SN: It was originally going to be a company with the two of us, but Roger's wine was behind mine, so I decided to start on my own.

DF: I see. So let's talk about JP3.

SN: Why not?

DF: What do you think die-hard JP fans will think about the movie?

SN: Well I think they'll probably -- if they're anything like me, they'll be very happy with it. I certainly am, and I think in some ways it's the one I like the best. Partially not because I think the dinosaurs are more three-dimensional, but I also think the characters are also more three-dimensional this time around too. And I like Grant better in it.. I think I've got Grant the way I wanted him to be all along.

DF: So is Grant more older and wiser in this one, or is he still interested in the whole Jurassic Park mystique?

SN: Grant has a problem with Jurassic Park in that he both detests and is compelled by it at the same time, and he's never going to be able to shake that completely. Because if you live and breathe dinosaurs -- as he does -- he's actually seen them in the flesh, it's a pretty amazing thing. But the other half of him knows that this is an abomination, this place (chuckles), and that it shouldn't have existed at all.

DF: So has Grant's relationship with kids changed in JP3? -- I mean, in the first movie, he never really liked kids. But I recently saw a scene with you and Trevor and it seems like Grant likes him a lot more..

SN: No... that's another curiosity with Grant, he always professes to be anti-children. Certainly anti-"having children", and that's what obviously happened with him and Ellie. But at the same time whenever he's forced into their company he actually gets on with them better than most people. And the character he relates to best in the whole of this film is the one played by Trevor. 12-years-old.. So go figure.

DF: So the new character who's sort of on your level is Billy, who's training to be a paleontologist. So he's your a protege but I guess he's also a little bit intrigued with the stories Grant has to tell about Jurassic Park, right?

SN: Yeah, Billy is probably as much as anything -- the stories of Jurassic Park are what got him interested in paleontology in the first place, as well as a good curious scientific mind. But yeah, Billy is his protege, and I imagine if anyone is going to go back to Jurassic Park it's probably going to be Billy. I think it would be bloody hard to get Alan Grant back there. (laughs)

DF: Everyone's really talking about this Rex/Spino fight, but personally my favorite scene that I've heard about is this dream sequence you have. Maybe you could tell us about that?

SN: Oh, that's brief. It's a brief thing. Yeah, I think probably for the last seven or eight years, Grant has been having dinosaur nightmares. Who wouldn't be after going through all that?

DF: So as the veteran around the set, did you find yourself sort of telling people what to do -- you know, giving tips to the actors about yelling at a stick?

SN: No, I wouldn't presume to do that. (laughs) These actors are far too good to take advise from me... But I wasn't the only veteran around the set, the t-rex we've obviously seen before, and a couple of the velociraptors. Obviously a lot of the ILM and Stan Winston himself and those guys, were veterans as well. So I wasn't the only one.

DF: I know the director Joe Johnston and he's new -- he and I are sort of Internet buddies now. He just seems like a really cool guy..

SN: Yeah the best thing about Joe is that he's simply unflappable, and you know, there are moments when you're doing these sort of films that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, and it never seemed to faze Joe. And that's another reason why he was absolutely the right man for the job.

DF: Ok, so I gotta ask about a controversial topic, since running this site I got lots of reports from the set and things like that. I just wanted to know, is it really true that you and William H. Macy re-wrote some of the script right there on the set?

SN: Uh, I wouldn't say that it's true, but I think that all the actors.. because the script was in a state of flux when we began, and all of us were making contributions, and certainly we were looking after our characters. And that was sort of scary, but it did give me the opportunity to make sure that Grant turned out the way I wanted him to... It was a little bit like jumping out of a plane without a parachute, but we all made sure that the parachute opened and Joe did an amazing job.. I think it's a really good film, and it's been gratifying showing it to all the journalists and so on who are a little bit gun-shy when you come around to number three, but many of them came up to me and said, 'You know what? This really surprised me, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it.'

DF: Oh, well that's a good sign, I guess... So I know you have to get onto the MSN chat where I'm sure you'll be blasted with tons of questions...

SN: What am I doing?

DF: I think you're doing an internet chat next?

SN: Oh..

DF: Well the one question I really wanted to ask is, and I'm sure you could guess.. but with all the problem with the Jurassic Park 3 shoot, and everything like that, do you think you would consider doing a Jurassic Park 4?

SN: Look, I'd do it again in a minute. I mean, I had a great time, but I can't think of any good scriptwriting reasons to get my character.. to get him back there. You know, I'm twice bitten, three times shy.

DF: Well, maybe the dinosaurs will come get him..

SN: Who knows? But my money's on Alessandro's character coming back...

DF: Really.. Well, I know you have to run, so thank you very much for your time Sam.

SN: It was a great pleasure, and I'm pleased to hear you're doing such great work on the site.

I'd just like to thank Sam Neill again for talking to me, a little ol' JP fan site! Thanks Sam! And another special thanks to the Universal new media marketing department for setting this all up.

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