Leoni, Macy on Leno
Téa Leoni will be on Leno next monday (the 18th), maybe Jay will grill her about her next project.. (Thanks Steve). Update: In addition, 'Gallimimus' sends word that William H. Macy will be on the Tonight Show as well, on Thursday (the 21st).

December 13, 2000

Macy Interview

Feathers?
An anonymous informant sent Corona some info, that according to "someone at ILM, the raptors [in JP3] have feathered head crests." Obviously, since this is Corona, you may want to salt this one to taste... (Thanks 'Utah Raptor' for the heads up)

I put a dollar in the soda machine..
And the machine rejected my dollar! Does that mean my dollar bill can no longer be counted as a dollar? Uh.. no, if I went to a bank, they'd give me 100 pennies for my dollar. They wouldn't say, "Sorry, but this dollar bill was rejected by a soda machine which has been approved by state and federal agencies." My dollar is still a dollar, despite the fact it was rejected by a machine. The Supreme Court has made an unwise decision, and now George W. Bush is our president, a man who neither the majority of the country, nor the majority of the state of Florida, voted for. We know it, Bush knows it, the Supreme Court knows it. Illigial partisan politics by the Justices won this election.

December 12, 2000

December 10, 2000

Jurassic Park 3, directed by Joe Johnston, has taken up much of this year and will be keeping Neill busy for some time.

The irony about action films, because they involve stunts and special effects, is that they can be "excruciatingly" slow.

"This is going to take between five and six months to finish," Neill says.

While he can't give too much of the plot away, Neill's character Dr Alan Grant has returned to Jurassic Park against his will. A plane crash sees Dr Grant and "a bunch of people I don't necessarily want to be with" dumped right back in dinosaur country.

"Of course our lives are in danger from the moment the plane crashes, up until when some of us survive. Of course, some of those people will be eaten - that's a given," Neill says.

"We've got dinosaurs you haven't seen before, and it's action pretty much from the beginning. There's a lot of running in terror. I'm pretty fit at the moment."

December 8, 2000

December 7, 2000

[About shooting near water and their effects on the animatronics:] "In The Lost World, I asked Steven .. please..lets keep us out of the rain.. instead of keeping us out of the rain, we had to go through a waterfall.. and in JP3 we're in a lake. So, we can't win."

[About the internal workings of the dinos in JP3:] "We do have technical advances.. they're not huge, but there are technical advances... We have new aerospace hydraulic hosing, which allow more pressure and flexibility, which allows our animals to act more fluidly.."

[About the spino:] "The most awesome feature of the spinosaur are it's forearms.. the t-rex has small forearms that don't do a lot.. the spino has huge forearms.. the forearms are virtually the size of a raptor... so huge, massive killing machine, that is connected to a very big dinosaur with a long, nasty snout that is somewhat dragon-esque or alligator-esque in its look."

[About the rex + spino battle:] "I'm certainly not going to give away the most dramatic scene in the movie.. The t-rex killed a lot of things in previous movies, should t-rex get his comeuppance (punishment)?

More News from Universal
Another quick update from 'Scififann': In soundstage 28, the metal catwalk that was attached to a smaller version of the cliff set back in November has been removed, with the cliff being pushed back "and seems to to have been extended length-wise." In addition, there is "a black canvas/cloth against the side door to obscure any light, chances are that this will be a night scene.."

Leoni on Access Hollywood
Tom pointed out that JP3-star Tea Leoni will be on Access Hollywood tonight, no doubt talking about her new film, The Family Man. As Tom says, "I do not know if she will talk about jp3, but you never know."

December 6, 2000

Pics from the Webcast
Well, looks like AOL actually won't be archiving the webcast, so if you missed it.. well, sorry. Read the summary below for the details of what we learned. I've also added some pictures to the story from the webcast, thanks to JP Unleashed.

Crichton Working on New Book
Not really JP3 related, but nonetheless probably of interest to JP fans -- this weekend's Parade magazine had a snippit about Michael Crichton, who now resides in New York and is reported to be working on a new book. Don't get too excited just yet -- at the speed Crichton writes, it's probably safe to say we won't be seeing it for at least a year.

December 4, 2000

December 3, 2000

Stan Reveals All!

Well, not really, but it's a good headline, isn't it? The chat with Stan Winston at AOL Live just ended, and actually turned out to be quite interesting.. Probably the highlight of the hour event was the unveiling of the Spinosaur from under the "blue tarp." There was some blood on the head of the spino, the source of which Stan would only say coyly, "I'm not going to sit here and tell you what happens.. but [see the] blood? Guess who's? This guy (the spio) is going to meet that guy (the t-rex)." As for the spinosaur model itself -- it's huge. "The t-rex was 9 tons.. spinosaur: 24,000 pounds.. 12 tons of dinosaur.. the biggest creature character ever made for a movie," he said. "At one time we could say that about the t-rex, now we can say it about the spinosaur." The spino is so big, in fact, that they had to tear open one of the garage doors at Stan Winston Studios to get it out. "Dinosaurs are cheap," Stan said sarcastically. "It's tearing the building apart that's expensive." Mr. Winston then went on to answer some questions from the online audience, telling us that the raptors will be back in JP3, though he can't say how much screentime they'll get until he sees the final edit of the film. "I can tell you they're back and they're bad.. and have gone beyond the raptors you've seen in jp and tlw.. with subtle changes to their look." Site reader 'Gladiator6k' got one of his questions answered, with Stan saying that the dilophosaurs will not return in JP3. What was it like working with Joe Johnston? "Joe is wonderfully creative [and a] teriffic artist. He [worked on] one of my favorite movies last year, October Sky, [and] he actually designed the robot in Iron Giant the cartoon.. what a wonderful movie that was." As for the other dinos we'll see in JP3, Stan hinted at the pteradon, saying the new dinos will be "flying in your face." Thankfully someone asked about the logosaurus, which Stan confirmed once and for all is a Spinosaur. And finally, Mr. Winston also put to rest the "prequel" rumor, saying that JP3 will not take place before TLW. Phew! I'm sure I missed something important in there, since my internet connection was crapping out every so often, so I will update this report when I learn something new. (Pics courtesy of JP Unleashed)

Report From the Set
Your questions have been asked, and the answers from the set of JP3 are beginning to trickle in! A very special thanks to the gang over at Countingdown.com, who provided the link to the set for us here at DansJP3Page.com. The big news is that we now have a good idea about the plot of the film, though it seems as if some details are still being closely guarded:

(Highlight to read) "JP3 takes place 4 years after the Lost World and is set on Isla Sorna. Dr. Grant (Sam Neill) is hired by a divorced couple (Tea Leoni and William Macy), and asked to help rescue a boy who has ended up there. This search and rescue mission turns into an extended stay courtesy of the newest dino - SPINOSAURUS. The Spinosaurus makes quick work of the plane when the rescuers attempt to leave, and thus the adventure begins for the group."

"Neither Richard Attenborough nor Jeff Golblum appear in the film."

"The dinos I can solidly confirm are T-Rex, Velociraptor, Pterandon (with a 40ft wing span), Brachiosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops, and of course the brand new Spinosaurus. According to some material handed to us, there are a total of 10 dinos we'll see in JP3.

"While there I got a chance to see the animatronic version of Spinosaurus and this guy is incredible! He's awesome, he¹s huge, and he¹s bigger then T-Rex! He comes in at about 20-25 feet tall/43 feet long, has a long narrow snout similar to that of a crocodile, arms the size of Raptors (approx. 6 feet long), and a fin on the back much like a Dimetrodon. According to Creature Supervisor, John Rosengrant, 'It's taken us ten months to go from the 1/16 scale model to what you're going to see on the screen, a 44-foot, 11-ton lizard that we¹re told would have been a medium-sized version of this creature.' Little information is available on the Spinosaurs. Paleontologist James Horner says, 'It was a theropod that was approximately 60 feet long, weighing 15,000 lbs. It roamed North Africa, but was related to Spinosaurs from Europe and South America. No eggs, nests or babies are known. All available information on this Middle Cretaceous creature is based on isolated bones discovered by Germans back in 1915.' Horner also comments that the Spinosaurus 'was a true predator. Many people think that the T-Rex was a predator, but he was actually a scavenger.' When you see the two next to each other this makes sense. The Spinosaurus has long arms that it could actually grab things with; T-Rex of course has those tiny little limbs that really couldn't do much. Most of his attack was with his mouth. Believe it or not you've actually seen part of the new dino. Have you caught that one picture with Stan Winston standing next to a large claw? That is the Spino's arm. He's fast, he's powerful and he's going to be wreaking some major havoc on the island."

Webcast Preview
Over at the AOL WebCast page they've got a teaser for tonight's event, with some quotes from two of JP3's stars and Stan Winston (who's really a star in his own right). Make sure you've got RealPlayer, and head over there around 8 pm Eastern to watch the whole thing. (Thanks KC)

Neill: We've got a new story.. a new director.. a different dyaminc. And I think it'll be substantially different than what we did the first time and certainly the second..

Macy: We land on the island, and wham.. and we're running.. running until the end of the movie.. it's intense. This is phenemonial filmmaking and it's simply astounding to be a part of.

Winston: If you can imagine anything bigger and badder than the t-rex, we have bigger and badder than the t-rex..

December 2, 2000

Webchat Location
Several people emailed me with the URL of the live JP3 Webchat on Monday: It's http://aolsvc.aollive.aol.com/entertainment/main.html, and you can submit questions now by sending messages to JParklll@aol.com. The chat will begin at 8PM eastern.

November 30, 2000

80-year-old Actress Joins JP3 Cast?
Interesting rumor from the strangest source this morning -- TheForce.net -- which is reporting that 80-year-old actress Alethea McGrath, due to play a "Jedi Librarian" in Episode 2, has recently finished work on JP3 in Los Angeles. (Thanks 'Zeta Gundam'.. Pic courtesy of StarWars.com)

November 29, 2000

Téa Leoni Interview in "Allure"
The December 2000 issue of "Allure" has an interview with JP3 star Téa Leoni, where she makes a few offhanded references to JP3, pointed out to me by my lovely girlfriend Julia. "My agent is always really puffed up about the fact that my contract says I get to keep the wardrobe," she says in the interview. "Like the khaki shorts from JP3, of which there are 45 pairs." [About her new hair-do:] "When I knew I had to spend 18 weeks running through the jungle being chased by dinosaurs that weren't there, I thought, Gee, what a tangled mess my hair could be. So I said, 'Do you mind if I cut it all off?' And they were game for it."

November 28, 2000