Sam Neill has opened up about his view on death and given a cancer treatment update.
Back in 2020, it was confirmed that Jurassic Park’s original trio, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Sam Neill will be starring in the upcoming Jurassic World Dominion.
The iconic trio reprised their original roles — marking the first time since the ’90s that the actors have starred alongside each other.
But Laura Dern and Sam Neill have recently reflected on their “inappropriate” age gap.
And they both had a point…
Now, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park franchise kicked off in the ’90s.
The sci-fi adventure movie hit the box office on June 11, 1993, opening to a staggering reception.
If you haven’t watched the originals, the movie tells the story of a group of scientists who visit an island theme park populated by dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs residing in the park (which, you guessed it, is named Jurassic Park) have been created and cloned using pre-historic DNA.
I know what you’re thinking, nothing could go wrong, right?
The park’s billionaire mastermind, John Hammond, head of bioengineering company, InGen (aka the ones who created the theme park), appears confident in his creation.
But, of course, it doesn’t quite work out as it should…
A group of visitors as well as Hammond’s grandchildren are on a tour when the worst possible thing happens.
A tropical storm on the island causes the tour to be cut short, but the park’s computer programmer begins to sabotage the security systems leading to a power cut… meaning the dinosaurs escape.
The group then has to try and escape the island while they’re being hunted.
It’s down to the group of scientists to try to protect the park’s founder’s grandchildren from getting in the path of the predators and make it to the mainland… alive.
It was the first movie of its kind, and people were blown away by how real the dinos looked.
To date, the movie has grossed an estimated $1.029 billion at the box office, making for pretty eye-watering figures.
It didn’t take long for a second movie to be announced.
And its profound success initiated an entire franchise to be born from it.
Of the Jurassic Park franchise came 2 more movies.
A second movie, The Lost World: Jurassic Park hit the big screen in 1997, followed by the third installment in 2001, Jurassic Park III, marking the end of the popular dinosaur trilogy.
The movies never get old.
And as of 2000, the movies had already generated a whopping $5 billion in revenue.
Fourteen years after Jurassic Park closed its doors for good, the Jurassic World movies were created.
The first movie in the sequel franchise Jurassic World hit theatres in 2015, starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Nick Robinson.
It’s set twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park.
Jurassic World takes place on the same fictional island as Jurassic Park and centers on the Jurassic World luxury resort, which provides residence for an array of genetically engineered dinosaurs. But, when one of the massive creatures escapes, it sets off a chain reaction that causes the other dinosaurs to run riot.
Then came the follow-up movie…
Titled Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the 2018 movie continues from the explosive events of Jurassic World.
However, it didn’t have as good a reception as the first.
But despite its wobbly reception, it still managed to rake in a staggering $1.308 billion at the box office, so it wasn’t all bad.
Now we’re all anticipating the release of the next movie, Jurassic World: Dominion
The movie is set to be the concluding installment of the Jurassic World trilogy. As per Universal Pictures, “Dominion takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed. Dinosaurs now live—and hunt—alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.”
And we were informed of some very exciting news in 2020…
It was confirmed that Jurassic Park’s original scientist trio, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Sam Neill, will be starring in the upcoming movie.
The trio will reprise their roles as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Dr. Alan Grant, and Dr. Ian Malcolm.
It’s the first time since Jurassic Park’s original release in 1993 that the actors will star together.
Dern reprised her role as Dr. Ellie Sattler and Neill reprised his Dr. Alan Grant role in 2001’s Jurassic Park III.
Goldblum went solo to reprise his role as Ian Malcolm in 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and again in last year’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. But the 3 haven’t starred together since they originated their roles in 1993.
So, when did Jurassic World 3 hit the big screen?
The movie landed on June 10 2022.
But ahead of the movie’s release Laura Dern and Sam Neill spoke out about their rather “inappropriate” age difference.
They spoke to The Telegraph during an interview about the new movie and addressed the twenty-year age gap.
Neill said: “I am 20 years older than Laura! Which at the time was a completely appropriate age difference for a leading man and lady!
“It never occurred to me until I opened a magazine and there was an article called ‘Old geezers and gals.’ People like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery acting with much younger people, and there I was, on the list.”
Dern added: “Well, it felt completely appropriate to fall in love with Sam Neill. And it was only now, when we returned in a moment of cultural awareness about the patriarchy, that I was, like, ‘Wow! We’re not the same age?’”
But since the film’s release, Sam Neil has shared some rather more serious news.
He revealed he had stage-three blood cancer in his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This? in March.
His chemo stopped working, leading to Neil needing experimental transfusion treatments.
Luckily, these proved effective and he’s been in remission for 12 months.
But speaking to Australian Story, Neill said: “It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it.”
Adding: “I could not feel more alive or pleased to be breathing and looking at a blue sky.”
However, he also explained he’s “not remotely afraid” to die.
What do you think of his comments?