This caused Joe Johnston to come out with a clarifying statement, before his dino-film’s release in July 2001. “Totally crazy, but I know how this particular rumor got started,” Johnston is quoted as saying in March of the same year. “Steven and I were discussing an idea for the fourth one and I said, (with heavy sarcasm) ‘I can’t wait to get started on that’. I guess whoever overheard me didn’t pick up on my tone.”

By June, Johnston’s interest in making another Jurassic Park film had waned even further. “I think it’s time for someone else to play with the dinos”, he said, before revealing that Spielberg had a new concept up his sleeve that would take “the Jurassic Park mythology to a whole new level.”

Despite his insistence that he wouldn’t be involved in another Jurassic Park film, Johnston continued to comment on the storytelling possibilities. In one interview, he stated that “they pretty much have to get off the island after three.” In another, he said “It would be so easy for those birds [the Pterodons] at the end of Part 3 to just follow the helicopter with the surviving humans. They could follow them back to the mainland.”

But Johnston mentioned, in yet another interview, that “Spielberg actually has an idea for number four that doesn’t involve the Pterodons.” He reiterated that Spielberg’s concept would take “the Jurassic Park thing in a whole new direction.”

Dr. Alan Grant actor Sam Neill was keen to return for the fourth movie at this point in time. “I’m very happy with this movie”, he said while promoting Jurassic Park III, “But my thoughts for Jurassic Park 4 is that we eliminate one certain aspect of American culture that bothers me. Let the T-Rex stomp on all Wal-Marts! No one would mind the dinosaurs attacking stores that brought the downfall of downtown America.”