Sam Neill<\/a> after the pair co-starred in Hunt for the Wilderpeople – the 2016 comedy movie Taika also produced, wrote and directed. <\/p>\nTaika was joined by castmates at an event in London on Thursday night (30.07.26) to mark the 10th anniversary of the film, where he reflected on the recent sad news of Sam\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
He told the Press Association: \u201cWe had a great time with Sam \u2013 I think it was in March \u2013 where we had the 10-year anniversary screenings in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cGot to hang out with him then, and we kept in touch since then. I\u2019ve had a lot of good times with him, and there\u2019s no regrets on my part.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSam died on July 13, aged 78, after losing his battle with pneumonia. <\/p>\n
\nBut Taika insisted he knows it won\u2019t be long until he sees his friend and collaborator again. <\/p>\n
\nHe explained: \u201cI see death in a very different way to other people.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s sad that I don\u2019t get to chat with my friend or hang out, but I\u2019ll see him in a bit. I don\u2019t feel like any of this is the end of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAt the event, Taika also remembered working with Sam – particularly how \u201cchilled\u201d he was \u201cabout everything\u201d. <\/p>\n
\nHe laughed: \u201cEveryone\u2019s stressing out: Will we make our day? The sun\u2019s going down. Can we get this shot?<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe guy\u2019s done Jurassic Park, The Piano, Event Horizon, Omen 3. He\u2019s been around so long, doing so many things\u2026 Nothing phased him.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI was grateful to have someone who was just calm around me. He put things in perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSam had previously told Screen Crush that he had been a fan of Taika\u2019s long before he was cast in Hunt for the Wilderpeople. <\/p>\n
\nHe said: \u201cI was already really excited to work with him because he\u2019s such a new and original voice in indie cinema, and I\u2019d like to be in some way associated with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"31 July 2026 Taika Waititi sees death in a \u201cvery different way to other people\u201d. Taika Waititi sees death ‘differently’ to other people The actor and director became close friends with the late Sam Neill after the pair co-starred in Hunt for the Wilderpeople – the 2016 comedy movie Taika also produced, wrote and directed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":254798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4523,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-254797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-sam-neill","9":"tag-taika-waititi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}