Indy V Updates

Shia La Beouf Says Spielberg Has "Cracked" Indy 5

Frank Marshall Confirms 'Indy 5' IS On the Horizon Read more!

George Lucas talks about Indy V

From the Sunday Times interview
"If I can come up with another idea that they like, we'll do another."

"Indiana Jones only becomes complicated when you have another two people saying 'I want it this way' and 'I want it that way', whereas when I first did Jones, I just said 'We'll do it this way' - and that was much easier.
"But now,i have to accommodate everybody, because they are all big, successful guys too, so it's a little hard on a practical level." (George Lucas comments on the making of the fourth film)

"We still have the issues about the direction we'd like to take."
"I'm in the future, Steven's in the past. He's trying to drag it back to the way they were, I'm trying to push it to a whole different place. So still we have a sort of tension. This recent one came out of that. It's kind of a hybrid of our own two ideas, so we'll see where we are able to take the next one." (Creative differences he and Spielberg have recently been experiencing)

From the MTV interview:George Lucas elaborates elaborates on the plans for Indy V
Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) is unlikely to be the focus of the sequel:
"Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones," he explained. "Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt Williams it would be Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis or something."

About the plot:
"We are looking for something for him to go after. They are very hard to find. It's like archaeology. It takes a huge amount of research to come up with something like that."

Tags: indiana jones, karen allen, last crusade, raiders of the lost ark, temple of doom, kingdom of the crystal skull, harrison ford, george lucas, shia la beouf, steven spielberg, movies, film, entertaiment

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Review

19 years have passed since the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (it's probably my favourite movie from the first three).Until recently,it was considered as the last Indy movie and as it's pointed out it was a nice way to end a successful series.All this time,there was a lot of of talk about a fourth Indiana Jones movie,many rumours about the script,the release,the disagreement between the key people involved in the production (George Lucas,Steven Spielberg,screenwriters).Until 2006,nothing was certain.However,after all these years of waiting,the new Indiana Jones movie is released.


You may have read about the various scripts of Indy 4.The final script was written by David Koepp (Spiderman,Secret Window).He kept what he felt were good ideas from previous scripts (such as Mutt, which he felt was an interesting role reversal from Last Crusade).The crystal skull was already the plot device.The screenwriter aimed to make Indy 4 less dark than Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom yet less comic than Last Crusade, aiming for the balance from the first film.However,in my opinion,the movie is tonally closer to Last Crusade.
19 years after the Last Crusade,in 1957,the era is different:Cold War,McCarthy era.This era is depicted in the movie (from the FBI suspicions,investigation,pursuit of Dr.Jones to the Soviet agents).The opening scene serves serves as a great introduction to the movie,in a place familiar from a previous Indy movie.It's one of the many references to the original trilogy ,which are successfully integrated to the plot and will please Indy fans.Dr.Jones still teaches in college and we learn some things about his activities after the last movie.After a series of events,he's back in action and in pursuit of the crystal skulls.During this time,Mutt Williams (Shia La Beouf) is introduced.You probably know that he is Indy's son.One of the most funny moments,is the reaction of Indy when he learns that Mutt is his son.It's not the only funny moment in KOTCS,there are many of them,many hilarious lines,which don't make the movie a comedy,but they are successfully integrated to the plot.
Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) returns and the chemistry between her and Indy,that we saw in Raiders of the Lost Ark,still exists,although her role here is smaller.At first,the impression about Mutt may be mixed,but he becomes a likable character and he participates in many action scenes.If Shia La Beouf can be the protagonist of a possible fifth Indiana Jones movie,that's another subject.In my opinion,the recent George Lucas statements are not incidental.In KOTCS it is evident,that the writers had in mind this possibility.
Harrison Ford,although he is 66 years old,he's still in shape.He's still Indy,athough a little tired,and he proves it.His perfomance is very good and the script helps him,with smart and funny lines.Cate Blanchett is also very good as the villain,Irina Spalko.She's beautiful,even with that hair.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has a lot of action,many action scenes and many impressive scenes.Although David Koepp,wrote most of the script,a significant part was a combination of elements from previous scripts.And maybe that's one of the movies flaws,the plot.The movie,sometimes,slows down and the alien element is a matter of controversy,which either you'll like or you won't.Initially,i was not negative about that,but with the conclusion of the mystery of the crystal skulls,my feelings were mixed.However,Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a filling movie,with lots of action and with many funny moments.It's a very good,entertaining movie.

Tags: entertaiment, film, george lucas, shia la beouf, cate blanchett, harrison ford, indiana jones, kingdom of the crystal skull, movies, karen allen, steven spielberg

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The Women of Indiana Jones

If there is one thing I want to learn from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- one damn thing -- it's why the hell Dr. Henry Jones Jr. didn't end up married to Marion Ravenwood. Was she just too much for him? Or did she dump him, fed up with a man who was not only a scattered academic, but a fly-by-night adventurer? Really, that has to be a tough combo when you just want him to take you out to dinner.

With Kingdom of the Crystal Skull not only bringing back Ms. Ravenwood, but introducing the domineering Irina Spalko, I think it's high time we discussed Indy's women. Where would Dr. Jones be without the ladies? Without Marion, he probably would have been in an early grave, without Willie Scott and Elsa Schneider, he may have been spared a few extra scars.

I don't really need to sing the praises of Ms. Ravenwood here. We already know how she was the coolest sidekick of all, the sort of kickass chick who was not only unusual in 1981, but still pretty rare today. She rivals Princess Leia as one of George Lucas' finest characters. (It's rather sobering that the man who gave us Leia, Marion and Sorsha could only conjure up the broken-hearted Amidala years later. Seriously, Lucas, you burned your geek girl cred on that one.) I give Lucas the credit because my gut says it is owed him. When it comes to his action-adventure movies, Spielberg never quite spent the kind of time on his heroines like Lucas did. But he gets major props for the way his moms shine -- Spielberg knows that when you have kids, you don't immediately become a screeching moron -- even if your kids do surprise you with an extra-terrestrial.


Unlike a lot of fans, I was never too perturbed that Marion never returned. It made sense he had a different chick in each movie, it was a throwback to the serials, and it kept you guessing. For me, it was clear Marion was destined to be with Dr. Jones and in my own imagination; they went back and forth for years before finally settling down together. I always figured that's why she was absent from his adventures – she had a life, and didn't need to tag along. He knew where he could find her. (On the other hand, this article in Newsweek is a little alarming. How were audiences the only ones who fell for her?)

But I digress. I think it's time we examine the other women of Indiana Jones -- and I'm going to shock you all by defending the two everyone love to hate (especially the one named Wilhemina Scott).

I won't lie. As a kid, I loved her. I thought she was hilarious. I loved her musical entrance – and I still covet that dress. (And the ability to sing Anything Goes in Chinese. I think it could come in handy.) Even in adulthood, I can't muster up the incredible hate everyone feels towards her. She is annoying, certainly; she is shrill -- but she's also a throwback to the 30's, an homage to screwball comedies. She's the one average chick Indiana Jones encounters in his adventures and as such, you have to feel bad for her. She has a nice gig at Club Obi-Wan, an apartment in Hong Kong, dresses from Paris – and she somehow gets sucked into one nightmare of an adventure. How is a nightclub singer really supposed to cope with jungles, monkey brains, and tunnels full of bugs? I defy any chick, even Marion Ravenwood, not to totally flip out when someone tries to rip out your still- beating heart. Especially when the handsome archaeologist you were kind of into is just standing there watching. Knowing he was brainwashed with the Blood of Kali just doesn't make that situation any easier to tolerate. We would all be shrieking – in fact, I'm pretty sure most of us would be in the fetal position, weeping. Willie Scott manages to survive, sanity and scathing retorts intact. Maybe she even became a better person after.

And then there is Elsa Schneider. I don't particularly like Elsa, but I think she's well written. It's easy to forget that in her own way, she's a rebel. It says much about the times Indy lives in that he immediately assumes the Dr. Schneider he is to meet is a man. You could even imagine that with her cool practicality, she played on that every time she submitted a paper for publication. While she shamelessly used sex and beauty to get ahead, I'm not willing to believe she slept her way to a doctorate, because she knows her facts. She struck me as a solid academic – and one who enjoyed subverting the male expectations of a female brainiac by looking like Veronica Lake. She knew what idiots men could be – and that is how she manages to play every single man in the movie, from Donovan to Jones.

Action wise, she's just about as tough as Marion; handling fire, rats, and high-speed water chases with aplomb. Oh, she has terrible political leanings. But like Belloq, she tries to play the Nazis to get the prize, seemingly not appreciating what kinds of monsters she was dealing with. (Both scholars are what Indy could become, except that his conscience and beliefs override his desire for fortune and glory.) Unlike Belloq, I think she actually realizes it, but far too late. Like Anakin Skywalker, there is still good in her (you see it when she cries over the slain Knight of the Cruciform Sword), but she is in too deep. I think her complicity in killing Donovan is her way of atonement, as chillingly horrific as it is – and for all Indy's disapproval, it isn't like he stopped her.

To bring this all to some kind of unwieldy close, I think that when it comes to women characters, you have to give a nod of approval to Indiana Jones. The women in all three movies could have been vapid love interests, like so many Bond girls. But three films produced three unique women – and love them or hate them, they were at least recognizably human. But most of all, they held their own against Dr. Jones ... which is an adventure all by itself.

cinematical.com,21/5/2008,written by Elisabeth Rappe

Tags: indiana jones, karen allen, last crusade, raiders of the lost ark, temple of doom, alison doody, kate capshaw, harrison ford, george lucas, cate blanchett, steven spielberg, movies, film, entertaiment

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Interviews: Indiana Jones's Harrison Ford and Karen Allen

27 years after Raiders of the Lost Ark burst onto movie screens, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull brings Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones and Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood back to the big screen: Reunited, as the song says, and it feels so good. What felt less good was the timing of the press interviews for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; Paramount scheduled their Cannes publicity interviews the day before the press screening of the film. (Call me a traditionalist, but normally I like to see the actual movie before talking to the actors in it; I'm just funny that way.) Still, Ford and Allen were funny and disarming -- they seemed a little amused by the hypothetical questions and broad general inquiries the chain of events required -- and Cinematical was there to learn about Harrison Ford's take on the best part sof playing Indy, Karen Allen's musings on Marion Ravenwood's sex life and much more;


I'm just wondering how your own excitement level is, returning to the Indiana Jones character?

Harrison Ford: Well, I'm very excited to bring another one of these spectacular adventures to the screen, and to work with Steven and George again. For the last twenty years or so, these films have continued to appeal to an audience, and young kids, as it becomes age-appropriate, have been introduced to the films on DVD by their parents, and to have the opportunity for them to see it full-scale in a movie theatre, with a big screen and big sound, in the dark with a bunch of strangers, and have this common visceral experience is a brilliant opportunity, so I'm delighted to be a part of it again.

You've always resisted having a favorite character. I was wondering if you'd say that Indiana is now your favorite.

HF: Well, you've worn me down: Indiana Jones is now my favorite character. No, all I insist on is that the pleasure of the process for me as a professional is the work itself, and I don't have a favorite character. You have favorite characters. You're the viewer, the buyer, a customer if you will, and it's perfectly natural for you to have favorites. But for me, it's about the experience, it's about the process, it's about the challenge of it all, so regardless of whether or not it's highly successful or moderately successful or not successful at all, it's not about having favorites.

What about coming back to Indiana Jones ... you've been talking about it for years and kept saying, "Well, they're working on a script, we'll see ..."; Was there ever...

HF: Well, of course they were lying; they just made it up two weeks before we started. No, it was a long slog, it was a complicated process, it was, as it has always been. George works on the germination of the idea, he and Steven work with a writer they have agreed on, there are adjustments to be made – by the way, these guys, they're a little busy, they do other things, other than Indiana Jones movies – so it's not a full-time job to get one of these scripts together. But when it's ready, and we all agree, when they do their process, it comes to me, and I have my little say about it, and the recipe is adjusted. It's a meal for three, so maybe a touch more of this or a little too much salt ... we work it all out amongst us until we're all confident that we have something of the quality that we've done in the past.

And did you think it was always going to happen, that you'd come back for a fourth time?

HF: I didn't think about it much at all, until I read the script, a script that finally engaged me and I thought was a challenge and an opportunity.

Based on the trailer, it looks like you handle the age question with humor ...

HF: We don't handle the age question, we ignore it. Obviously, we've moved twenty years deeper into history, we're no longer dealing with Nazis but with Russian villains. It's 1957, the Cold War and the era of McCarthyism in the United States, a very interesting resonance to modern times that might engage us a little bit. And the character: the hair's a little gray – a lot gray – and...

And some of the stunts go a little awry, based on the trailer... in the sense that you can be more clumsy than you were in 1981.

HF: I beg your pardon. (Laughs) You're getting a little bit more clumsy too.

Yeah, I am.

HF: No, age has its virtues and it has its disadvantages, and I think we embrace the reality of the passage of twenty years of time. We're not coy about it, you know, constantly commenting on it, but the guy is twenty years older.

Did you ever worry that they might be waiting so long that they'd have another Indiana Jones come in and you couldn't do it?

HF: Oh, yeah, I was desperate about that. No, I was just hoping that Brad (Pitt) wouldn't be available.

You mentioned a couple of times about the challenges of doing this. What were the challenges?

HF: The challenge is always – ladies and gentlemen, Karen Allen – the challenge is the same as it always is, to bring a character and the situations to life, to manipulate and express the ideas of a story. Every scene's got a reason to be there. There's a germ of the story, there's a character opportunity, there's a relationship opportunity in every scene, and the actor does the best he can to give that life and expression and fiber for the audience.

Is it more or less of a challenge, doing a fourth?

HF: It's the same job, and I don't think it's more of a challenge. If you feel that you're equipped with a script which gives you the opportunity to do your best work – and certainly, everyone had that ambition – then you just go ahead and do it. You don't sit and think, "Oh, this is gonna be a challenge," you know? It's work, and it's fun, by the way; I hate to spoil everyone's enjoyment of their own job, but... this is a better job. It's really fun. I get to work with really smart people who are amongst the best in the world at what they do, including this young lady. ...

What was it like going back twenty-six years after the first one, after you first worked together?

HF: I was delighted that Karen could rejoin us. She's the original relationship for Indiana Jones. We know Indiana Jones through the character that Karen played in the original film, and we learn more about him.

Karen Allen: Well, they have a history even before the film begins. We know that they've known each other, which comes forward right away, when she socks him in the jaw, we know that there's some history that never gets filled in, but they go back a long way.

HF: That's how we progress the relationship, in the understanding of the characters through the relationships that they have.

When you were talking about the script, you mentioned the McCarthy era and hinted on contemporary resonance, and I wondered if you could expand on that, and does this film have some kind of message or is it pure entertainment?

HF: No, it's not a message. Every bit of history has an opportunity for resonance to current times, and it was a period of time in American history when academia was under a real challenge for the freedom that makes people who are part of the academic process flourish, and so, well, I think we'll leave it at that and let you draw what you will from the film, but it's not a message and it's not a pointed sort of reference to the current day, but everything is the past is an opportunity to learn from the past and deal with the present.

You've just been named to the board, in Boston, of the Archaeological Society there?

HF: Yeah, I've just accepted...

The board of directors?

HF: Honorary, I think, board of directors.

Isn't this because you've been playing Indiana Jones, or is it something with your personal life as well that...?

HF: No, it's because Indiana Jones is the only archaeologist in current film history, and it has been good for archeology to have a contemporary representative of that profession on the screen.

Cinematical: Ms. Allen, Mr. Ford, have the scope and nature of the filming experience changed significantly from the first one? Were you just able to go back into working relationships with people, or was it different on a technical level, on a resource level, or even on a level of expectation?

HF: You mean, were the trailers bigger?

Cinematical: Not necessarily, but if that's what comes to mind...

HF: They were a little bigger, yeah...

KA: When we made Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven was working with a lot of people for the first time, and my impression coming onto this set in the very beginning was, they have an amazing kind of team. Janusz Kaminski and all the people that Steven works with, it just felt so seamless, just like a well-oiled team of people, so there was something in that that felt really great to me, you know. They almost don't even have to speak; they make hand signs to each other across the room and people are moving and doing things, and that felt kind of different, because I remember Doug Slocombe, who was doing the first one... everybody was kinda trying to learn everybody's language. One thing that was so extraordinary to me coming onto a film like this for the first time, in London at Elmstree [Studios] when we were shooting Raiders, was just the extraordinary craft of the building of the sets, which just blew my mind. I'd never seen anything like that before, and I have to say that the craft of the sets in this film also blew my mind, almost on a daily basis. You'd walk into these sets that were being built, and I felt just like a little kid a lot of times. It was just like, "Wow! How'd they do this, and aren't we lucky to be working on these sets?" So those are the things that jump to mind...

Did you two stay in touch since Raiders? Have you seen each other at all in the last twenty years, or was it just on the set, like you picked up where you left off before?

KA: We'd seen each other a couple of times, when we did a promotion for when they came out with the box set of the films together. They brought Kate Capshaw and myself and Alison Doody together, and Harrison came by, and I saw him...

HF: We ran into each other on the streets of New York one time, but we haven't really... Karen lives in New York, I live in California, we haven't worked together, obviously, since then. We have different lives in different regions of the world, so we haven't really seen much of each other.

KA: But it felt very seamless. When I walked on the set to do the camera test in Los Angeles, and Harrison knocked on my door, and I opened the door, and suddenly, we're standing there, talking to each other as though weeks had gone by. It just felt very easy to me.

Ms. Allen, a couple of years ago (in an interview), you told me that you were utterly convinced that Marion and Indy had had a child together.

KA: No, I didn't tell you that. (Laughs)

You did tell me that.

KA: Years ago, I told you that?

Two years ago.

KA: I don't remember this conversation. What did it have ... In reference to what?

A phone interview for the New York Post.

KA: Oh, was I just making things up?

Yeah, you were making things up. (Laughs)

KA: There was a funny moment a couple of years ago when they did a couple of special screenings at the Paris Theatre in New York, and I hadn't seen the film in several years, and I was watching the film on the big screen for the first time in a really long time, and I remember the scene when we're on the submarine, and I wake up, and you're gone, and I remember noticing in this particular screening, my character reaches up and grabs her nightgown, and I thought, "gosh, I don't remember that!" I was thinking, I didn't remember that they had had a moment, like a romantic moment. In my mind, I was thinking of the missed kiss – you fall asleep, and there's that missed kiss – but then I forgot about the moment of her grabbing the... So I may have been making a joke about that moment or something...

Harrison, it seems like your attitude to the press process has changed; you used to seem as if doing interviews is worse than a root canal. Now, you seem...

HF: I've had a lot of root canals. (Laughs) I've got a mouthful of 'em. Of course, it's something you become somewhat more ... inured to. I recognize the value of the process, and hopefully, I'm not as ... impatient with it as I might have been. That's one of the virtues of the age, is becoming a little bit more graceful.

Does it help when it's talking about a film, or a series of films, that has become a part of popular culture? I mean, the impact of Indy goes beyond the individual installments of it. It just seems that it's a reference point now certainly in American popular culture, and also in world culture.

HF: Well, of course it's easier to talk about a film that you have the expectations and it's been admired rather than picked apart at the seams. But, of course, I have great confidence in this film on account of the people who are involved, which is not to say that any other people that I've worked with, I had less confidence in during the process. But this is a film that's made for the audience to enjoy, the pure pleasure of the moviegoing experience, and it's a huge, huge engine. We've seen the movie, and I think we have a degree of confidence that it'll be... an experience that people will enjoy.

And do you allow yourself to take pleasure in the idea that this has become a part of the popular culture?

HF: You know, it doesn't occur to me to think that way. It's my job, it's what I do for a living, and I'm really pleased when it's successful, when it brings pleasure to the audience, and it advantages me in the pursuit of my profession.

Obviously, you both used to work with each other. How did you both find working with Shia, and do you have any memorable moments in the filming with him?

KA: Shia's just a delight, as far as I'm concerned. He's very, very funny and – I don't know how much I can describe particular scenes in the film – but there's some moments where Shia has some quite challenging tasks he had to perform in the film, and there's just some very, very, very funny, wonderful moments with Shia where he was just above and beyond the call of duty. He's an incredibly talented young actor, I find him very eloquent as an actor. With his face, he says a lot... he's remarkable. I'm really very impressed with him, and I had an awfully good time with him.

HF: Me too. He's very professional, he works really hard. He had some very sort of arcane skills to acquire, and he worked really hard. He was an enormous pleasure to be around, and I really enjoy him a lot.

Did you teach him anything on set?

HF: I taught him how to act. (Laughs) Because nobody understands that except me... I didn't teach him anything; he taught me. He's been an actor for ten years or something, and he has an enormous talent. He's gonna be around for a long, long time.

You were talking it when it becomes age-appropriate to show the DVDs to our children. My six-year-old son watches the first three movies, which probably makes me a bad parent, but when did you let your kids see the movies, and the second part is, the violence in the movies isn't very graphic, it's somewhat old-fashioned, and do you think that's a good alternative, because, increasingly, we see really violent movies for kids out there.

KA: I think a little bit depends on the kid. My son, who's seventeen now, was very, very sensitive to violence in films. I mean, he would get extremely upset over things that wouldn't dawn on me as to find too violent, but he's just a kid who got very absorbed in whatever was on the screen in front of him, and he could get frightened very easily. So I waited, I don't think he saw Raiders of the Lost Ark until he was maybe 8 or 9, but I certainly know other kids who saw it at a much younger age, and the melting heads and things just didn't seem to bother them at all.

HF: Yeah, I agree absolutely. We have a seven-year-old at home, and I think he self-censors in a way. He's very much like Karen described her boy; it's not what he's looking for, and when he has an experience with a movie, he's really not ready for physical contest because it's not something that's part of his experience. So, in his case, in Liam's case, I think it would be another year or so before I let him see this film. This film, with the possible exception of ripping out hearts ...in The Temple of Doom, which, as you know, established the PG-13 rating, I think we're gonna have a film that the entire family can enjoy together.

How do you feel about showing it in Cannes, which is probably in front of the toughest crowd in the world?

HF: I'm really eager to see the train leave the station... and I think it'll be just fine.
Cinematical.com,22/5/2008,written by James Rocchi

Tags: indiana jones, kingdom of the crystal skull, harrison ford, george lucas, steven spielberg, movies, interview, film, karen allen, entertaiment

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