Indy 5 Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny All Aboard the Hype Train to June 2023!

"Oh, bother," said Indy. "I hate snakes."

 

Not everyone hated that character, though.

 

I hope Mutt isn't in it, and I don't think he will be either. I'd like to see them go back to basics of just Indy with one sidekick on an adventure.

Over the course of the films they escalated the amount of people on the adventure with Indy, to ridiculous proportions on KOTCS. But I didn't think those characters in that were fleshed out enough and I didn't particularly care for them enough or feel invested in them, even Marion because I felt it was all too forced and too comedic in how they interacted. So ditch the family and have just one sidekick so it puts more focus on who we've gone to see, thats Indy.

 

You're right there are probably one or two people who liked him. He also drew the wrath of Ford and Spielberg by publicly badmouthing the movie.

 

I actually quite liked Mutt and thought Shia did a nice job with the character. If he wasn't such a tool in real life I would gladly welcome him back. As for the Scooby Gang aspect of KotCS I think that's something they'll drop for the next film. It really should just be Indy and another younger character vs the bad guys.

 

Mutt isn't great but he isn't terrible (the whole "wait wait wait" *fixes hair* "Don't tell these pigs a thing!" is one of my fav bits in the movie). But I think he's not needed because the movie of Crystal Skull itself literally had the chance for Mutt to take the hit but Indy took it back. It'd be weird to do 3 Indy and Family Member movies in a row.

 

Indy works best with 1 or at most 2 sidekicks. In Crystal Skull he had up to 4 or even 5 at one point. The best bits were when it was just he and Mutt. The rest was just too much.

 

I'm hoping for Short Round as his new sidekick.

 

Frank Marshall talked a bit about the film in a recent interview, specifically about the desire to shoot globally and Lucas' involvement in putting together the story, or lack thereof.

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/ne...ll-return-to-global-scope-says-frank-marshall

 

It's interesting Marshall mentions a writer's room, considering the last "official" word we heard on this project was that the young Kasdan was taking over the script.

 

The writer's room will probably develop the story and Kasdan will then be in charge of the script.

Either way, it's bad/sad news...

 

This writer's room is essential the equivalent of the story sessions where Spielberg, Lucas, and Kasdan just spitballed ideas for several days during the development for Raiders. Since Lucas may not be involved they're filling a room with others to spitball with.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/spitballing-indy
http://maddogmovies.com/almost/scripts/raidersstoryconference1978.pdf

 

Except with Raiders, it starts with Lucas with a very clear concept of what he wants and doesn't want, and the ideas discussed further were inevitably filtered through that initial concept of how he envisioned Indiana Jones to be about. The other three movies work the same way and through the same logic, from the initial concept of what he wants and envisions the next adventure to be.

Here, there will be none of that. It will be a bunch of 'fans' basically getting to decide what they want to see (based on what's been done before). At the end of the day, I predict this to be very similar to TFA in that regard. The materialization of forgettable, self-indulgent nostalgia trip for this commitee.

Suffice to say I don't have any hopes for this.

 

I find it rather odd that you have already decided how the work process will turn out, while knowing absolutely nothing about the people involved or how much they do (not) care about the project.

Hollywood has delivered great movies without George Lucas being involved in them. While this project obviously could fail, there isn't anything about how they have set up the writing that makes your assumption in any way the most obvious outcome. Nor does having a writers staff in any way mean that it will be "a bunch of fans deciding what they want to see".

 

Decided? I specifically said that it's a prediction of mine. A prediction can be wrong. But based on what's been done with Star Wars, I fear for the worst.

Great movies, yes, but completely unrelated to Lucas' works. Great movies with Lucas' characters and respective fictional universe? I've seen none.

It's my belief that the writers will be fans of the franchise. I don't see how this is such an absurd assumption to make...

 

I liked The Force Awakens so as long as Indy 5 is a good solid adventure I will be satisfied.

 

All the ideas of this new writer's room will be filtered through Steven Spielberg, who if memory servers me correctly, ain't no slouch.

You just described the making of Raiders of the Lost Ark. That film happened because Lucas and Spielberg were fanboys of the old adventure serials. They make movies because they LOVE movies.

 

They weren't making the next adventure of Doc Savage or any previous established serial of which they were fans of. They were making their own character with its own rules, tone, logic and MO (many of which were different from the serials they liked). Not the same thing at all. It was their thing. You can even see how Lucas had very specific ideas in mind for what he wanted to do in the that Raiders story conference you previously linked.

My point is that you wouldn't get Temple of Doom if fans were in charge of a sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. You would get Raiders of the Lost Ark 2.

 

@Gobi-1 is right in saying they made a film inspired by the serials, but Lucas and Spielberg took that initial nugget of an idea and put their own spin on it. In fact you could probably take the Indy OT and virtually split the films up in to short length chapters and leave it at a cliff hanger ready for the next episode. Just like a serial.

With Indy 5 its debateable whether the public or even the makers would want to see the story and characters evolve (like TOD was something different from Raiders). Purely because this is probably Harrisons final outing as Indy. We're now at the stage where its just got to be a good Indiana Jones film, and that probably means something safe and similar in tone to Raider or Last Crusade. Thats not necessarily a bad thing in my book.

 

Yah, the parade of people who end up at the temple at the end of Crystal Skull is a bit much, they can fill out an entire car!

Only 2 sidekicks in Indy 5 or we riot!

 

I think that there are only two sensible ways to deal with Ford's age for a fifth Indiana Jones outing. Either,

a) Use Ford as the older Jones to bookend the movie, and tell the main story as a flashback (to the 1930's please) using another actor in the role.
b) have Ford play an older Jones all the way through, but make the role a more cerebral type of artifact hunt.

I kind of like the idea of a) mostly. I think that there is scope for a story that crosses two time periods. Not literally as in time travel, but in a back and forth manner whereby the "McGuffin" in the story links Jones' early years and his later ones where he is much older. Sort of like what they did at the beginning of Last Crusade where the younger Jones finds the Cross of Coronado, then the older Jones recovers it again years later.

 

They could make it the search for Indy. Indy's gone missing, and Short Round has to find him. They've had a falling out. I know that's like Henry Jones Sr. and Luke, but at least Ford wouldn't have to carry the film.

 

Crystal Skull leaned more into the "artifact hunt" aspect than Indy in an action setpiece every scene however there was a wee bit too much jabbering about the MacGuffin's mystical properties. I think Indy being more Henry Sr. in this one seems likely. Although that was a bit in Crystal Skull, Indy dropped a "This is intolerable!" which was gold.

 

Personally I think Harrison can still pull off a full film as Indy. My preference would be not so many people with him too, that was one of the problems I had with KOTCS. I'd rather Harrison has his swansong in a complete film as Indy and we leave the recast til later. But interestingly along the same lines .............. I read a possible plot idea for Die Hard 6 was a film crossing 2 time periods, one with Bruce Willis playing him in the present day and the other with a younger actor playing McClane in the 1970's. Sounds like a borrowed idea from Looper.

 

When Indy 4 was announced, I was hoping it would follow Indiana and his daughter (Natalie Portman or similar actress). There were some good ideas in the final film, but they were few and far between or botched on execution. The cast was too large and Shia was a mistake. I'm hoping they return to fundamentals with Indy 5. Follow him on an adventure, traveling the world in search of a lost artifact (stray away from aliens or inter-dimensional beings) etc.