Joe Brody
Well-known member
While I burn most of my free time on Red Line: Destination Nepal, I?m the sort that likes to research various other stories and take notes on various scenes, characters, and storylines. Right now I?m kicking around three ideas, and I?m curious as to whether readers here would have any preference for any particular idea. Below is a short synopsis of the three projects. There is also a fourth option -- which would be telling me to stick it because my stuff is boring and sucks. I welcome all feedback.
?Marcus Brody ? Threat to the Union? (working title)
Set contemporaneously with Raiders of the Lost Ark, ?Threat to the Union? is a novella featuring Marcus Brody ? who, while staying in New York at something very similar to the Union League Club -- is tapped by an ailing retired General to track down a mysterious figure with knowledge (or even a plot) that could bring down the U.S. Government. There will be a back-story likely going back to the Civil War and a current plot that likely involves German agents. As the story unfolds, Marcus travels to various cities in North America and stays and dines at notable establishments that survive to this day. ?Threat to the Union? won?t have the swashbuckling action of an Indiana Jones story ? it?ll have a lot more of the elements of an old, old school detective novel. For example, scenes could include Marcus being followed through the empty dark alleys of Philadelphia on his way to early morning meeting with an unsavory character at Mcgillin?s Old Ale House.
Or, in Chicago, Marcus may go to The Berghoff to seek the assistance of (or to confront) a prominent German American ? and having to effect a clever escape. ?Threat to the Union? will be more like Caleb Carr?s Alienist novels, with real life historical figures appearing in the story and Sherlock Holmes style detecting. This will be the Raiders (not Last Crusade) Marcus (and no, for this adventure, Marcus is not a Mason). It?ll be one part travel-guide to interesting places and one part detective novel. Turns out the old guy wasn't too old to get it done afterall. . . and I wouldn't be surprised that Marcus happens to wrap things up in Washington D.C. just in time for Indy's arrival.
Indy Team-Up
This is a straight-up all-action adventure set immediately prior to the scene in Last Crusade on the Coronado. Essentially, Indiana Jones finds himself in Spain during the Spanish Civil War where behind Fascist lines he comes across an American dynamiter named Robert Jordan (from Hemingway?s ?For Whom The Bell Tolls?) who is intent on achieving his objective -- which, as in ?For Whom The Bell Tolls, is critical to the war. However together Jordan and Jones learn of a cache of Moorish artifacts that the Fascists ? being Fascists ? are determined to destroy. Dilemma here is that it appears to be an ?either-or? type situation ? either save the artifacts or achieve Jordan?s objectives. Complicating, the issue is that the Communists for whom Jordan serves are just as likely to want the religious artifacts destroyed and Jordan will have conflicting views on whether he should destroy the artifacts himself. This will be straight-up fast-faced action adventure. Not many characters. It will be in the spirit of Marvel Comic?s old Marvel Team-ups where two uber competant heroes get together and beat the living Hell out of everything. Things may not go that well for Indy, but he may get a lead to an artifact that he's been searching for all his life.
Joe Brody?s Indy IV Script
I?m tired of waiting and thanks to recent post from Deadlock I?ve reviewed some of my past ideas and have come up with fairly coherent idea. Here?s a summary of the first act (i.e. the first third of the script). Essentially, the film opens with an exclusive antiquities auction in New York. Indy is bidding and doing well (perhaps better than he should be because the auctioneer seems to be cutting Indy some breaks) against the well-healed elite (the object in question may even be the old Fertility Idol). On the next item Indy gets in a bidding war with a character who turns out to be a very well-dressed Sallah. Just as Indy again seems to be getting another break from the auctioneer, Sallah shouts out a preposterous sum ? so there can be no doubt as to the bid. Over initially affable drinks after the auction, Indy bemoans being tied to a Museum budget and not being able to compete with Sallah?s resources. Ambivalent and a little hard from the death of his family during WWII, Sallah ? sounding very Sydney Greenstreetish -- admits that the key is playing both sides of the big drink. For every relic or work of art he brings back to the Middle East, he ships another to some sucker (private buyer) in the U.S. for an obscene price. In fact, Sallah admits that a particularly notorious Egyptian artifact is arriving in New York by ship that day. Enraged that the artifact has left Egypt (and prompted by another stimuli), Indiana Jones storms off ? after receiving a hard warning from Sallah to not interfere with his dealings. Indiana goes to the bustling U.S. Customs House and finds that a familiar freighter is due in. On the dock all hell breaks loose and Indy ? after a truck chase through the zig-zag canyons of Southern Manhattan -- ends up with the relic. Essentially, this story turns one of the central concepts of the franchise on its head ? Indy gets the relic in the first part of the novel and has to return (repatriate) the relic. Even before getting the relic, he is plagued (haunted?) by certain figures from his past (likely Elsa, Wu Han, Forrestal and Belloq). Indy however will have several stops prior to making it to Egypt ? where, once there, he confronts Sallah in Sallah?s lavish Saloon (think of a huge terrace with billowing curtains -- reminiscent of Sallahs old and more humble abode seen in Raiders ? awash with light from a hazy golden sunset light like the void-comp testing scene in Bladerunner) and has to contend with the Ugly American used by Sallah to bull-doze sites to get to the relics needed to fuel Sallah?s business. Conceivably, this could turn out a little bit like Lord of the Rings.
?Marcus Brody ? Threat to the Union? (working title)
Set contemporaneously with Raiders of the Lost Ark, ?Threat to the Union? is a novella featuring Marcus Brody ? who, while staying in New York at something very similar to the Union League Club -- is tapped by an ailing retired General to track down a mysterious figure with knowledge (or even a plot) that could bring down the U.S. Government. There will be a back-story likely going back to the Civil War and a current plot that likely involves German agents. As the story unfolds, Marcus travels to various cities in North America and stays and dines at notable establishments that survive to this day. ?Threat to the Union? won?t have the swashbuckling action of an Indiana Jones story ? it?ll have a lot more of the elements of an old, old school detective novel. For example, scenes could include Marcus being followed through the empty dark alleys of Philadelphia on his way to early morning meeting with an unsavory character at Mcgillin?s Old Ale House.
Or, in Chicago, Marcus may go to The Berghoff to seek the assistance of (or to confront) a prominent German American ? and having to effect a clever escape. ?Threat to the Union? will be more like Caleb Carr?s Alienist novels, with real life historical figures appearing in the story and Sherlock Holmes style detecting. This will be the Raiders (not Last Crusade) Marcus (and no, for this adventure, Marcus is not a Mason). It?ll be one part travel-guide to interesting places and one part detective novel. Turns out the old guy wasn't too old to get it done afterall. . . and I wouldn't be surprised that Marcus happens to wrap things up in Washington D.C. just in time for Indy's arrival.
Indy Team-Up
This is a straight-up all-action adventure set immediately prior to the scene in Last Crusade on the Coronado. Essentially, Indiana Jones finds himself in Spain during the Spanish Civil War where behind Fascist lines he comes across an American dynamiter named Robert Jordan (from Hemingway?s ?For Whom The Bell Tolls?) who is intent on achieving his objective -- which, as in ?For Whom The Bell Tolls, is critical to the war. However together Jordan and Jones learn of a cache of Moorish artifacts that the Fascists ? being Fascists ? are determined to destroy. Dilemma here is that it appears to be an ?either-or? type situation ? either save the artifacts or achieve Jordan?s objectives. Complicating, the issue is that the Communists for whom Jordan serves are just as likely to want the religious artifacts destroyed and Jordan will have conflicting views on whether he should destroy the artifacts himself. This will be straight-up fast-faced action adventure. Not many characters. It will be in the spirit of Marvel Comic?s old Marvel Team-ups where two uber competant heroes get together and beat the living Hell out of everything. Things may not go that well for Indy, but he may get a lead to an artifact that he's been searching for all his life.
Joe Brody?s Indy IV Script
I?m tired of waiting and thanks to recent post from Deadlock I?ve reviewed some of my past ideas and have come up with fairly coherent idea. Here?s a summary of the first act (i.e. the first third of the script). Essentially, the film opens with an exclusive antiquities auction in New York. Indy is bidding and doing well (perhaps better than he should be because the auctioneer seems to be cutting Indy some breaks) against the well-healed elite (the object in question may even be the old Fertility Idol). On the next item Indy gets in a bidding war with a character who turns out to be a very well-dressed Sallah. Just as Indy again seems to be getting another break from the auctioneer, Sallah shouts out a preposterous sum ? so there can be no doubt as to the bid. Over initially affable drinks after the auction, Indy bemoans being tied to a Museum budget and not being able to compete with Sallah?s resources. Ambivalent and a little hard from the death of his family during WWII, Sallah ? sounding very Sydney Greenstreetish -- admits that the key is playing both sides of the big drink. For every relic or work of art he brings back to the Middle East, he ships another to some sucker (private buyer) in the U.S. for an obscene price. In fact, Sallah admits that a particularly notorious Egyptian artifact is arriving in New York by ship that day. Enraged that the artifact has left Egypt (and prompted by another stimuli), Indiana Jones storms off ? after receiving a hard warning from Sallah to not interfere with his dealings. Indiana goes to the bustling U.S. Customs House and finds that a familiar freighter is due in. On the dock all hell breaks loose and Indy ? after a truck chase through the zig-zag canyons of Southern Manhattan -- ends up with the relic. Essentially, this story turns one of the central concepts of the franchise on its head ? Indy gets the relic in the first part of the novel and has to return (repatriate) the relic. Even before getting the relic, he is plagued (haunted?) by certain figures from his past (likely Elsa, Wu Han, Forrestal and Belloq). Indy however will have several stops prior to making it to Egypt ? where, once there, he confronts Sallah in Sallah?s lavish Saloon (think of a huge terrace with billowing curtains -- reminiscent of Sallahs old and more humble abode seen in Raiders ? awash with light from a hazy golden sunset light like the void-comp testing scene in Bladerunner) and has to contend with the Ugly American used by Sallah to bull-doze sites to get to the relics needed to fuel Sallah?s business. Conceivably, this could turn out a little bit like Lord of the Rings.
Last edited:
