Koepp Script

torao

Moderator Emeritus
Damn...I don't get those Filmstew newsletters anymore. Luckily, someone posted a link to this on the hfweb forum. I'm halfway through the interview and am that excited that I thought I should share it immediately. Of course he isn't spilling big things, but who'd want that:

http://www.filmstew.com/showArticle.aspx?ContentID=15358


gotta read the rest now.

Uhh...this is just one site.

And it's on comingsoon.net too, now.
 
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Skipper

New member
Re:

Koepp implied that Indy 4 takes place in 1961.

In reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark, he said that nobody remembers exactly what they said 25 years ago.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it....
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
Unless he was referring to Last Crusade, which would then place the film in 1963. Either way, it's probably in the 20-25 year range.
Raiders= 1936
So now we have a window of time which the film could take place in, anywhere from 1955 to 1963.
 

Last Crusader

New member
1981-2006: 25 years

He is probably referring to the time between the making of the first movie and this movie, since it's a little bit over 25 years since Raiders. I doubt that the "external" time that has elapsed will concretely correspond to the "internal" chronology in the Indiana Jones universe. It wasn's so with the previous movies (Temple of Doom happens a year before Raiders, for instance).
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
“I’m going to get my *ss handed to me on some level, even by my fellow filmmakers or the audience,” Koepp continues.

I'll say this: there's something decidely noirish about a man that knows that he's in for a beating -- which doesn't mean that I have much faith in the man.
 

Skipper

New member
Re:

He is probably referring to the time between the making of the first movie and this movie, since it's a little bit over 25 years since Raiders.
I think he was pretty clearly referring to the character, not the movie. Of course, it was probably just an offhand remark, but I take this as pretty solid evidence that the movie will take place in at least the late 1950s, if not later.
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
Joe Brody said:
I'll say this: there's something decidely noirish about a man that knows that he's in for a beating -- which doesn't mean that I have much faith in the man.

But what he was saying is definately true. Even if the film is the absolute BEST, someone will still criticize it due to Ford's age and the time elapsed. He's just being honest.

''The first thing is that you realize this is a beloved character, probably one of the most in film history, and a lot of people are going to be angry no matter what I do.”

“The worst thing to do would be to have him make reference to things he said in the first movie, like to pun on lines of dialogue,” he argues. “That’s tempting, because you’ve seen the movie a hundred times and you know all the dialogue, but no human being remembers exactly what they said 25 years ago word for word, much less make reference to it. So you try to put aside the other movies and yet be in the spirit of them.”

That quote inspires me. At least there won't be any cheesy lookbacks at previous entries in the series. He's right--no one remembers exactly what they said years ago--and to have him punning dialogue from past films would be just cheesy.
Another thing that inspires me is that he's a fan. He obviously has a lot of love and memories of his own attached to the series and a lot of respect for it, and that helps. Having someone with no connection to the character would result in a poorly written movie. I think the last writer who had any connection or feeling for the series and character was Kasdan.
 
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Grizzlor

Well-known member
I didn't read any reference to the time period of the film at all. He only mentioned he was 18 when Raiders came out, and referred to it being 25 years old.
 

Skipper

New member
Grizzlor said:
I didn't read any reference to the time period of the film at all. He only mentioned he was 18 when Raiders came out, and referred to it being 25 years old.
?The worst thing to do would be to have him make reference to things he said in the first movie, like to pun on lines of dialogue,? he argues. ?That?s tempting, because you?ve seen the movie a hundred times and you know all the dialogue, but no human being remembers exactly what they said 25 years ago word for word, much less make reference to it.?
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
Skipper said:
?The worst thing to do would be to have him make reference to things he said in the first movie, like to pun on lines of dialogue,? he argues. ?That?s tempting, because you?ve seen the movie a hundred times and you know all the dialogue, but no human being remembers exactly what they said 25 years ago word for word, much less make reference to it.?

That sounds more like a referrence to 25 years in movie time, not in real time, which, as someone else said, would put the film in the early 60's.
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
Skipper said:
Koepp implied that Indy 4 takes place in 1961.

In reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark, he said that nobody remembers exactly what they said 25 years ago.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it....

Well, maybe, it's a homage in reverse. Bond is widely known to have been an influence on the creation of Indy, and indeed, it was partly Spielberg's desire to make a Bond film that led to Indy. Perhaps having Indy's last adventure take place during the beginning of the era of Bond was done on purpose. The early 60's marked the end of Indy's era--the end of the rugged, handsome, gritty, debonair leading man with the hat and heralded the beginning of the era of the polite, charming, graceful hero with the tux.
 

quigonkyle

New member
your all crazy look back at all the indy four rumors they all say it will take place around 1950 twenty five years is since raiders came out . THe idea of having indy go on a adventure in his mid sixties is ridiculous, the character will be in his fifties so get a hold of yourselves .

TO QUOTE HARRISON

take that "BIOTCH"
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Well, I'm still saying 1956 for Indy IV. Twenty years after Raiders. It makes more sense than 61.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
One thing strikes me as I read this interview: how can a professional writer -- a creative -- give such a deathly boring interview? Maybe I expect too much -- but for some reason while I don't expect someone like Will Ferrell to be funny in person on command, I expert more from a writer whose list of credits runs as long as Keopp's. I understand the guy can't tell us anything about the story -- but you think he'd at least be able to slip in a tantalizing adjective.

So Mr. Koepp tell us something about the Indy IV writing experience?

“I spent about a year on it, first doing drafts with Steven and then doing drafts with Steven and George,” he explains. “It was a lot of fun."

Fun? Most informative. And how about working with Lucas and Spielberg?

"They’re big guys with big opinions. . ."

[...] And talk about saying nothing:

"But with set pieces, sometimes it’s common sense and sometimes it’s a bad idea.”

[Let me get back to this last one.]

So why the long rant? Sour grapes you say? Koepp's the incredibly successful writer and I'm nobody. So O.K. -- I can admit to some sour grapes -- but there's more to it than that. My fear about Koepp writing the script is my suspicion that he's not an artist but merely a technician. When it was announced that he had been brought onto the project as the new writer -- I was impressed by the number of big films he had written. Then, I realized that I've never purchased a single one of said films. Sure, I've watched Spiderman a couple of times -- but Dunst is the only thing there that stirs me. Same for Panic Room -- Jodie Foster rocks.

Looking at his filmography, I can only ask: where's the human spark in his films? Where's the true interaction and spontaneity between characters? Watch the opening sequence of Mission Impossible where Tom Cruise and the rest of the MI team 'good-naturedly' rib the Jon Voight character. It's painful -- there's some dialogue about bad coffee and the need for a new machine. Now watch an opening to a film that works, an opening that's entirely different -- something that truly draws in the audience and seems entirely real. Watch the same amount of screentime from the opening of Close Encounters. What film draws you in more? Which film has more 'real' human interaction?

'No problem' you say -- we've got Spielberg on hand to insure that Indy IV will have the necessary human element. Surely, we can count on Spielberg to come up with the human 'story' angle, not to mention witty lines ("Don't you mean extinct?"). I'm not so sure. Watch War of the Worlds and what do we get? Tom Cruise -- the disenfranchised father -- wears a Yankee hat. And the alienated son? A Red Sox hat. That there is quality writing. Given Koepp's work product to date, can we reasonably expect Indy IV to have a scene like the Sallah terrace scene in Raiders?

Enough b*tching. The good news? Koepps [mercifully] as much as promised us that we're going to be spared the "It's the years not the mileage" line.

And the 'set piece' quote is more than mildly provocative. The Indiana Jones formula demands the opening set piece -- yet Koepp's quote raises a doubt. Just when is an opening set piece a 'bad idea'? When you've got an old star, and you've got to conserve his physical screen moments for the final sprint at the end of the film? Wait a sec -- wasn't that already done in Last Crusade? So what are the alternatives? I wouldn't be surprised with a minor break from the formula with something like the opening to Close Encounters -- something that keeps us waiting for Indy yet has raging elements, an up-tempo and action.
 
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DarthLowBudget

New member
Okay, so you never bought Jurassic Park. Ok. And you're complaining because the language in the interview is bland. Did it ever occur to you that some people don't interview well? (which has nothing to do with writing ability).

I dunno, the guys onviously no *insert famous screenwriter you really like here* but he can create solid entertaining movies, which in the end is all that the Indy series has every really been.

And why the dig on the hats in War of the Worlds? That's so inconsequential to the film as a whole that I didn't even notice it until you pointed it out, and I certainly don't care about it. Kinda reaching on that one eh?

*end brief rant*

Can we wait til we see some more info on the movie before we try tearing it to shreds please? I really don't want to be involved in another PT style gusher/basher web war, not for a little while more anyways.
 

Ste2652

Member
I think at least part of the reason for it could be that Koepp is pretty scared about giving too much detail away and therefore is very careful (too careful?). I mean, this is a movie which has spent a lot of time in limbo and is very highly anticipated... if he slipped up in the interview and gave away something big, I doubt Lucas, Spielberg and Ford would be very happy with him considering how long they've waited to do this. :p

So, yeah, I think he's worried about leaking anything, especially this early (around six months before filming starts).
 

misnomer

New member
I think Joe Brody has a point....

Koepp isn't fantastic...but he's not terrible either. Brody puts it perfectly "a technician" or as Spielberg described "he's my closer." IMO Koepp has only ever written one bad movie (secret window) ; the rest have been either okay or good, dependant on direction and acting....but what you're guaranteed NEVER to get from Koepp is amazing.

On hearing that "none of darabonts script has made it in" I couldnt help but feel that Indy 4 had taken a down turn. I mean c'mon this is the guy that adapted "shawshank redemption" for christ sakes.

That said, Koepp's been under scrutiny from the beards this time around,
and the "idea" isn't necessarily his...so, if the macguffin is "the best one yet" maybe we will get a great picture after all.

Ford/Connery seem to be good at ad-libbing too...

SO my point is this....whilst I agree with Brody, I dont think it's time to discount Indy 4 off as mediocrity just yet. Who knows?, maybe this will be koepps greatest screenplay....and credit where credits due, he's the only writer to have satisfied both george, lucas and ford - he succeeded where darabont failed.

I hope I do get to see a darabont indy 5 one day....or at least read the script.
 
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