Thomas and Meyjes Indy 3 scripts

Violet Indy said:

Agreed. Never trust an obsessed blonde. Like that girl in "Vertigo."

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Moedred said:

The new ToD DVD has a 'Locations' featurette. One of its pop-up trivia cards provides a pretty good summary of what may be the Meyjes version of Crusade...

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INDY III BY MENNO MEYJES, BASED ON A STORY BY LUCAS AND MEYJES: FIRST- AND REVISED FIRST-DRAFT SUMMARIES, OCTOBER 2 AND NOVEMBER 21, 1986
The first draft opens with a battle in Mexico between Indy and Banano, a crazed individual with a whip and a loyal band of gorillas. The object of their dispute is the death mask of Montezuma. Indy manages to throw Banano off a cliff, and his gorillas go free.
No sooner is he back in the States than Indy has to depart for France to look for his father?who has disappeared while looking for the Holy Grail. With a friend named Maude he goes to Montsegur, where they meet a nun named Chantal and her relation De La War, who explains that they had found a map that led Indy's father to Venice. But Nazis, led by Baron Balder von Grimm, were hot on the trail of Indy's dad. Grimm has a hapless sidekick named Hans, whom he is always calling "Idiot!" and then throttling.
After adventures in Venice and on the Orient Express where they are disguised as royalty, Indy and Chantai arrive in Istanbul. Clues and escapades put them on a train to Petra, where they are soon fighting for their lives. Fortunately Indy's old friend Sallah arrives with two horses, which they mount. Sallah then leads them to a Bedouin on horseback?who turns out to be Indy's father. Together they find the Grail in Petra, within the City of the Dead. At the climax Grimm shows up, but when he touches the Grail, he explodes; when Henry Sr. touches the Grail, a stairway to heaven appears, which he ascends. The nun Chantal is tempted to take the stairs as well, urged on by Indy. But her love for Jones makes her stay.
In the revised first draft the Nazi villain is Greta Von Grimm. And this time Indy finds his father tied to a pillar in a crusader's castle called Krak Des Chevalier. He'd been forced to help the Nazis in their search for the Grail, but they'd left him to die when he was no longer useful. At the place of the Grail, Indy does battle with a fantastic demon creature, whom he defeats by stabbing it in the belly with a dagger inscribed with the words GOD is KING. Bad girl Greta is vaporized by the Grail.

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Strider said:

I remember reading the Saucer Men one. It was good but I think I could have made it better. In my version there would be alot more globetrotting. For instance, I would have Indy get captured by the Soviets at one point and he would be brought to Moskow for some good old fashion snow action scenes. I would also have the mystery make him end up in Central America at some point, it would go along with all that stuff about the ancient mayans having alien origions and give him a chance to enter an ancient temple. I also wouldn't ever actually show the Saucer Men until prehaps the very last scene in the film in which I would have the lead Soviets open a crashed spaceship or something and then get killed Raiders style for it.

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The script's opening sequence was probably borrowed from the Diane Thomas screenplay, and is a fine piece of work, although it has absolutely nothing to do with the remainder of the story. It is 1937, and we find Indy in Scotland on a fishing trip, when he is called upon by the local police to help investigate a series of mysterious and brutal deaths. These seem to have a connection with an ancient castle, which Indy and some villagers decide to break into. In a thrilling and atmospheric series of supernatural set-pieces, involving bell-towers, trap doors, and underground rivers, Indy finally reaches the source of all the trouble, the castle's laird, Baron Seamus Seagrove III, who has supposedly been dead for years. After fighting off more assailants - a couple of spectral dogs, and some suits of armor - Indy finally captures the Baron, who says, as Indy turns him over to the police, "I would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for those pesky kids." No, sorry, just my little joke. What he actually says is 'No prison can hold me', and as he is taken away, we see him light a cigarette and the match flame shines through the Baron's body, confirmation that he is indeed a ghost. This well written sequence may have provided the inspiration for the use of Grunwald Castle in Last Crusade.

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caats said:

i was watching the bonus disc from the box set where Lucas talked about having the haunted castle at the start and it not working out. Just curious if anybody had read the script? what was that castle sequence like?

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Far from looking for the Holy Grail, Indy's next adventure was originally supposed to be a horror movie, 1930's style, set in a haunted house. This odd idea came from Lucas, who commissioned Diane Thomas, the writer of Romancing The Stone, to produce a screenplay. Thomas completed her first draft shortly before her untimely death in a car crash, but the script and the horror-movie idea were both scrapped. However, elements of it found their way into the opening sequence of the next shot at Indy 3 - Chris Columbus's failed (and fabled) Monkey King script.

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The script's opening sequence was probably borrowed from the Diane Thomas screenplay, and is a fine piece of work, although it has absolutely nothing to do with the remainder of the story. It is 1937, and we find Indy in Scotland on a fishing trip, when he is called upon by the local police to help investigate a series of mysterious and brutal deaths. These seem to have a connection with an ancient castle, which Indy and some villagers decide to break into. In a thrilling and atmospheric series of supernatural set-pieces, involving bell-towers, trap doors, and underground rivers, Indy finally reaches the source of all the trouble, the castle's laird, Baron Seamus Seagrove III, who has supposedly been dead for years. After fighting off more assailants - a couple of spectral dogs, and some suits of armor - Indy finally captures the Baron, who says, as Indy turns him over to the police, "I would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for those pesky kids." No, sorry, just my little joke. What he actually says is 'No prison can hold me', and as he is taken away, we see him light a cigarette and the match flame shines through the Baron's body, confirmation that he is indeed a ghost. This well written sequence may have provided the inspiration for the use of Grunwald Castle in Last Crusade.

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Lance Quazar said:

Is Monkey King available on-line anywhere???

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An original SFX breakdown of an Ape suit from the production of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The A4 pages detail the specification of building the ape suit that was in the end cut from the movie and was meant to feature in the scenes of the young Indy on the circus train early on in the film. The four typewritten pages include information such as how long it takes to complete each stage of the build, notes on the fur and mechanical aspects of the piece. Although this particular piece was never made, it is a really interesting read and great look into the thought and effort that goes into each aspect of a Hollywood movie. The pages are slightly crumpled and paperclipped together.

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