I just listened to the CHUD Podcast. This time they have some audio bits of a rather chatty interview Nick did with the Hot Fuzz guys. They also talk about Indiana Jones because they're all obviously big Fans of it (esp. Raiders and TOD) and because Paul Freeman himself has a part in Hot Fuzz.
So they start talking about the fly thing and some other stuff...and
all of the sudden.... someone (I think it's Simon Pegg. I just put in my Shaun Of The Dead copy to do some voice identification. I think it's him.)
says that he had the chance to read Darabont's draft.
"I really really really liked it. It's brilliant."
He says it had got anything an Indy film needs...great set pieces...some "rather horrifying stuff"(he also used some other word I didn't quite understand)
I think that Nick then mentions something along the lines of "I think it's one of his favorite things he's ever written" .. (well we already knew that as can be seen in Moedred's most recent entry in this thread)
I really urge you to listen to it yourselves!!!!! If you got a fast internet connection it doesn't take too long to download this ***** of a podcast. Once you've got it unto your computer just
board it on 1 hour and 15 minutes and 30 seconds. The actual fly and Indy discussion though starts even before that and fortunately goes on a bit. They chat about Blanchett, say some cool things about TOD ...even go on about Ray Winstone...
I want you to listen to it yourselves because after all I may not have understood everything that well...and maybe it's not Simon Pegg but someone else so....just check it out!!!!
This is the actual website link which also has a little description as to how you can download it at iTunes. Otherwise just go over to iTunes in the Podcast section and search for Chud. It's the 20th of their podcasts.
After all...the person whom I identified as Simon Pegg also referred to Last Crusade as a "Jedi style rehash of the first two". I love(d) Last Crusade. So...this has nothing to do with the fact that the Darabont draft may be brilliant and is therefore part of a tragic (personal) artistic story. But who knows what brilliance the final shooting draft may include (despite how bad Koepp and Nathanson may look next to FRANK DARABONT).
What I actually wonder now is if they really had to start from the scratch. I know that they certainly saved some ideas from the Columbus thing for Last Crusade. But how are regulations in that area? Is it Darabont's or Lucas' property?
Because...if it had these great set pieces
(and we've all heard how hard it is to have original ideas as far as the whole action-set pieces stuff is concerned)
it would be pretty tough to not use them in the next one, if they fit to the overall story. Another thing that bugs me is that, if it is a basic idea George Lucas wasn't fond of, why didn't he intervent earlier? But maybe that's just a risk of doing the "writing for hire" job.