The Frank Darabont Script

DarthLowBudget

New member
It sucks that he's bitter, but I do have to say, it's all just talk until someone with an objective eye can judge his script. Why not let us see it eh? I'm suprised it hasn't leaked yet.
 

torao

Moderator Emeritus
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.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
So the co-writer/star of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz says he got to read Darabont's script. I hope that doesn't mean it's been tossed completely. I followed the maze to the podcast but couldn't fast-forward, unfortunately. Great find torao! Any spoilers mentioned?
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Loved the doc by the way. Apparently it was taped on Spielberg's 60th birthday, Dec. 18 2006. Don't know how theRaider missed it.

Key Spielberg quote at minute 52: "So many movies inspired by the Indiana Jones series have... created tremendous set pieces... that have basically scooped any possible original set piece for Indy 4 and left us very little meat still to be picked off the bone." I bet at least one or two set pieces had to be dropped during the decade of rewrites, because they got scooped! (And he mentions the Matrix.)
 

torao

Moderator Emeritus
yeah, it's a pretty cool and important quote. good that you mention it!!!

I hope someone here will actually get to hear Simon Pegg or whomever unleashing his mysterious knowledge.

Moedred said:
I hope that doesn't mean it's been tossed completely.
tossed meaning scrapped... because it's passed around like that?
yeah....questions over questions.... i've said it before but Indy IV is indeed like some kind of real life LOST and I like it that way...i guess.
 
Darabont on MTV

Just read the Darabont MTV interview and have to admit every time I think about it I get one of those "what if?" moments... Of course none of us have seen the script - Aaron aside...hmmm - but what a combination: an Indy nut plus he has the writing ability to produce the shawshank script. God only knows what richness and texture he brought to the further characterization and ageing of Indy. I sense it would have been the precise treatment most of us here ache for. Its devastating really.

Part of me seriously worries that Speilberg just wants this so badly that he's convinced himself to go along with an Indy Lite script, on a totally different trajectory, with a totally different spin on how the character would be in middle age... and not different for the better. Pessimistic maybe, but Darabont + Indy + filming four years ago would surely have been so sooo good.

I'm still as excited as anything, but like I say, keep getting those "what if" feelings...
 

deckard24

New member
You can tell in the Darabont interview how crushed he was that it was canned. We may know none of the particulars, but man does Lucas sound like a pr**k after reading that. I really hope after IJ4 comes out, it's available to read.
What could possibly have been in it that Lucas was so objectionable about. Maybe some wicked dialogue like, " I hate sand, it gets everywhere!" or perhaps,"You're so beautiful." " No, it's only because I'm in love!" " No, it's because I'm sooo in love with you!".
Wasn't it Ford who said, "You can write this s**t George, you just can't speak it!"
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Darabont: I told him he was crazy... "I think you're insane, George."

Wow, I hope some or all of the Darabont script wasn't scrapped purely out of spite. My guess is Lucas objected to Indy hitting on his (unbeknownst to him) daughter. Whether he was so repelled he replaced her with a son, I dunno.
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
The guys at CHUD reckon they've read it. Other than that, no one has leaked it out... unfortunately. Probably would be leaked AFTER Indy IV.
 

Papa Jones

New member
The almighty Supershadow has got the orignal Darabont script... three years before it was written... and in ancient greek... :rolleyes:
 

oki9Sedo

New member
Last Crusade had some elements of Chris Columbus' crappy Monkey King script, didn't it? The tank chase etc.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Indy IV has leftovers from Darabont's script.
 
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