Here's a new interview with writer, Rob Williams over at Newsarama!!!
Marcus Brody is back!
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=153283
ROB WILLIAMS ON INDIANA JONES THE THE TOMB OF THE GODS
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by Chris Arrant
While he may be the world's preeminent archaeologist of the day, it doesn't stop Dr. Henry Jones Jr. from getting out in the field once in a while.
OK, more than once in a while. He's Dr. Henry Jones Jr., or Indiana Jones to me and you. We've seen it in three movies, and even a short lived television series of his early days and several books. With a new movie coming out this summer, it is undoubtedly the Summer of
Indiana Jones. Dark Horse is doing their part, as they wade into the jungles of comic stores with a new miniseries:
Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods.
Created by the team of
writer Rob Williams and
artist Steve Scott, they're coming into it with lofty goals of being no less quality than a 'lost Indy movie'.
Indiana Jones movies are known for their action and adventure, and in comics there's an unlimited budget for that. After all, drawing an exploding pyramid is more fun than drawing some geese sitting in a pond. So explosions, fights and gunfire are to be expected.
Newsarama: Thanks for talking with us, Rob. Indiana
Jones and the Tomb of Gods, an all-new Indiana Jones story. That's big unto itself, and doing the comic - that had to make a lot of
Indiana Jones' fans jealous. What's it like being able to work on this?
Rob Williams: A dream come true, to be honest. I'm a huge Indy fan. You're talking about one of the great iconic heroic figures of modern times, who wouldn't want to write Indy? And Raiders Of The Lost Ark is really like a template for how to do a killer action story with just the right amount of gags, character work, mystery, humanity. Indy's the most human action hero because he's far from invulnerable, he gets the crap beaten out of him in all three films and Harrison Ford's so good in them we feel Indy's pain, yet he keeps coming.
And, of course, what makes him truly special is his love of knowledge and learning. He's an archaeologist first, an action hero second. That's wonderfully refreshing in a dumbed down modern age. These are all things we're taking into account with how we're handling Indy in
Tomb Of The Gods.
NRAMA: We've got Indiana Jones onboard, for sure.. his name's in the title, after all. But are there any other familiar characters we can look forward to seeing in this miniseries?
RW: Lots of
Marcus Brody, who's an absolute delight in
The Last Crusade thanks to a wonderful performance by the late Denholm Elliott. Marcus is just too good not to have along for the ride, and also he's going to be something of an even keel in keeping Indy on the right track when his eyes light up a little too wide when he gets the 'treasure' in his sights. Which is something that Indy is definitely guilty of.
The rest of our cast for this story are all new characters. One thing we've talked about a lot on this series is the need to create strong new 'expanded universe' characters for Indy to interact with - so that we can then place them in real danger. After all, they might not make it out alive. And we want to give Indy his own Doctor Doom or the Joker - a deadly recurring adversary.
NRAMA: "The Tomb of the Gods" - it sounds right up Dr. Jones' alley. What's is it?
RW: That would be telling, as a large part of the story is building the mystery both for Indy and the readers. We were very aware though that we needed a macguffin to launch this series where the stakes were very high. It couldn't be a small, personal trinket. The Tomb in question contains something that could not only be disastrous for the world, but which could also damn Indy's soul if he lets it. Indy has based his entire life on knowledge, but this threatens to prove that everything he's ever believed up to this point is wrong, and that he could potentially be the one to write a new history.
That's a very dangerous temptation to him.
NRAMA: To write this, you have to really get inside the head of the character. When you were writing this series, how deep did you get into the thought processes and mind of Indiana? What are his motivations?
RW: You watch the movies and they do a great job of defining who he is in a very concise way. He's a hero, first and foremost. He will take on overwhelming odds for what he feels is right. But certain lines here and there really nail him, the two key ones being "that belongs in a museum" and "Fortune and Glory, kid." There's this interesting dichotomy between those two ethos' which is something we'll be exploring in Tomb. There's a certain amount of glory hunter in him.
NRAMA: Chronologically speaking, what's the time period here and how does it fit in with the other moves?
RW: Tomb Of The Gods takes place in
1936, so
after Temple Of Doom and before Raiders. Artist Steve Scott said to me the other day that he's treating this like it's a lost Indy movie, and I think that's the approach you have to have.
This can't be just another adventure. It's got to feel like an important moment in Indiana Jones' life, something that affects the decisions he'll later make in Raiders. Would the Indy of
Temple lower the bazooka and let Belloq and the Nazis have the Ark at the end of
Raiders? Probably not. He's younger and more hot-headed in
Temple. Tomb Of The Gods is an important part of his evolution. He experiences something in our finale that helps to make him the man he is when we meet him in the jungle at the opening of
Raiders.
NRAMA: Before we go, I have to ask… Indiana's main tool besides his mind is his trusty whip. Come on, level with us.. Did you buy a whip and practice, just to get the character down?
RW: No need to buy one. I just used the one I already have at home.
What?
Indiana Jones & The Tomb of the Gods #1 goes on sale June 29th from Dark Horse Comics. For more information, visit www.darkhorse.com.
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