The Monkey King Script

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Monkey King.

"I don't think any of us wanted to go to Africa for four months and try to get Indy to ride a rhinoceros in a multi-vehicular chase, which was one of the sequences Chris had written. Once I got into the script, I began to feel very old, too old to direct it, anyway."
-Steven Spielberg
 

1ord3vil

New member
Moedred said:
"[...]Once I got into the script, I began to feel very old, too old to direct it, anyway."
-Steven Spielberg
That's a really nice, corteous and diplomatic way to say: "It sucked butt."
 

Stoo

Well-known member
JerryKing said:
Gutterbuhg's FINGER BEGINS TO RAPIDLY FIRE BULLETS! His MECHANICAL ARM
is actually a A MACHINE GUN!
Toht was originally conceived to have a mechanical arm that fired bullets.
Don't believe it? Check out some of the storyboards and pre-production art for "Raiders".
 

xVendetta17x

New member
Stoo said:
Toht was originally conceived to have a mechanical arm that fired bullets.
Don't believe it? Check out some of the storyboards and pre-production art for "Raiders".

I'm glad they didn't go for that approach
It would be good for another movie, but not an Indy one
 

whipcracker666

New member
overall I thought that most of the Monkey King script was pretty ridiculous, espescially twards the end. But for some reason I really like the concept of the haunted castle intro. I think it could've worked really well in an Indy movie as long as they steered clear of any cheesey Scooby Doo cliche`s
Same with saucermen, it had some really cool ideas for scenes but overall felt weak.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
I knew the tree in KotCS seemed familiar...
Scraggy, Clare, Betsy, Kezure and the others, emit a UNIFIED SIGH OF RELIEF. But the tree suddenly CRACKS. It TILTS. FALLING OVER THE RAVINE EDGE! Everyone SCREAMS! There is the sudden CRACK OF A WHIP! The whip WRAPS ITSELF around the trunk of the tree. Indiana HOLDS the opposite end. He PULLS with all of his strength. HOLDING the tree in place.
 

indytim

Member
Why would Chris Columbus even be approached to write an Indy film!? If you check out his writing credentials on IMDB they're not exactly inspiring. Just because he wrote 'The Goonies' doesn't mean he has the chops for writing a great adventure (which that movie wasn't, even though it was a lot of fun). His Indiana Jones and the Planet Of The Apes script makes Mutt's monkey swing look like a work of genius!
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
According to the Complete Making Of book:
In Columbus's second draft, Betsy is gone, while a new character named Dash, the expat who owns the bar, is the chief villain, with the Nazis working for him. In the Lost City, Indy meets Sun Wu Kung, a not-very-nice simian Monkey King. Jones must play a game of chess against Dash using real people as the pieces; when someone is eliminated, Kung disintegrates them with his magic Golden Rod. After a series of confrontations, Kung brings the dead back to life to pursue Indy. They turn Dash into a ghost, but Indy breaks the rod, escapes, and marries Clare.
Whoa, Indy married? In the 1980's?! Take that, sunset.
 

jonesissparrow

New member
I remember when I printed the article on theraider.net about the lost or discarded scripts for Indy I remember read the part about the Monkey King and I was in bed and I must say it was a nice bedtime story. Ok so some of the parts are a bit outlandish but its exciting nonetheless I do agree whoever said this would be better for another movie not a Indy film.
 

Niteshade007

New member
I didn't read the entire script, but for some strange reason I found Betsy to be funny. I mean, I couldn't see her working in an Indy movie for real (her character felt like a cheesy 80's TV show type of character), but I still found myself chuckling at her antics. Especially when she tries to kill herself in Indy's office or classroom or whatever. Dumb sense of humor sometimes.

But the script was pretty bad from what I read. I never got to the end.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
whipcracker666 said:
overall I thought that most of the Monkey King script was pretty ridiculous, espescially twards the end. But for some reason I really like the concept of the haunted castle intro. I think it could've worked really well in an Indy movie as long as they steered clear of any cheesy Scooby Doo cliches.

I actually agree with this. I saw potential for this to crop up in Indy IV until early May, I think. If they make a fifth, we're going to see this as a father/son fishing trip. You heard it here first.
 

TrailBlazer

New member
That's a title doomed from the outset.

"Monkey" is comedy word and "The Monkey King" is that lame bit Mike Myers does where he humps a bunch of bananas in the supermarket with his pants around his ankles and his tidy whities showing in the long-awaited "Wayne's World 3" from 2012, the film Myers resorted to doing after the abysmal string of flops starting with The Cat in the Hat" and "The Love Guru." The Monkey King signaled the end of civiliztion as we knew it.
 
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