The Frank Darabont Script

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Moedred said:
Julian Assange implicates Frank Darabont?
This was too juicy to leave on the Wikileaks thread...
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/01/transparency-unit-wikileaks.html

Wow, so Darabont might have been lurking around all messageboards to do with Indyfans, or conversations about Indy IV. The fact that he wanted to see what the fans think as well. Interesting.

In which case, one could argue he might be one of the few involved that actually cared about what the fans think or was it an ego thing? You know, the whole, "George should have said yes".
 
Violet Indy said:
Wow, so Darabont might have been lurking around all messageboards to do with Indyfans, or conversations about Indy IV. The fact that he wanted to see what the fans think as well. Interesting.

In which case, one could argue he might be one of the few involved that actually cared about what the fans think or was it an ego thing? You know, the whole, "George should have said yes".

The implications are there, unless we learn more there are other alternatives too. As industrious as rabid fans can be, can we be sure it was Darabont at all? Someone working on his behalf?

What exatly are the Wikileaks vetting procedures?

Love to see Indiana Jones in the middle of current, contentious events once again...
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Odds are Darabont gave it to a friend who gave it to a friend. If you read way back in this thread, Simon Pegg reviewed the script in 2007. In 2008, here's the site that was shut down, not by legal action, and not owned by Darabont.
http://www.mypdfscripts.com/about
 

TheMutt92

New member
I had a copy of the Darabont script a couple of years ago when it first hit the internet, but I think I've lost it since then. But from what I've read or heard, it appears to me neither his draft or the Koepp draft were perfect. It surprises me that some strong elements of Darabont's script were made weaker in Koepp's, while at the same time they were able to improve some elements. I think we could all agree that some compromise between the two would be better.
 

kongisking

Active member
TheMutt92 said:
I had a copy of the Darabont script a couple of years ago when it first hit the internet, but I think I've lost it since then. But from what I've read or heard, it appears to me neither his draft or the Koepp draft were perfect. It surprises me that some strong elements of Darabont's script were made weaker in Koepp's, while at the same time they were able to improve some elements. I think we could all agree that some compromise between the two would be better.

Yup. I happen to think the Darabont script, on the whole, would have been a better film, but KOTCS did have some things that City of Gods didn't, such as an unbelievably cool re-introduction to the character after nineteen years off the screen. Compare an Indiana Jones not in costume, eating at a diner TO Indiana Jones captured by KGB agents, and forced to help them infiltrate Area 51.
 
City of the Gods script

My thoughts on Darabont's Indy 4 script. First, I just finished reading it last night. Being the Indy fan that I am, I am not sure why it took so long to get around to reading it, but I am glad I did. My overall impression: probably would have been received slightly better than KotCS by fans, but not by much.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Things I liked:
Marion's character was written more like the Marion from Raiders. I read some complaints about Marion's marriage to the rival archeologist. I thought the story would have been better with her just being the girlfriend of the rival archeologist, but the marriage didn't detract from the story for me.

Yuri as the friend turned enemy ala Mac was better developed. Replace Yuri with Mac in the script and it would be better. You'd have to write out the communist ties.

The quest was better written, but Indy's involvement in it seemed a bit contrived (mistaken for another agent and travel to Peru under that guise).

The government's case against Indy as a communist was resolved.

The warehouse/area 51 scene was pretty good, but some of KotCSs elements were better. The Doomtown scene was almost the same, but resolved better. The fridge still gets nuked, btw!

Indy's dismissal from Marshall College was better written.

When Indy revealed Oxley's captivity by the rival archeologist, I thought it was a great way to show Marion her "perfect" husband had a sinister side and may not be what she thought. Overall, though, I liked Crystal Skull's Oxley better. (I am delighted in the fact that this script made it clear Oxley was more of an associate of Indy's father and his age was closer to Indy's dad, backing up my argument in another thread that Oxley should have Abner in the story).

Indy breaking into the museum was humorous, although possibly out of character. I liked the fact the idol from Raiders was there though. it lets us know that little piece of the story from Raiders was resolved and also serves as a tie-in to the first movie.

Generally, the script was better than KotCS, but the ending I felt was weaker because of the "dream" sequence for each character. Why Indy was released by the alien made no sense to me. He said he chose Marion as his deepest desire. I guess it wasn't considered greed by the alien??????

What I didn't like:
The aerial dogfight could have been tailored into a great action sequence. As written, though, it was far to unbelievable (moreso than the drop from the plane in a liferaft from Temple). Indy makes a hop from plane to plane in midair not once, but twice. The pilot of the enemy plane starts intentionally chopping the wing of Indy's plane with his prop while Indy is standing on it. Not physically possible! This sequence needed a rewrite.

The pale man with the scar was underused and killed off far too early.

The plot to steal the plutonium by the Russians seemed a little contrived and not well explained. The Ruskies paid the scientists who orchestrated the theft with a Crystal Skull. Why did these guys have access to the plutonium? were they nuclear scientists or archeologists or what?

The giant snake swallowing Indy was pretty lame. As they got closer to the city animals and insects became larger, but never really explained why. I guess the science that powered the city caused things to grow immense, but not really explained.

The drop into the tree during the jungle chase is still there, with Indy driving a truck into the tree and then slowly riding the bending tree to the ground. Then the tree snaps back up and crushes some commies. I thought this scene and the variation in KotCS was LAME.

A variation of the Tarzan vine swinging is still in the draft, but this time it's Indy chasing Oxley through the trees. It was better in City of the Gods, but still lame to me.

The assistants who turned on Escalante at the end were just thrown in at that point to capture all of the players and make them work together. They proclaimed they were capitalists, but they were lame and seemed out of place to move the plot. Yuri could have filled that role, and he was a character we were already familiar with.

It never explained what drove everyone crazy that entered the City EXCEPT for Indy and crew. The alien killed those that sought the knowledge they possessed at the end. It did not make them crazy.

"Welcome to Earth." dialogue.

Sorry for the long post, but that's my two cents. I think I would have liked another rewrite. I know GL and SS wanted to shoehorn Mutt into the screenplay. I think they could have done that with Darabont's, made a few changes to a couple of scenes, and Darabont's script would have made a better movie.

As for the movie we got, I like it but do not LOVE it. I think, with Darabont's script going through another polish or two, I would have LOVED the movie it could have been.
 

Mickiana

Well-known member
Not having read the Darabont script, it's hard for me to judge that critic's comparison, except to say I dislike both scripts. Having seen the filmed version of one of them just confirms my feelings about that script, which of course by then I didn't have to read. Aliens, ineffectual villains, unfulfilled characterisation or 'decharacterisation', no suspense, no bloodshed, unbelievable action and family viewing orientation. Darabont's script may have been a better movie, who knows, but the biggest problem seems to be what GL and SS wanted out of the movie or didn't want in the movie.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Lance Quazar said:
Scriptshadow is a douche, a phony and a, what's that word, oh yeah - a thief.
Welcome to Hollywood!

He no longer posts scripts by the way, since they're so easy to find.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Nothing to do with his script, but just a little snippet relating to the man.

When my Sideshow 1/6 Bossk arrived yesterday it came with a glossy little booklet from Sideshow Collecibles.

There's a double page titled "Look who collects!" featuring quotes from Guillermo del Toro and Darabont:

Frank Darabont said:
You're born with a love for something, movies, comics, whatever that thing is, and then you want to be closer to it. And the coolest way to do that is to have something that reminds you of the thing that you love when you walk in the room.
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
The recent news that Darabont is rewriting the script for the new Godzilla is noteworthy because when his Indiana Jones script got scrapped he declared that he would never again be a writer-for-hire, and would only ever write for projects he was directing. Now granted, that was already like ten years ago, which is plenty enough time to have a change of heart, but it's still nice to see that he has. Since he recently got a new show greenlit it's hard to believe he's taking the job out of desperation to eat; he must really be passionate about Godzilla.

All this to say, it's probably safe to get a little bit excited about Godzilla, maybe.
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Udvarnoky said:
The recent news that Darabont is rewriting the script for the new Godzilla is noteworthy because when his Indiana Jones script got scrapped he declared that he would never again be a writer-for-hire, and would only ever write for projects he was directing. Now granted, that was already like ten years ago, which is plenty enough time to have a change of heart, but it's still nice to see that he has. Since he recently got a new show greenlit it's hard to believe he's taking the job out of desperation to eat; he must really be passionate about Godzilla.

All this to say, it's probably safe to get a little bit excited about Godzilla, maybe.

A lot of that has to do with "The Walking Dead" on AMC leaving a bad taste in his mouth. He was the Shepard and nurturer of that project and led the show to become the success that it was... Until the suits at AMC decided to can Darabont.

And from what I hear the guy who replaced him for a year or so has now left the show. What the hell is going on down there at AMC?

So after all that Frank has given these other "polish" jobs a second chance.
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
Dr. Gonzo said:
And from what I hear the guy who replaced him for a year or so has now left the show. What the hell is going on down there at AMC?

The way I heard it, the suits at AMC are happy to micromanage The Walking Dead because it's the one show they can. Unlike Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or The Killing, which can threaten to shop to other networks if AMC starts throwing their weight around, Dead is a show they own lock, stock and barrel. So if a showrunner is griping too loudly about budget cuts or is otherwise pursuing a vision for this cash cow series that's too interesting for comfort -off with his head!
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Udvarnoky said:
The way I heard it, the suits at AMC are happy to micromanage The Walking Dead because it's the one show they can. Unlike Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or The Killing, which can threaten to shop to other networks if AMC starts throwing their weight around, Dead is a show they own lock, stock and barrel. So if a showrunner is griping too loudly about budget cuts or is otherwise pursuing a vision for this cash cow series that's too interesting for comfort -off with his head!

That's a damned shame...

Who negotiated that deal? :(
 

Toht's Arm

Active member
I read this script a while ago and kept meaning to comment on it here. I'll keep it brief.

I really enjoy KotCS. It's the weakest of the four, easily, but I still like it.

That being said, I thought this script was much better. It made sense where KotCS felt like a hodgepodge of previous scripts. The only things I would have changed were the aerial dogfight, which was just that bit too over the top (though Harrison would have been a couple of years younger...) and the "Welcome to earth," line, which was just weird (has Darabont really never seen Independence Day? Or maybe it was a subtle wink at the fact that Independence Day's success was what made up Spielberg's mind about the possibility of the Saucer Men from Mars script in the 90s).

Other than that, I thought it was great. I wish we could find out exactly what it was that bothered Lucas. And which of them wasn't prepared to make any changes so that they'd both be happy...
 

kongisking

Active member
Toht's Arm said:
I read this script a while ago and kept meaning to comment on it here. I'll keep it brief.

I really enjoy KotCS. It's the weakest of the four, easily, but I still like it.

That being said, I thought this script was much better. It made sense where KotCS felt like a hodgepodge of previous scripts. The only things I would have changed were the aerial dogfight, which was just that bit too over the top (though Harrison would have been a couple of years younger...) and the "Welcome to earth," line, which was just weird (has Darabont really never seen Independence Day? Or maybe it was a subtle wink at the fact that Independence Day's success was what made up Spielberg's mind about the possibility of the Saucer Men from Mars script in the 90s).

Other than that, I thought it was great. I wish we could find out exactly what it was that bothered Lucas. And which of them wasn't prepared to make any changes so that they'd both be happy...

Agreed. KOTCS is an acceptable Indy adventure, but City of the Gods would have been a bona-fide great Indy adventure.

I agree on the "Welcome to Earth" line. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering the aliens in that script have been here for centuries...:confused:
 
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