What happened between 1993 and 2000?

Moedred

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Staff member
Found this post while digging to the bottom of the internet. September 1993:
the script reportedly, originates from the Young Indy show...
What would need to be changed are the dates (obviously) and some settings (i.e. adding Nazi's). But the basic essence of the story (i.e. the object Indy has to discover) and the research that entails would have already been done. Put it this way, Lucas (according to USA Today) recognized that one of his scripts had alot of potential, and that's when he sought out Spielberg and Ford.
I first heard about Harrison Ford's interest in another Indy movie back in early August on the radio.
And here's a murmur from 1994.
 

sandiegojones

New member
Well, Lucas always said he had a Young Indy script with a crystal skull which was also supposed to have a young Belloq, but the series was cancelled. I think the skull idea was around for a good 10 years at least. Whether or not it was an alien skull is unknown, but I think Lucas was adamant that they go that direction for the film since it was the 1950's.

I'm intersted in what happens between 2008 to whenever Indy V is made!
 

Moedred

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I'm guessing this was moments after they all got excited about Indy 4 again backstage at Ford's AFI award. The February 2000 Access Hollywood video is gone from the Indyfan site, but here's a transcript.
Pat O'Brien: What about Indy 4?
Ford: Ask him (points to George Lucas), just you light a fire under his ass and we'll get it done. (laughs)
Pat O'Brien: How anxious are you to do it?
Ford: I'm that anxious. I'll... I'll get the match for you (smiles).
(Pat O'Brien movies over to George Lucas to talk to him)
Pat O'Brien: Any word on Indy 4? He told me to light a fire under your ... uh he didn't say butt, but uh...
George Lucas: Uh, I think we're all busy (laughs)
Pat O'Brien: Where is that project right now?
George Lucas: Uh, we got a script on it. And its really a matter of getting everybody together to the same... same place and the same time to do it.
 

Moedred

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More shovelfuls, assembled from sites like this and this and others only in the archive. What I'd really like to reread is upcomingmovies.com/indy4 but it's long gone and unarchived. How does one get there, if one can? Ask Greg Dean Schmitz personally?
1995: Rick McCallum: "We just recieved the first draft of the script from Jeffrey Boam which everybody loves. Steven Spielberg has made some changes, and George has a few more changes to do. The script will next go to Harrison Ford for approval. Then it's up to the gods to determine when George, Steven, and Harrison's schedules will coincide. The project is definitely alive, and it's a good script. Jeffery really came through for us."
1996: Rick McCallum: “We got the last draft about two weeks ago from Jeffrey Boam. We're all reviewing it now. It's going to be a fun movie that will have a whole different take to it."
July 3 1998: Indy IV has been under work for almost 4 months. Spielberg who is writing the script with Lawerence Kasdan is trying to keep the project top secret.
July 4 1998: Spielberg: "The Indiana Jones 4 hat is halfway on my head," Spielberg reveals. "I have the plot worked out."
May 14 1999: Cinescape contributor, Cindy Pearlman, recently spoke with Rick McCallum. "We finished the script about three years ago. Everybody loves it," reveals McCallum. He went on to say that the script they had did not connect well with word from Steven Spielberg saying he had just written a script for the film!
June 7 1999: In an interview with Starlog, reported on by Cinescape Insider, McCallum reveals that Jeffrey Boam is the author of the Indy IV script.
July 14 1999: AICN - London press conference where Rick said the following about Indy IV: "We’ve got a fantastic script, and everyone really wants to do it… Watch the stars, and watch the desert."
August 15 1999: AICN - Spielberg: “We've got about three scripts that we're choosing from at this point." To this, I asked if one was written by Jeffrey Boam, and he smiled, I guess because he could tell I was somewhat of a fan to know who Boam was. Anyway, he said yes one is by him.
August 31 1999: London Sunday Express was interviewing Producer Rick McCallum who said "We actually finished work on the script three years ago.”
October 29 1999: From what one of my sources tells me, Spielberg said Indy-4 would have another biblical theme to it. He then went on to say that the "powers that be" thought a story about the Garden of Eden would be a good plot. So far, a script is in the process of being finished up, but a long treatment does exist. It is about Indy and his quest for the Cherubim's Flaming Sword that protects the garden. Indy would be killed in the next film trying to save the world because it will be the last Indy film ever. They want him to go out with a bang.
I have learned to take with a grain of salt McCallum's insistence that everyone loved the script.
 

Moedred

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Staff member
A helpful guide, cribbed by Steven Awalt from the Complete Making Of book.

George Lucas "draft" (outline?)
Story conferences, September 20-24, 1993

Jeb Stuart
Lucas/Stuart story conferences, October 8, 1993
First Draft, "Saucer Men from Mars," May 24, 1994
Script discussions, August, September, 1994
Revised Draft, February 20, 1995

Jeffrey Boam
First Draft (early-mid 1995?)
Second Draft (early-mid 1995?)
Third Draft, December 18, 1995 ("retyped" March 1996. Revisions?)

Story conferences, Lucas and Spielberg only, December 2001/June 2002 (two sessions)

Frank Darabont
Story conferences, July 2002 (multiple sessions)
Lucas outline for Darabont, July 31
First draft, "City of Gods," May 27, 2003
Second draft, (mid-2003)
Third draft, November 4, 2003
Lucas revision of Darabont drafts, early 2004, retitled "Phantom City of the Gods."

Jeff Nathanson
August 2005, May 2005 story conferences
First Nathanson draft (revision of Lucas' revision of Darabont), retitled "Atomic Ants," Lucas revises Nathanson
Second Draft, November 2005
Third Draft, December 2005

David Koepp
First draft, July 28, 2006, retitled "Destroyer of Worlds."
First draft revisions, October 2006, locked down November/December 2006
Final shooting script, October 2007, "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
 
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Moedred

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Koepp's script mentions "previous drafts by Jeff Nathanson, Frank Darabont, George Lucas, Jeb Stuart." Boam's name is curiously absent, and Lucas the writer? It would clarify his mention of "working on the script with five different writers" resulting in "six scripts written for that film." His would be number three, I'm guessing from about 2002.

But how many scripts written not for that film? The beards still have some idiosyncratic 1998 and 1999 quotes to explain...
 

Moedred

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Staff member
Finally access the wonder that is Nexis! I only wish I had searched the 90's writers individually (Stuart, Boam... Kasdan?) since Boam is the leakiest. Some quote you've seen. Note that from 1990 to 1992, Indy 4 was DOA. Then everyone hated Stuart's script.
1990 July 27 – USA Today
Ford: “I’ve always said that I was too old. But the truth is, I think Steven is too old.”

1992 Feb 18 – Toronto Star
Lucas: “There probably won’t be another Indiana Jones movie. I’ve burned out on writing action-adventure. I can’t get Indy in any more jeopardy and get him out again. …unless I get inspired again, which I doubt is going to happen, we’ve seen the end of the features.”

1992 Feb 28 – USA Today
Lucas: “I couldn’t go back and do another Indiana Jones feature again. I just wouldn’t be interested.”

1993 Aug 15 – Sunday Herald
Ford: “We (Spielberg) have the nub of an idea for another Indiana Jones movie. I don’t want to get ahead of anything. Let’s just see how it works out.”

1993 Sept 29 – Ottawa Citizen
Lucas also told Variety in a recent interview that he plans to produce another Indiana Jones feature.

1994 July 21 – Toronto Sun
Ford: “The last one took five years to get made. We’re going after the Rotarians this time.”

1994 July 29 – Ottawa Citizen
Ford [Entertainment Tonight]: “We’re wrestling with a script right now. Hopefully we’ll get it together soon.”

1994 Aug 15 – The Herald (Glasgow)
Ford: “Yes, there may be another Indiana Jones, but they’ve only been working on the script for a year and a half. The last one took five years.”

1994 Oct 20 – USA Today
Lucas: “They both wanted to do more. But I didn’t want to do them. I’m the one who has to think them up and I was tired of doing those action films. I just burned out on them basically.”

1995 June 13 – Hamilton Spectator Ontario
Speilberg: “If Indiana IV looks like it will just be good – and not great – we don’t want to do it.” They don’t have a script even approaching “good.” “Just might not happen.”

1995 Oct 18 – Variety
Boam: Steve Spielberg wants the pic to shoot here. Only one week will be on location, probably in Honduras. Russia had first been planned.

1996 – Ottawa Citizen
Ford: "There's no script, but we can always get to talk once there's a script. The transom's always open."

1997 March 30 – Sunday Age Melbourne
Ford: I’ve always said to Steven that if another script comes along I’d like to take a look. I still think there are things we could do with that character.”

1998 July 2– Chicago Sun Times
Spielberg: “The Indiana Jones 4 hat is halfway on my head. I have the plot worked out.”

1999 Sept 13 – Edmonton Sun
Kennedy: “ There is no Indiana Jones 4 in the works. We keep reading that there are people committed and there is a script. It simply is not true. We may talk about it, but never gone beyond the discussion stage.”

1999 Sept 19 – Sunday Mercury
Ford: “If I like it I’ll definitely do it. And no, it won’t have to have less action than the others.”

2000 Feb 8 – Bath Chronicle
Patricia McQueeney: “If there was a script they all loved, they would kill themselves to clear their schedules. But they can’t seem to get their heads together on a script they are all enthusiastic about.”

2000 Feb 27 – Sunday Mail
Ford: “We’re waiting for the script everyone is happy with, and George Lucas is elsewhere. Very little progress has been made, but Steven and I are ready.”
 

Adventurer

New member
Haven't written in here since ages, but I thought this might me interesting.

Around and just before the Infernal Machine timeframe, Hal Barwood was on an interview spree about the new IJ game, and some questions arised about Fate of Atlantis and what had changed and all the new 3D, Action and so on. I can't remember how the question was phrased, but i'm pretty sure about the answer:
"Yeah. The storyline of Fate of Atlantis was, at an early timeframe, ought to be the Plot for the next Indiana Jones Movie. I talked to George, and he said that this Plot-idea will never make it to the Screen, so feel free to use it for your game.
*
It stuck in my head since back then. Considering that Hal Barwood and George Lucas were friends or the like since their days at the University of Southern California, I find that quite reasonable.

Not reasonable to me, however, is that the Atlantis idea was rejected. All the time up till KOTCS, then giving up all hope, I thought this would be the natural choice:
1st Movie - Artefact.
2nd Movie - Stone.
3rd Movie - Cup.
4th Movie -A whole City.
Well, the three had another opinion, although I still think that there are numerous elements and ideas in KOTCS from FOA, far too many for just being coincidence.

Come to think of it, FOA was released in 1992. Given two years of development hell for FOA, this would put any "talk to George" speech around 1990, probably just right after Last Crusade was in the can. Interestingly, back then the big three said that there would be never another Indiana Jones movie. By reading probably too much between the lines, one can come to the conclusion that they abadoned the idea onyl because they agreed to not to make another one. By the time they changed their mind in the mid nineties, FOA was released and there was no going back. With a storyline laid out already and no one ever made a film after a computergame, this was a dead end.


*to those of you who never played the game (Spoiler ahead): FOA was basically about the origins of Greek civilization, derived from extremely advanced Atlantean technology, among other things used to enhance the human body to such a degree where humans became Godlike beings. This megalomania, by contrast, became the reason for the Atlantean rise and fall, ultimately leading to the destruction of Atlantis.
 
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Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Rivers said:
I saved all the Indy news articles I came across from my local paper dating back to 1993.
The Calgary Sun Wednesday July 28, 1993
Rivers, could you scan an image of this 20-year-old article?
It's rare evidence of Ford and Spielberg working independently of Lucas...
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
I'm still fascinated by the fact that Lucasfilm operatives basically had to step in when Hal Barwood's early concept for Infernal Machine veered a little bit too close to the Indiana Jones 4 idea that George was working on. The best Barwood quote on this matter is conspicuously absent from this thread, and it comes from a TheRaider.net interview!

Hal Barwood said:
I chafed at the idea of doing another Jones game with Nazis. They seemed stale after much overuse. So I vaulted Jones forward into the cold war and set him against the Russians. Originally I wanted to have Jones go after flying saucers, but word came back to me from on high -- "don't go there." I wonder why not? So I kept the cold war, kept the Russians, but veered the prize away from UFOs toward Babylon and an imagined technological marvel hidden in the biblical Tower of Babel. Oh yeah, and I brought back Sophia as a CIA agent -- perfect!
The fact that the two men came up with the Soviets/aliens angle for Indy independently does kind of give lie to the idea, commonly insisted, that it's somehow an unnatural turn for the franchise or brings it to territory where it does not belong. Once you've made the context the 50s, certain elements (apparently) declare themselves.
 
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