Should we just give up on Harrison?

IndyBuff

Well-known member
I seem to recall a few of the old Allan Quatermain stories dealing with his age. He was around 55 at the time of King Solomon's Mines so it's not unreasonable to think they could use Ford's age effectively.
 

Grizzlor

Well-known member
LucasFilm are pretty adamant that NO actor will succeed Harrison in the role, so this is it. It's Harry or nothing. And for those who scoff, they also said Carrie will not be CGI in Episode IX, that blu ray's of the OT unedited were not coming, etc...
 

JasonMa

Active member
Lucasfilm also said the whole Expanded Universe was Star Wars canon, until Disney decided otherwise.
 

dr.jones1986

Active member
JasonMa said:
Can you expand on that?

Lucas in regards to Star Wars was always very firm that only the ideas that he was responsible for such as the movies and cartoon shows were canon. I have seen in several interviews where he said that even though the writers, game designers etc were given approval to create these licensed stories they did not necessarily represent his vision. He saw the Expanded Universe as a place to borrow ideas from which he did, such as the Wookiees and Trandoshans living in the same star system and their dislike for each other, the names for the planet Coruscant and Dathomir which was home to force using witches. I know some writers got annoyed with this because the Clone Wars cartoon contradicted earlier books and other material. Since selling to Disney all that material is no longer canon except the films and the Clone Wars show and they now have the Lucasfilm Story Group keeping a very neat direction of the naraitive in the new Star Wars stories in all media forms.

Now I have heard him say this in regards to Star Wars, I am not sure what his feelings are for the Indiana Jones "Expanded Adventures" as keeper of the Indycron (timeline of Indiana Jones stories) Leeland Chee used to call them. I know his old friend Hal Barwood was responsible for several Indiana Jones stories so maybe Lucas had more respect for them belonging in the canon compared to some other Indiana Jones material. I am curious if Disney will eventually wipe the slate clean except for the movies and tv show, like they did with Star Wars and allow the Lucasfilm Story Group to be involved in a new Indiana Jones narrative that will be more neat and organized.
 
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JasonMa

Active member
dr.jones1986 said:
Lucas in regards to Star Wars was always very firm that only the ideas that he was responsible for such as the movies and cartoon shows were canon. I have seen in several interviews where he said that even though the writers, game designers etc were given approval to create these licensed stories they did not necessarily represent his vision. He saw the Expanded Universe as a place to borrow ideas from which he did, such as the Wookiees and Trandoshans living in the same star system and their dislike for each other, the names for the planet Coruscant and Dathomir which was home to force using witches. I know some writers got annoyed with this because the Clone Wars cartoon contradicted earlier books and other material. Since selling to Disney all that material is no longer canon except the films and the Clone Wars show and they now have the Lucasfilm Story Group keeping a very neat direction of the naraitive in the new Star Wars stories in all media forms.
That's similar, but not exactly, how I heard it. Essentially as I understood it everything in the Expanded Universe was canon, but Lucas/Lucasfilm said that none of that would limit whatever stories they would tell so if future movies or TV caused an Expanded Universe story to fall out of canon, so be it.

That's a bit different than what Disney did (IMO) which was to immediately remove everything from canon and restart.

Regardless, the idea that something Lucas said years ago now limits what Disney will or won't do with Indy is ridiculous. Unless that was written into the contract signed when Disney bought Lucasfilm (and I believe we would have heard about it by now if it had been) all bets are off.
 

dr.jones1986

Active member
JasonMa said:
That's similar, but not exactly, how I heard it. Essentially as I understood it everything in the Expanded Universe was canon, but Lucas/Lucasfilm said that none of that would limit whatever stories they would tell so if future movies or TV caused an Expanded Universe story to fall out of canon, so be it.

That's a bit different than what Disney did (IMO) which was to immediately remove everything from canon and restart.

Regardless, the idea that something Lucas said years ago now limits what Disney will or won't do with Indy is ridiculous. Unless that was written into the contract signed when Disney bought Lucasfilm (and I believe we would have heard about it by now if it had been) all bets are off.

I think it is impossible to guess what direction they will go until we see what future Disney has planned for Indy. If they plan on ending it with Indy 5 or passing the torch on to an apprentice type character than they will probably leave the earlier expanded adventures alone. If after Indy 5 they recast and tell stories about Indy's earlier days they may discard the old expanded adventures as they did with Star Wars. I would love to see the Lucasfilm Story Group play a role in the future direction to keep the timeline organized as they are doing with Star Wars. In the past there have been too many examples of Indy going after the same artifact twice, contradicting dates in the timeline between different stories etc. I like that aspect of what they are doing with Star Wars.
 

Face_Melt

Well-known member
dr.jones1986 said:
I think it is impossible to guess what direction they will go until we see what future Disney has planned for Indy. If they plan on ending it with Indy 5 or passing the torch on to an apprentice type character than they will probably leave the earlier expanded adventures alone. If after Indy 5 they recast and tell stories about Indy's earlier days they may discard the old expanded adventures as they did with Star Wars. I would love to see the Lucasfilm Story Group play a role in the future direction to keep the timeline organized as they are doing with Star Wars. In the past there have been too many examples of Indy going after the same artifact twice, contradicting dates in the timeline between different stories etc. I like that aspect of what they are doing with Star Wars.


Exactly. This reminds me of the 3-4 different stories in the Star Wars EU about how the Death Star plans were actually stolen. It was confusing and down right annoying. Thank god everything is much more streamlined now.
 

DoomsdayFAN

Member
I say they should just go balls to the wall and give it as much action as ToD and with Indy as the guy doing all the action. Spielberg is good enough that he can film around Ford's shortcomings. I say just ignore his age and go for it.
 

dr.jones1986

Active member
Face_Palm said:
Exactly. This reminds me of the 3-4 different stories in the Star Wars EU about how the Death Star plans were actually stolen. It was confusing and down right annoying. Thank god everything is much more streamlined now.

I remember all those contradicting accounts of how the Rebel Alliance got their hands on the Death Star plans. I think one of the real positives of the Lucasfilm Story Group is that the fans are spending their time and money on immersing themselves in stories that are all connected without contradictions. To me this shows a respect for the fan base by spending the time and money to do it the right way. I think the Lucasfilm Story Group has been a real positive regardless of how you feel about the new Star Wars movies released by Disney (personally I loved both). Hopefully whatever Lucasfilm has in store for Indy's future, he will receive the same attention to detail.
 

Tibor

Member
The novels that had Han and Leia with three kids (twins and another) were sort of wiped away by the subsequent movie that show only one kid named Ben who goes to the dark side. Some of the rest (Grand Admiral Thrawn and his minions) could maybe be rationalized into the time gap between episodes 6&7 including Luke's Jedi academy.

I have to admit that I thought the Resistance looked awfully wimpy compared to the New Republic of the books."

Anyway, back to Indy 5, they'll film in 2018 so it's a year difference. Yes, we could lose him to a real life mishap, but Harrison looks like he can hold together for 12 months or so and get back in front of the camera. Besides, can't wait to hear him say "Honey, it's the years AND the mileage".
 

dr.jones1986

Active member
Tibor said:
The novels that had Han and Leia with three kids (twins and another) were sort of wiped away by the subsequent movie that show only one kid named Ben who goes to the dark side. Some of the rest (Grand Admiral Thrawn and his minions) could maybe be rationalized into the time gap between episodes 6&7 including Luke's Jedi academy.

I have to admit that I thought the Resistance looked awfully wimpy compared to the New Republic of the books."

Anyway, back to Indy 5, they'll film in 2018 so it's a year difference. Yes, we could lose him to a real life mishap, but Harrison looks like he can hold together for 12 months or so and get back in front of the camera. Besides, can't wait to hear him say "Honey, it's the years AND the mileage".

The resistance is supposed to be small time compared to the New Republic, which was also in TFA. The only glimpse of it was when we see the capital planet Hosnian Prime obliterated by Starkiller base, which also took out the surrounding New Republic fleet.

Anyway as far as the thread is concerned I do not think we should give up on Harrison (clearly Lucasfilm and the creators have not). I think execution of the movie properly can be done with less physically taxing scenes for an older Indy.
 

Face_Melt

Well-known member
I happened to do some research today and hopefully this puts everyone's mind a little more at ease!

Anyway, Harrison's real life father lived until he was 92 - which is a good sign for Harrison.
 

DoomsdayFAN

Member
Face_Palm said:
I happened to do some research today and hopefully this puts everyone's mind a little more at ease!

Anyway, Harrison's real life father lived until he was 92 - which is a good sign for Harrison.

And perhaps his father wasn't in as good of shape as Harrison. The dude is a legit beast and is possibly the most healthy man ever for his age. Exercise 7 days a week and eats clean 100% of the time.

At least that's what I've read.
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
Here's the thing though. I hope Harrison lives a long, healthy life.
But let's talk about Harrison's Indy for a minute.
Does anyone really, really in their hearts want to see an Indiana Jones movie where Harrison Ford's Indy is confined to the role of the Narrator, or confined to short segments with either an assistant or his grandkids where he's basically telling the story the way George Hall did in the Young Indy series? Where his partaking in any action is nil, and he's just an old fogie telling stories of his youth? Is that REALLY the note we want to leave his version of the character on?

I'd rather have no movie, than have Harrison humiliated like that. Do you really want to see Harrison's Indy die of old age on screen? Because let's be honest - we all know Disney will do that.
 

Lambonius

New member
Frankly, Harrison IS an old fogie, and his time as Indy is long past. It has been high time for new blood to take on the character for years.
 

JasonMa

Active member
Raiders112390 said:
Does anyone really, really in their hearts want to see an Indiana Jones movie where Harrison Ford's Indy is confined to the role of the Narrator, or confined to short segments with either an assistant or his grandkids where he's basically telling the story the way George Hall did in the Young Indy series? Where his partaking in any action is nil, and he's just an old fogie telling stories of his youth? Is that REALLY the note we want to leave his version of the character on?
Why can't it be the reverse of the opening of Last Crusade? We see Indy "in media res" in an action scene, conveniently filmed in a way to cover for Harrison's age, then we transition to a flashback that sets up the story. Do that a couple of times during the movie, maybe with a longer Harrison piece that's less action-oriented in the middle. We don't need Harrison Indy sitting in a rocking chair the whole movie but it can be filmed in a way to give us the "illusion" of an active Indy, introduce the new "young Indy", and deal with the fact that Harrison can't realistically carry a whole Indy action film.
 

Tibor

Member
Pretty sure Harrison can do plenty of action scenes better than most of us on this forum... I haven't seen him sitting in rocking chairs and sipping tea in real life; just a tough, fit guy with some mileage, flys planes and copters, survives and heals from injuries most people would do much worse with. Geeze folks, he's doing fine.

I sure as hell wouldn't want to get in a fist fight with him.
 

Face_Melt

Well-known member
Tibor said:
Pretty sure Harrison can do plenty of action scenes better than most of us on this forum... I haven't seen him sitting in rocking chairs and sipping tea in real life; just a tough, fit guy with some mileage, flys planes and copters, survives and heals from injuries most people would do much worse with. Geeze folks, he's doing fine.

I sure as hell wouldn't want to get in a fist fight with him.

Haha exactly! The dude is shredded!
 
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