Five(!) Indiana Jones movies originally planned?

Michael24

New member
I was just looking through the IMDb Trivia (I know, I know) for KOTCS and noticed this:

To reprise his role as the legendary explorer Indiana Jones, the 64-year-old Harrison Ford spent three hours a day at the gym, and subsisted on a high-protein diet of fish and vegetables, thus building his body into a condition where he could perform his own stunts (he always kept himself fit anyway, as he hoped to complete all the five Indiana Jones films that were originally planned in the 1980s).

In 2000, Steven Spielberg's personal interest for another Indy film was ignited when his son asked when the remaining two Indy films would be released.

If this has been discussed before (and elsewhere) forgive me. Typical IMDb BS or long-running rumor from a possible "aside comment" someone on the production made years ago?
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Actually, it's true. For the contract to greenlight Raiders, the contract asked for five Indy movies, Raiders and four others under Paramount Pictures. However contracts can be revised and void, so who knows whether this still applies. In an interesting twist however if you count YIJC as a sequel (or prequel) and KOTCS you have four sequels to Raiders. ;)

I don't know about the Spielberg and his son bit though. I can't confirm that.
 

James

Well-known member
I remember an interview with Ford (circa Raiders), where he was told that Lucas' original plan was to make five movies. Ford joked about it and said something like, "Let's just worry about this one for now."

But this is an old idea that has actually popped up a few times in recent years. Back around 2000, sites like Comingsoon.net were reporting that Spielberg and Lucas were thinking of making a 4th and 5th entry.

And in 2006, a poster over at Indyfan mentioned that he'd been approached about the fedoras for the new film. He said they were scouting in South America, and that an entire second trilogy was under consideration.
 
I remember when George said in Rolling Stone that Star Wars was a 12 part saga. Then the next movie came out and he said it was only 9, then the Prequels came out and he said it was only 6.
 

Lord_glavin

Active member
Agent Spalko said:
I remember when George said in Rolling Stone that Star Wars was a 12 part saga. Then the next movie came out and he said it was only 9, then the Prequels came out and he said it was only 6.

...but then there might be 3 new clone wars movies and with the live action series, who knows

and then again in 20 years, prolly another 3 star wars movies
 

Crack that whip

New member
IIRC there was an interview with George Lucas on NPR back in the mid-'90s in which he talked about Young Indy and its cancellation, and his plans for the character, and he said something to the effect of having wanted to do 70 or 80 episodes, enough to flesh out everything Indy was doing over a certain period, and that he hadn't quite been able to do it with the ABC run but he had plans for a number of movies, including another feature film with Harrison Ford and about four made-for-TV Young Indy movies, and that when all the Young Indy material was completed it would hopefully dovetail with the Ford movies to produce pretty much a complete filmic biography of the character and everything he was doing, from 190x (I believe he actually gave not just a specific year but a specific month, but I no longer recall) to October of 1954. Interestingly, making allowances for the setbacks and whatnot that kept the fourth feature from getting made a lot earlier, the limitations on what he was able to contrive with the Young Indy 'movies,' etc., he seems to have very nearly done just that.

I should note I am very fuzzy on details - aside from it having been years, I didn't actually hear the interview first hand, but instead was told about it a day or two later by someone else, so take it with huge chunks of salt. That said, I really need to check out NPR and see how many of their old interviews are available in some form or other, and see if I can find one with George from around then...
 
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