Once upon a time, a little over 4 and ½ years ago I thought I would put to paper my ideas for the next Indiana Jones Adventure. I was between jobs and I had a small window of time to see just how far I could take the story that had been building in my head for some time. I would set out to do the impossible.
And frankly I failed. It wasn?t from the lack of trying. I tried every angle. I pleaded with at least 20 Hollywood agents, with always the same response, ?everyone knows George Lucas comes up with the ideas.? I became a super sleuth of finding phone numbers, email addresses, and locations. I got Karen Allen?s agent to accept the script, I?m sure even before she new Marion Ravenwood was being written into Frank Darabont?s version. I contacted Frank Darbont?s production office to say ?hey, steal my ideas please.? I thought I was a shoe in for an assistant to an assistant job at the Kennedy Marshall Company but the son of Frank?s friend got the job. I later emailed a pdf file of my synopsis to Frank Marshall personally and shortly after received a fully printed version by certified mail from his attorney asking me not to send anymore material. I drove by Spielberg?s home security fortress several times, just hoping to catch him out mowing the lawn, the bold sign on the hedge clearly stated ?Do not throw paper material of any kind over the fence!? I once woke up the late Patricia McQueeney, Harrison Ford?s long time agent and publicist in the middle of the night and she was supremely pissed off, I didn?t know she would pick up the fax line.
At the same time I started a thread on this very same Raven Message Boards. People seemed to be genuinely impressed and I began posting excerpts from my story. Momentum was building, then came the news that Frank Darabont?s script had been rejected and Lucas was looking for a new writer, could this be my big break?
It was at that point The Raven Message Boards crashed and were down for what seemed like months, when it came back I couldn?t find the previous thread anymore, and to my disappointment David Koepp had been hired to resume writing, it was also at that time when my unemployment ran out and I was in need of a new job or two, especially with another baby on the way.
So I?ve sat back and watched and waited these past 4 years, secretly hoping the movie would fail so if for no other reason I could make public my story of what the last Indy film could have been. I also held on to the idea that depending on how the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull played out, maybe my story had a chance as Indy 5!
Well, as I have learned No Way. You see, my Marion Ravenwood had a daughter, a sassy, tough as nails, spitfire. And Sean Connery who will soon be proclaimed dead in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, lived on in my story to fight his way though almost half of the movie, and the McGuffin was not some puny little crystal skull, but it was the whole damn flying saucer that the Russians were trying to grab. Sallah met his maker, Willie Scott got her nightclub trashed in East Berlin, Atlantis was discovered, and throw in Joseph Stalin and Howard Hughes for good measure. I thought the fans would love it.
But wait, maybe there?s hope, instead of Henry Jones Senior and Indy inadvertently driving a trash truck through the middle of a May Day Moscow military parade, it could be Mutt and Indy in there next ?excellent adventure?. hmmm, I?ll have to think about that one.
I guess I?ll wait and see how Kingdom of the Crystal Skull actually plays out.
Following is the long lost forum thread.
http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?t=5632
