When did KOTCS begin shooting?

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
The idea was Lucas'. All the writers were given a story outline that they had to adhere to, which probably included things like aliens, crystal skulls, certain plot points, set pieces, etc.

As for when exactly Lucas came up with the idea of using crystal skulls for the movie, that's probably not possible to know unless you're George Lucas. As said already, he definitely already had an awareness and an interest in crystal skulls long before they ended up being the central object of the movie, but beyond that I don't know.
 

ethanedwards

New member
Thanks - that is a good point.


I just remember all the different drafts and I think I heard that the Skull was what brought it together for all of them.

Got the ball rolling shall we say.

I do believe Lucas always had Aliens on his mind... just not sure when it all came together with the Skull(s)
 

ethanedwards

New member
Anyone else have any info, rumors or guesses as to when the Crystal Skull became the Mcguffen for KOTCS?

And what about this book? Anyone have it and can relate the info that CRACK THAT WHIP talks about?

Crack that whip said:
what looks to me like a good summation of it can be found in the book The Complete Making of Indiana Jones, from pages 230 to 238. You might want to take a look at that.

Thank you, much appreciated. :)
 

James

Well-known member
ethanedwards said:
Anyone else have any info, rumors or guesses as to when the Crystal Skull became the Mcguffen for KOTCS?

Udvarnoky said:
I thought that was the big breakthrough that got Ford and Spielberg behind the project in a way that they hadn't before, because the skull rooted the movie in traditional archeology stuff, rather than being a no-holds-bar alien spaceship movie, which it sounds like Lucas originally wanted.

This is my impression as well.

Lucas has always said he got the idea for Indy 4 while Harrison Ford was filming a cameo for the Young Indy Chronicles in late 1992 (or early 1993?). Ford's segments were set in the year 1950, and he had to film them with the beard he'd grown for The Fugitive. For years, I wondered what Lucas meant by his comments, and it wasn't until the "Complete Making Of" book that he elaborated on them.

It was the sight of this visibly older Indiana Jones that intrigued Lucas. He realized that by moving the character to a 1950's setting, it would open the door to exploring new genre territory. Specifically, the B movies that he and Spielberg had loved just as much as the serials of the 1930s. One of the main films Lucas had hoped to homage was Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers*.

(*This is why the 1995 Saucermen script featured ufos so extensively, and took place almost entirely in the desert. It was the biggest problem Spielberg and Ford had with the script. Spielberg felt he had done too many ufo films, while Ford didn't think giant saucer battles fit what had come before. The release of Independence Day soon afterwards rendered the whole issue moot.)

It was also around this time that Lucas became intrigued by the crystal skull, and was planning to feature it in an upcoming episode. But Ford's cameo was part of season two, while the skull would've been included later in season three. So I don't believe the skull was Lucas' plan all along. The timing is slightly off, and he probably wouldn't have used the Macguffin in the tv series first.

But the real evidence is the Saucermen script itself. Its Macguffin is a generic alien device that essentially serves the same purpose as the skull in KOTCS. Namely, Indy and the Russians are in a race to return it to a certain location by the film's end. If Lucas had been planning to use the skull this early, it would've certainly been included in the script.

It wasn't until the late 1990s/early 2000s that Indy 4 appeared to be moving forward again. This is when Lucas says he went back and reworked an earlier idea, and simply removed the parts that had caused a problem. I interpret this as him going back to the alien B movie idea, and taking the focus off of giant saucer battles.

The crystal skull was obviously used to link the two genres together (sci-fi; ancient civilizations) in a way that everyone could agree upon. Frank Darabont started working on this crystal skull/alien storyline around 2002/2003. His script was later rewritten and transformed into KOTCS.
 
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Udvarnoky

Well-known member
Slightly off-topic, but on the subject of "Why did Lucas reject Darabont's script" these observations make me think that the subdued nature of the 1950s scifi elements in the Darabont draft turned Lucas off. Sure, Darabont had the atomic bomb/Area 51/FBI blacklisting stuff, and the aliens were there as well, but look at how he handles them. It's really not until the very end of his script that it's actually revealed that they're aliens. In fact, Darabont's draft leaves it somewhat up to interpretation. On the whole, he handles the 1950s alien B-movie stuff in a much more subtle way that Lucas probably wanted. Darabont was making in general an old fashioned Indy movie, which Spielberg was gun-ho for, but Lucas wasn't. (Maybe Darabont was a victim of timing; if Lucas hadn't been busy with the Star Wars prequels and had actually involved himself in the process at that time, things would have turned out differently. It sounds like during the 2002-2003 period Darabont was really working exclusively with Spielberg, albeit with Lucas' outline as a guide. It wouldn't surprise me if Lucas felt he was losing ownership of the project's creative direction.)

In fact, Darabont's draft really reads like a 1930s/40s style movie that happens to take place in the 50s. You've got Marion in a nightclub as a kind of femme fatale, the return of Indy's boozing. Hell, a good deal of the beginning of his script has Indy traipsing around New York in a film noir detective kinda vein. I really appreciate how Darabont remembered and acknowledged that Humphrey Bogart quality to Indy that Larry Kasdan (I believe) conceived for that character in Raiders and that hasn't been much referenced in the sequels. Crystal Skull does have a very slight homage to Treasure of the Sierra Madre in the Peru marketplace, but overall that aspect of his character has really become lost. Ah well.

But yeah, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is ultimately a compromise between Lucas and Spielberg's visions. In the finished product the alien stuff isn't nearly as in-your-face as Lucas' original conception, but they're also a lot more prominent than would have been the case if they'd shot the script Spielberg was in love with. I mean, we see a mummified alien corpse in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's first scene. It's definitely not kept a secret.
 
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