The Frank Darabont Script

Darth Vile

New member
Zorg said:
Many problems could've been solved if only they would've removed some characters completely. At least Mac is, in the end, quite useless a character concerning the story. Also, they could've killed Oxley at some point, having him transfer his knowledge of the Skull to Indy and Mutt.

This would've given more time to Indy and Marion, which was desperately needed.

So, instead of Indy, Mutt, Marion, Mac, Oxley and Spalko, there would have been only Indy, Mutt, Marion and Spalko, with a brief appearance by Ox. (Marion is still kidnapped by the Russians, but she would've been on the adventure with Oxley, not just gone after him. The part with Mutt seeking out Indy and going after Marion and Oxley would've been unchanged).

I think Spielberg/Lucas were definitely trying to recapture the ensemble spirit of Last Crusade (I believe they enjoyed working on that one the most).

For the final third of Crusade you have…
• Indy
• Henry Jones Snr.
• Marcus
• Sallah
with baddies…
• Donovan
• Vogel
• Elsa the turncoat

In KOTCS you have…
• Indy
• Mutt
• Marion
• Oxley
with baddies…
• Spalko
• Dovchenko
• Mac the turncoat

As you can see, both movies are pretty identical as far as the amount of protagonists are concerned, screen time (dialogue) and how they associate/interconnect with each other. So I think if you like the muti-character story of Crusade, you’ll probably enjoy that element in KOTCS.

For me, the only character that didn’t work out in KOTCS was Mac… and that is only because there was no payoff for him i.e. he didn’t re-deem himself to Indy (and win the audience back), nor did he do anything villainous enough to make the audience want to see him get his just deserts…
 

The Man

Well-known member
According to Wikipedia, David Keopp planned to write Mutt as a nerd (yay!), but Lucas stamped on the idea (nay!). Heaven forbid they inject a little invention or even originality. George obviously wanted a character pre-formed, ready to take the mantle for subsequent adventures...(n)

No wonder Darabont is pissed. Working for this man must be nothing short of ball-suckage.
 

graz

New member
The Man said:
According to Wikipedia, David Keopp planned to write Mutt as a nerd (yay!), but Lucas stamped on the idea (nay!). Heaven forbid they inject a little invention or even originality. George obviously wanted a character pre-formed, ready to take the mantle for subsequent adventures...(n)

No wonder Darabont is pissed. Working for this man must be nothing short of ball-suckage.


I do think Lucas these days always has MORE than half an eye on the future continuation of a franchise than the particular film he is working on.

I can see your point that Indy having a nerdy son might be an interesting angle, so it could be argued that his desire to create the possiblity of a Mutt driven continuation was to the detriment of KOTCS.

That said, I quite like Mutt, so I dunno really.
 

The Man

Well-known member
Also from Wiki...

Darabont's main contribution was reintroducing Marion Ravenwood as Indiana's love interest, but gave them a 13-year old daughter, which Spielberg decided was too similar to The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

:confused: :confused: :confused:
 

graz

New member
The Man said:
Also from Wiki...

Darabont's main contribution was reintroducing Marion Ravenwood as Indiana's love interest, but gave them a 13-year old daughter, which Spielberg decided was too similar to The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

:confused: :confused: :confused:

I watched Lost World recently (my least favourite JP movie BTW), and I don't get that either. Indy having a daughter would have been another interesting angle I guess. Perhaps Marion should have had Jedi twins! (y)
(...sorry I couldn't resist that!)
 

Benraianajones

New member
I little off topic but, I liked Jurassic Park 1 and 2...I thought the 3rd was the worst. People complain Willie was annoying, at least she had guts in the end, the woman with shortish blonde hair in JP3 just screamed her head off the entire time through the movie.
 

James

Well-known member
The Man said:
According to Wikipedia, David Keopp planned to write Mutt as a nerd (yay!), but Lucas stamped on the idea (nay!). Heaven forbid they inject a little invention or even originality.

How would a nerdy character be anymore original than one who is a greaser? Both are pretty well-worn stereotypes.

Indy doesn't understand his greaser son who quits school, just as Henry Sr. never really understood Henry Jr. To have Indy and Mutt both on the same page from the beginning just isn't the same.
 

The Man

Well-known member
James said:
How would a nerdy character be anymore original than one who is a greaser? Both are pretty well-worn stereotypes.

Indy doesn't understand his greaser son who quits school, just as Henry Sr. never really understood Henry Jr. To have Indy and Mutt both on the same page from the beginning just isn't the same.

The point being that Mutt was shockingly predictable. As soon as LaBeouf was even rumoured for a role, people guessed rightly that he would be the son. Also, it was almost too laughable to predict that he too would be called Henry.

A nerdy, bookish boy would be far better. Think Henry Sr crossed with Marcus, plus a smidgen of Willie thrown in...(y)
 

James

Well-known member
The Man said:
A nerdy, bookish boy would be far better. Think Henry Sr crossed with Marcus, plus a smidgen of Willie thrown in...(y)

The people that didn't like greaser Mutt would've hated a nerdy Mutt as well.
 

SterankoII

New member
A nerdy, bookish boy would be far better. Think Henry Sr crossed with Marcus, plus a smidgen of Willie thrown in...

Oh yeah, that wouldn't have been annoying at all!:rolleyes:

Indy would have gotten along better with a bookish son and it would have been too similar to the relationship in the previous movie. That would have been really a pain in the ass to have a nerdy Mutt. At least in the movie he could take care of himself some of the time.

If they had done the Darabont script there wouldn't have been anybody over the age of fifty in the movie! And Indy would have been the most immature character.
 

Darth Vile

New member
James said:
The people that didn't like greaser Mutt would've hated a nerdy Mutt as well.

I agree... I can see some funny scenarios with a nerdy Mutt, but I don't think it's a better concept per se. They would have felt compelled to do the "zero into hero" routine with a nerd, and that's been been done quite a few times.
 

Crusade>Raiders

New member
Jonesy9906753 said:
pros?
cons?

What you haven't read it? Well IMO:

Pros - Gritter(more blood, gut shots, Indy actually shooting people)
Indy gets to do more instead of sharing the action with Mutt
Doomtown put together a little better(makes it seem like more of a last ditch effort)
Jungle swinging doesn't involving monkeys
Better sense of danger

Cons-FOUR waterfalls
Indy gets eaten by a giant snake
Marion has zero character development from twenty years ago and she comes off as pretty whiny
no good villains
WAAAY too many references to past movies shoehorned in
Indy still does a lot of crazy ****, like jumping from Bi-plane to Bi-plane in an aerial battle
Indy steals a line from Will Smith by shooting the crystal skull in the head and says "WELCOME TO ERF!" (n)

Overall, I think it would have been better, but not by a whole lot really. Also, I miss Mutt :(
 

SterankoII

New member
Pros: Indy acts like he does in the previous three films.

Cons: Indy acts like he does in the previous three films.

Indy seemed more older and wiser in KOTCS which I liked a lot. The way Indy behaves in the climax is he actually seemed to have learned from his experiences in the other movies. Yeah, Indy is more active in the finale of Darabont's script but it's like he didn't learn the lessons regarding the supernatural objects he went after. In KOTCS Indy didn't know what kind of power the alien had but that whatever it was it was too much for any person to handle. The younger Indy of the previous movies would have probably been killed in the KOTCS finale. He would have asked for the infinite knowledge, he would have stayed too long to look at the dimentional portal or he would have stayed too long to gather some of the ancient artifacts and have been sucked in.
 

eshine

Guest
I just re-read this script.

It is definately a fun and interesting read - it's a hoot to imagine it as a film, but I think the problem ultimately is that it's more of the same. This endless references to Raider became rather redundant.

And while there were plenty of silly scenes in Skull, this script contains quite a few eye rollers (monkey poop, anyone?)

Also, I think this film would have worked if the actors were a tad younger. Karen Allen looks fantastic at 56, but I cannot imagine her slinking by in a sultry white dress and hat. Same with Ford - hard to imagine him doing alot of the stuff Darabonts script calls for.

Lastly - I am grateful to Darabont for bringing back Marion - and I love that he gives her plenty to do and lots of screentime, but unfortunatly - she is simply an unlikable character as opposed to the funny, fiesty Marion of Raiders and ultimatley the funny, fiesty "soccer Mom" we get in Skulls.
 
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RaideroftheArk

New member
I just read this script for the first time. I can honestly say that I am thankful for what we got.

Marion would have annoyed me. I'm glad they sort of got on with their relationship in KOTCS and didn't drag it out through a whole movie...we all know that they will always have a thing for each other. I do wish there was dialogue about Willie between them though. That would have been good...

Indy being swollowed by a snake? Yikes...Giant animals and insects would have probably had this movie compared to PJ's King Kong.

Also, did I miss something? Why were Yuri and Indy friends?
 

bloodandmood

New member
After reading it, I know why Darabont's script was rejected.

His formating and voice is just bad. Scripts shouldn't describe shots, camera moves, or cuts. Darabont wrote the script exactly as it would be shot and edited. If my formating was like his, I would never sell a script.

A screenplay should be passive. Darabont wrote this one like he would be directing it. So it's easy for me to see why it was rejected.

The story was good but it's on-par with KOTCS
 

nevsky41

New member
I wonder if all the talk Darabont has done about Spielberg "loving the script" and working with Darabont on it is true.

I've seen someplaces on the web where KOTCS haters lament that this script was rejected, but it seems like they probably have never read it, since most of the stuff haters hate on, are IN the Darabont script!

Also, the Biplane fight... just can't do it. As much as everyone gripes about the "obvious green screen" in the jungle chase in KOTCS, what do they think this would look like? And I'd have a hard time believeing the Raiders era Indy could do that stuff, much less the mileage added, more grizzled Indy of the 50s.

And just a thought, I wonder if all Darabont's talk about how Speilberg lovced the script and worked with him closely on it, and called it, according to IMDB (and yes, I'm away of the amount on bad info on IMDB, don't call me on it, please), "the greatest script he'd seen since Raiders," is all just that, talk. I don't see any quotes from Spielberg backing any of that up. Maybe Spielberg liked it better than any scripts up to that point, but as much as I hate Lucas and his ego these days, I feel he did the right thing and dumped darabont's script. Although, I do feel enough remained in Koepp's that Darabont probably should have gotten co-writing credit, but I am thankful it wasn't used.

I like KOTCS, and am satisfied with it, despite in flaws!
 

agentsands77

New member
nevsky41 said:
I wonder if all the talk Darabont has done about Spielberg "loving the script" and working with Darabont on it is true.
Spielberg has personally commented that he loved Darabont's script, but deferred to Lucas' judgment. I believe that was in the Vanity Fair article. He also made comments around the time of the script's development.
 

Rococo

New member
nevsky41 said:
I've seen someplaces on the web where KOTCS haters lament that this script was rejected, but it seems like they probably have never read it, since most of the stuff haters hate on, are IN the Darabont script!

I like KOTCS, and am satisfied with it, despite in flaws!

Great post- I agree completely. If the roles had been reversed (produced Darabonts script and not Koepp's, I wouldn't be surprised if the same argument wouldn't be occurring, in reverse.
 
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