No more Indiana Jones from George Lucas.

Mickiana

Well-known member
Like I've said before, sometimes it's hard to come across as intended. I was being facetious. I don't think there is any conspiracy going on. Next time I will use the sarcasm emoticon to let you know when I'm being... sarcastic. I still hope they are planning an Indy5 though. And thanks for your input with your trickle down theory.
 

No Ticket

New member
I didn't need any confirmation beyond common sense to know that some nobody PR person typing up generic responses on behalf of LucasFilm was full of it. Honestly, the big confirmation of something like that coming from somewhere like that? That person working the PR does not have that information to begin with and is either wording things poorly or making assumptions. The only people who really know the fate of Indiana Jones are Spielberg, Ford and Lucas themselves who would announce it, themselves.
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
I love Indy, but I'm afraid Indiana Jones is simply done. Harrison is too old, unfortunately.

I'm a tad mad at Lucas, as I really feel Indy was a wasted franchise. They could've had dozens of stories and objects to make films on since 1981, and this franchise could've been an archaeology version of James Bond. They wasted alot of years not making Indiana Jones films, IMO. And that includes in between KOTCS and now.

I love all four films, and that's all I need I guess.
 

Olliana

New member
Dr. Jonesy, I'm so with you on this one.
I think the franchise's doom already started with an idea no one except Lucas could really appreciate, causing far too many dismissed scripts, wasting far too many years. Today, Lucas wasted yet another four years. Hasn't he learned anything? :mad:
 

Darth Vile

New member
Dr.Jonesy said:
I love Indy, but I'm afraid Indiana Jones is simply done. Harrison is too old, unfortunately.

I'm a tad mad at Lucas, as I really feel Indy was a wasted franchise. They could've had dozens of stories and objects to make films on since 1981, and this franchise could've been an archaeology version of James Bond. They wasted alot of years not making Indiana Jones films, IMO. And that includes in between KOTCS and now.

I love all four films, and that's all I need I guess.

Lucas could have had a dozen different scripts in the 80's/90's ready to go... but even if he did, at that point both Spielberg and Ford were done with the character too. I'm not sure you can blame Lucas... as it was him who kept the flame/character alive with TYIJC.
 

Djd1

New member
Dr.Jonesy said:
I love Indy, but I'm afraid Indiana Jones is simply done. Harrison is too old, unfortunately.

I'm a tad mad at Lucas, as I really feel Indy was a wasted franchise. They could've had dozens of stories and objects to make films on since 1981, and this franchise could've been an archaeology version of James Bond. They wasted alot of years not making Indiana Jones films, IMO. And that includes in between KOTCS and now.

I love all four films, and that's all I need I guess.
I agree with you there. It has been a wasted franchise. Even Young Indy was something of a waste. As much as admire the thought behind the series, it was something of a marvel that you could create do many dull storylines for one of cinemas most exciting characters. That's just my feeling on the series though and I appreciate that some people love it
 

The Drifter

New member
Dr.Jonesy said:
I love Indy, but I'm afraid Indiana Jones is simply done. Harrison is too old, unfortunately.

I'm a tad mad at Lucas, as I really feel Indy was a wasted franchise. They could've had dozens of stories and objects to make films on since 1981, and this franchise could've been an archaeology version of James Bond. They wasted alot of years not making Indiana Jones films, IMO. And that includes in between KOTCS and now.

I love all four films, and that's all I need I guess.
Maybe they wanted to, you know, work on other projects instead of focusing on Indiana Jones every other year? I know if I created something like Indiana Jones and the fans wanted more, but my heart was in something else at the moment, I wouldn't do another until I was ready.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
The Drifter said:
Maybe they wanted to, you know, work on other projects instead of focusing on Indiana Jones every other year? I know if I created something like Indiana Jones and the fans wanted more, but my heart was in something else at the moment, I wouldn't do another until I was ready.

Very true.

Listening to fans and trying to please them is a futile exercise. Just look at everyone here. We all have different ideas on what works and what doesn't.

A director/creator has to be true to themselves, as much as it pains some of us to see that they aren't always in keeping with our expectations.

Lucas and Spielberg moved on. But I, for one, decided to stay behind!
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
The Drifter said:
Maybe they wanted to, you know, work on other projects instead of focusing on Indiana Jones every other year? I know if I created something like Indiana Jones and the fans wanted more, but my heart was in something else at the moment, I wouldn't do another until I was ready.
Indeed. Doing something to death isn't really fun or interesting for the creative people involved in making it. I'm just really happy we got what we did between 81 and 89. You can't keep playing the same notes forever you know.
 

Forbidden Eye

Well-known member
Darth Vile said:
Lucas could have had a dozen different scripts in the 80's/90's ready to go... but even if he did, at that point both Spielberg and Ford were done with the character too. I'm not sure you can blame Lucas... as it was him who kept the flame/character alive with TYIJC.

From what I understand, Ford was ready to play the character again after he made The Fugitive, so it was Spielberg who was the hold-out, moving on to dozens of other stuff. That's why I think Spielberg should've simply produced Indy 4 and they found a younger more enthusiastic director.

Though of course, no one procrastinates the way Lucas does, so they both deserve blame for limiting the future of this franchise.
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
Djd1 said:
I agree with you there. It has been a wasted franchise. Even Young Indy was something of a waste. As much as admire the thought behind the series, it was something of a marvel that you could create do many dull storylines for one of cinemas most exciting characters. That's just my feeling on the series though and I appreciate that some people love it

I see where you're coming from there.

And as far as the 'Young Indiana Jones Chronicles' go, I enjoyed it for what it was. I don't like to consider it canon exactly, though...I feel it was contrived and silly at times, and I preferred alot about the character of Indiana Jones to be a mystery. I love the first two films in the sense that we hadn't much of an idea who he was or where he came from. Especially in Raiders; he comes across as a flawed anti-hero, that sort of changed after ROTLA. The last two films gave away alot about him, as well as YIJC. It seems to me that we grew to know way too much about Indy, and it made him less interesting to me. And the YIJC went from entertaining to contrived, to downright Forrest Gump-ian style adventures. But I do give Lucas credit for keeping the name in business during this time.
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
The Drifter said:
Maybe they wanted to, you know, work on other projects instead of focusing on Indiana Jones every other year? I know if I created something like Indiana Jones and the fans wanted more, but my heart was in something else at the moment, I wouldn't do another until I was ready.

I'm not saying they should've made an Indy film every year, but maybe two in twenty years isn't asking a whole lot, to be fair.
 

Darth Vile

New member
Forbidden Eye said:
From what I understand, Ford was ready to play the character again after he made The Fugitive, so it was Spielberg who was the hold-out, moving on to dozens of other stuff. That's why I think Spielberg should've simply produced Indy 4 and they found a younger more enthusiastic director.

Yep... but that would have been 4 or 5 years after TLC. In reality 5-8 years if a new Indy movie had gone into production then. I think the Indiana Jones series is a 3 series movie at best. Anything else is a stretch. I personally just don't think the character has enough cinematic legs... although I'd gladly take a few more Indy movies.
 

Randy_Flagg

Well-known member
Dr.Jonesy said:
They could've had dozens of stories and objects to make films on since 1981, and this franchise could've been an archaeology version of James Bond.

One problem is that the formula is very restrictive. Even with just the four films that they DID make, it gets pretty repetitive: Bad guy wants to obtain powerful artifact to take over the world, Indy tries to stop him/her, bad guy gets killed by artifact's power. If they made dozens of stories using that formula, would people really want to watch them? But if they varied the formula, then there would be some people yelling, "That's not Indy!!" Look what happened with KOTCS: People were complaining because they dared to use a non-religious artifact. Some people even said they wished that Lucas had found a way to use Nazis again. (granted, there were plenty of other complaints about KOTCS, I'm just talking about people who hate when something deviates from a formula.)
Even if they just do one more Indy (which seems less and less likely), I wonder if it'll just feel like yet another retread of something that we've watched four times already.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Dr. Gonzo said:
You can't keep playing the same notes forever you know.

Jack and Kyle of Tenacious D, disagree. And Vince Tempara expanded it to 7...just to be a hijacking troll... :p
 

Djd1

New member
Dr.Jonesy said:

I see where you're coming from there.

And as far as the 'Young Indiana Jones Chronicles' go, I enjoyed it for what it was. I don't like to consider it canon exactly, though...I feel it was contrived and silly at times, and I preferred alot about the character of Indiana Jones to be a mystery. I love the first two films in the sense that we hadn't much of an idea who he was or where he came from. Especially in Raiders; he comes across as a flawed anti-hero, that sort of changed after ROTLA. The last two films gave away alot about him, as well as YIJC. It seems to me that we grew to know way too much about Indy, and it made him less interesting to me. And the YIJC went from entertaining to contrived, to downright Forrest Gump-ian style adventures. But I do give Lucas credit for keeping the name in business during this time.
Again I largely agree with you. That said, my biggest gripe with the tv series was that I just didn't 'buy' him as the same character. Not physical appearance obviously (that would be unfair) but young Indy seemed such a light-weight. Now I know in reality many of us in youth are 'light-weight' compared to our later selves, but this is a fictional hero we're talking about! Come on george, we want to see a heroic, confident character like the Indy we love! A high buget version of Relic Hunter would have been the ticket. You could still throw some history at it but the Jones boy should be about adventure for gods sake...
 

Randy_Flagg

Well-known member
Djd1 said:
Again I largely agree with you. That said, my biggest gripe with the tv series was that I just didn't 'buy' him as the same character. Not physical appearance obviously (that would be unfair) but young Indy seemed such a light-weight. Now I know in reality many of us in youth are 'light-weight' compared to our later selves, but this is a fictional hero we're talking about! Come on george, we want to see a heroic, confident character like the Indy we love! A high buget version of Relic Hunter would have been the ticket. You could still throw some history at it but the Jones boy should be about adventure for gods sake...

Totally agree with you. I think they only used the name "Indiana Jones" in that series for marketing purposes. It was clear that Lucas had no interest in making the series about the actual Indiana Jones character, but if he called the series, "Joe Smith Travels the World", people would be less likely to tune in.
On the other hand, I wonder if people would have accepted the series better if it had NOT been called "Indiana Jones." That name brings certain expectations with it, and people will naturally be disappointed when those expectations aren't met. If Lucas just admitted that it was an entirely different character, maybe audiences would have approached it with a more open mind. I don't know. Either way, though, I don't think the series would have found a huge audience.
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
I consider the YIJC canon and like it. And the series does go far with Jones' life as far as his relationship with his father is concerned, where he gained his appreciation for archaeology, where he began to become jaded, where he began his "years of field work" in the science of primitive sexual practices, etc. It's a thoroughly enjoyable series for me and I feel it is Indy. If Indy, one man, can find the Ark of the Convenant, The Holy Grail, the Sankara Stones and Akator, as well as survive all the insane things he survived, he can meet famous people too.
 

Darth Vile

New member
Randy_Flagg said:
Totally agree with you. I think they only used the name "Indiana Jones" in that series for marketing purposes. It was clear that Lucas had no interest in making the series about the actual Indiana Jones character, but if he called the series, "Joe Smith Travels the World", people would be less likely to tune in.

I completely disagree... in that clearly Lucas wanted to further explore the character and situations presented. If Lucas had an intention to base a series around a globe trotting youth set in the 20's/30's... then other than Tin Tin, Indiana Jones is the perfect character (unless you are going to invent someone else to do exactly the same things).

I don't think TYIJC is the best thing that's ever been done... and there were a few duds along the way, but it was a quite innovative program for its day and I really respect that, for the most part, it was an intelligently made/well crafted series. Of course, if made now I'm sure it would be something different as times have changed.
 
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