http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=news&id=7971
Devin asked Frank...
Q: How difficult is it when someone takes a script of yours and then never makes it? I?m thinking of the whole Indiana Jones thing.
Darabont: That was the most frustrating of all, and that was the straw that broke the back of me wanting to continue in that line of work. That was terrifically frustrating. I worked for over a year on that; I worked very close with Steven Spielberg. He was ecstatic with the result and was ready to shoot it two years ago. He was very, very happy with the script and said it was the best draft of anything since Raiders of the Lost Ark. That?s really high praise and gave me a real sense of accomplishment, especially when you love the material you?re working on as much as I love the Indiana Jones films.
And then you have George Lucas read it and say, ?Yeah, I don?t think so, I don?t like it.? And then he resets it to zero when Spielberg is ready to shoot it that coming year, [which] is a real kick to the nuts. You can only waste so much time and so many years of your life on experiences like that, you can only get so emotionally invested and have the rug pulled out from under you before you say enough of that.
Q: Coming from an insider?s perspective on that whole thing, do you think that movie?s ever going to happen?
Darabont: I don?t think so. I don?t think so. But that?s just my opinion, I could be wrong. I just think it?s fantastically bizarre that for a project that people have been trying to crack for ten years and have a writer come in and finally crack it and have a director who happens to be Steven Spielberg, one of the greatest directors of all time, and then say, ?No, I don?t think so?? It?s just bizarre to me. I can?t get into George?s head.
Of course that pisses every rationally thinking person off. Always presuming that Darabont is not just naturally pissed too and going crazy but actually right.
Who knows that. Maybe George actually has a point.
But, as you said it shenshaw, it is just so logic nowadays to talk about George Lucas not having the point, being wrong. And we all experienced some of that quite wrong stuff and were in some cases "tortured by it".
On the other hand he is the goddamn creator of this thing we love.
And why the heck does Steven let George go with his way??? Why don't they just pack out their gun and whip and we'll see who wins? (I'm really going crazy...)
But to answer sheshaws question:
I'd die to read that sucker. In any given case.
If it is any good... and indyIV never gets made...of course I'd feel sad sad sad sad sad sad sad, desperate and just freaking annoyed.
This would be the big tragic ending (one of the biggest tragic situations in cinema history, if you ask me
) of a trilogy that in it's making seemed like a fairy tale because everything just went so good. Every decision always seemed so perfect and all luck (just think of Tom Selleck) seems to have been always on their side.
And then that.
Can't they at least go with the Darabont script if the new one finally won't work out? I just don't want to belive that this is not an option.
But then another question arises:
Devin supposes in his little prefacing article that the Darabont script dealt with UFOs. I dunno how he got to that conclusion, though. Was it after the rejection of the Darabont script that they reestablished that idea of the "connected" "McGuffin"? Meaning that Darabont wrote on UFOs and the new one centers around something completely different...
*sigh*
Moedred: I count on your localizing skills. BTW: Are you working in the intelligence business or what
This is a dream / naive speculation but:
If Darabont would unnoticed (which is impossible) help his screenplay to get read by...us and we liked it (which in it's homogenic manner is impossible too) then our pressure could become damn hard.
But then again....I am all for the seperation of fans and artists...
damn.