Indiana Jones 4 isn’t ever going to happen. I’ve been saying that for over 6 months now. Here’s an excerpt of what I wrote back in May:
I don’t buy it anymore. I no longer believe this thing is ever going to happen, and I refuse to invest anymore of my enthusiasm or anticipation in this thing. I may be stupid… but even a stupid person can only conned and teased for so long, and I’ve reached that limit.
So screw you George, screw you Spielberg (although the two of you are still my heroes) and screw you too Ford. I’m not buying it anymore! THERE ISN’T GOING TO BE AN INDIANA JONES 4!
And if it does miraculously get made, I’ll be stunned and shocked… but now I just don’t care anymore. Fudge.
Now, word has come out that everything was indeed in place. That there was a script written by Frank Darabont (who also wrote and directed the AMAZING Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile) that Steven Speilberg and Harrison Ford loved, Spielberg was ready to shoot…. and then… George Lucas stomped it out of existence. Here’s what the good folks over at Movie Hole had to say:
According to Screenwriter Frank Darabont (“The Green Mile”), the fourth film was ready to go two years ago – until Lucas decided he didn’t like his script. Considering Steven Spielberg thought the script was the best Jaunt Indy had had since ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, it sounds like Uncle George needs his head read.
“That was terrifically frustrating”, Darabont said in an exclusive interview with CHUD. “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.”
Lucas then came to Darabont and stuck a stake through his script.
“Lucas read it and said, ‘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.”
Now, before I get too carried away let me remind us all of this. The deal was that ALL THREE OF THEM (Spielberg, Lucas and Ford) had to agree on a script before moving forward. So George was well within his rights to put the brakes on things. He didn’t do anything wrong. Ok, have we got that? Good. On we go.
But GEORGE!!!!! I love ya baby… but WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING!?!?! 2 Years ago you had the chance to get this thing done… and if Steven Spielberg says it’s great… and if Frank Darabont says it’s great… then maybe… just maybe it might be worth doing. Maybe it’s time to get this project moving. Maybe, even if you don’t love it, you just recognize that time is running out and put a little trust in masters such as Spielberg and Darabont and move forward.
But instead, he killed it… he failed to trust his partners, he failed to recognize his window for getting this thing done was closing… and most importantly he failed to understand that our patience was running out. George Lucas (who I still love) has failed us all… something he’s been doing a lot of lately.
