Let me say this first. I LOVE Frank Darabont. The man is an incredible filmmaker and story teller. He’s responsible for my #3 all time favorite film (The Shawsank Redemption). But now, I’m sort of questioning his sanity a bit.
Ok, a bit of background here. A while back George Lucas hired Frank Darabont to write the script for the new Indiana Jones 4 flick. Darabont spent a year on it, and apparently he and Steven Spielberg loved it. So they took it to Lucas, and George turned it down flat. At first when I heard that news I thought George was nuts! If Frank Darabont says it’s a good script… then its got to be a good script right?
Well, Joel sent me a link to a follow up story where Darabont is now publicly blasting George Lucas for turing down his script… but the thing is… it actually looks like George made the right decision (GASP!!!!) Slashfilm give us these quotes from Darabont:
“It was a tremendous disappointment and a waste of a year,” Darabont told MTV. “It showed me how badly things can go. I spent a year of very determined effort on something I was very excited about, working very closely with Steven Spielberg and coming up with a result that I and he felt was terrific. He wanted to direct it as his next movie, and then suddenly the whole thing goes down in flames because George Lucas doesn’t like the script.”
“I told him he was crazy. I said, ‘You have a fantastic script. I think you’re insane, George.’ You can say things like that to George, and he doesn’t even blink. He’s one of the most stubborn men I know.”
Ok, now if you’re like me after reading that you’re thinking to yourself “Holy crap, George Lucas really has gone off the deep end!!!”. But wait one second… could it be that George Lucas actually made the RIGHT decision here? Well… decide for yourself after reading what Darabont’s script was about:
Darabont’s screenplay supposedly dealt with Indy investigating UFOs in the ’50s.
Indiana Jones vs ALIENS????? ALIENS!?!?!?! Sorry Frank, I love ya man… but are you crazy? Holy crap… maybe George still knows what he’s doing after all.
