Way back in May before Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opened, George Lucas started laying the groundwork for a possible spin-off franchise starring Shia LeBeouf’s character, Mutt Williams. However, it seems that maybe Lucas has been listening to the cries of the public as well as the ringing of the box office ticket counter because now he’s saying we might just see more of Indy.
It’s really no big surprise that Lucas would start talking about doing another Indy after seeing this last one ring up over $300M in ticket sales. What is surprising is the backtracking he’s doing. Previously he had said that he already had an idea for Indy 5 and that it centered on Mutt Williams. Now, however, he’s singing a different tune.
“Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones,” Lucas said, dismissively adding about a character he helped create that, “If it was Mutt Williams it would be ‘Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis’ or something.”
Let’s hope Lucas didn’t give himself an idea there with the Elvis thing. Of course, an idea is now what will end up holding up a possible fifth movie in the franchise. Lucas has been pretty adamant that HE’S the one that comes up with the ideas for the Indy movies (I guess Spielberg lacks the talent for good storytelling). And, of course, with any Indiana Jones movie it has to involve Indy going out in search of something.
“We ARE looking for something for him to go after,” Lucas said. “They are very hard to find. It’s like archeology. It takes a huge amount of research to come up with something that will fit.”
Well, I don’t really agree with that. Use your imagination George. There’s a million things Indy could be going after or could be looking for or could stumble upon. Call up a couple of archaeologists or anthropologists and have them give you a few ideas. Heck, make it a contest. Put up a website and offer a few thousand dollars and a guest appearance to anyone who can come up with an idea. Seriously, it’s not that hard.
At any rate, I do think they should stick with Harrison Ford. I wouldn’t mind if Mutt made an appearance in the next film although I don’t think it should revolve around him. If they really wanted to get creative why not make two movies, one Indy and one Mutt, and have the two stories intersect in a scene or two. Those scenes could be in both films. Now that would be interesting and creative!
Don’t expect anything like that to happen, though. Lucas doesn’t like letting go of any control and he’s notoriously picky about his stories and about getting his way. The reason Crystal Skull took 20 years to get made is because Lucas wouldn’t give in to Spielberg and Ford who weren’t perfectly happy with his idea. No, I’d say we have a long wait ahead of us. Let’s just hope Harrison Ford is still acting by then.
I like your idea of two movies. That would be pretty creative. I enjoyed Indy 4 a lot. Better than the 3rd one (IMO) and better than The Mummy 3.
Let's hope Harrison is still alive by the time the next one comes out. They may have no choice but to surround the movie around Mutt if Indy is like 80 years old with a walker. ; )
Indiana Jones: The Search for the Missing Walker
“Use your imagination George…”
Well, if he did that, he's realize he should be using other people to write and direct his movies. I really hate how he's ruined Star Wars and now Indy for me
I LIKED the last Indy. Could have been better, but it was still fun.
It sucked hard…
I didn't have any fun
Suck hard? Have you seen other movies? I can point you in the direction of some movies that suck hard. I promise you, Indy did not.
That's it, I'm writing an article!
LOL point!!!
It sucked hard for what I was hoping for
Okay, fine…it was okay…it just seemed hooky and a joke the entire time.
The other movies, while fun, had a bit of seriousness to them. This was like
George and Steven, along with Harrison, just wrote the script on a weekend
sitting around the front porch drinking beer.
And besides, if you think Angelina Jolie is a bad actress and you haven't
seen A Mighty Heart, than you have no room to give me crap about THIS
At least I've seen Indy
Now I never said Angelina Jolie is a BAD actress, I just said I don't think she's as good as some people say she is.
And I'm pretty sure that your description of the writing of Indy 4 is pretty much spot on.
“Hey, wouldn't it be cool if he, like, swung through the trees on the vines?” asks a drunken George.
“What the hell. It's our movie. Make it so!” replies Steven.
You give them too much credit. I predict an Ally McBeal appearance and they adventure in Antartica or some crap and do lots of sledding tricks
“Make it so”
You said about Jolie “she's not very good”…that's very different than
“she's not AS good as some people think”…
Well, I stand correct then.
Still, I haven't seen her in A Mighty Heart, but I don't think she's been that great in all the other movies she's been in. She's okay. I don't think she's bad.
Or do you mean correctED?
Yeah, we haven't seen any movies like that. It is very interesting to see two movies who share a couple of scenes and each affects each other. Surely that will amass millions of dollars.
And the suggestion contest, that is an awesome idea. Get the people involved, change the movie industry.
PS
confusing: “Shia LeBeouf character of Mutt Williams”
you meant, “Mutt Williams character of Shia LeBeouf” ??
Freudian slip?
I actually meant “Shia LeBeouf’s character, Mutt Williams.” So I changed it.
Cool. ^_^
Got confused there :p I'm bad remembering real-names of actors, I always remember them by their characters :p hehe (I have to search which is his real name before I replied)
How about this. “Indiana Jones and the Search for a Good Script.”
I liked Mutt, I wouldn't mind a spin off movie, but I still think Indi has to be in it to some extent. If Lucas wants to make another Indi movie I am there!