Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Indiana Jones and the Big Gun

Paramount and Lucasfilm have provided us with a brand new, exclusive image from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which you can see below and which is printed in full in the new issue of Empire, on sale Friday, along with another new still of Cate Blanchett in action as Agent Spalko. We also spoke with producer Frank Marshall about the fourth film in the Indy franchise.

"This picture is locked," Marshall told us of the current progress. "Steven's pretty much done editing. And we're going into the phase with John Williams where he starts scoring the movie. He's really writing now and then we'll start scoring in February".

When asked where this movie sits tonally with the rest of the series, Marshall said: "I would say it's closest to the third one (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). It's all adults. I mean, you have the sidekick in Shia (LaBeouf), but you don't have a Short Round and I think the banter between the characters is as fun as it was in the third movie".

A new Last Crusade would be just dandy by us. When not discussing the finer nuances of Fassbinder or trying on Vulcan ears, we in the Empire office like to argue over which is the best Indy movie. There's currently a heated battle between the Raiders and Crusade teams.

One last piece of info: there will be an Indiana Jones Mr Potato Head. Greatest toy ever? Yes, readers, it just might be.
Update: Thanks to forum user morg1138 for poiting out that you can see the little spud here.

7 comments:

Octopunk said...

Jeez, where to start?

-- No, Mr. Potato Head is NOT the greatest toy ever.

-- There's a dispute about whether Raiders was better than Last Crusade? Wha?

-- I'm surprised the producer compared Crystal Skull to Last Crusade and not Raiders. Doesn't that make more sense marketing-wise, since Raiders was better? That movie also lacked a child sidekick, I recall.

Jordan said...

I'm a big fan of Last Crusade. It's decidedly different from Raiders in a way I really like.

Octopunk said...

Oh, it's got some game, to be sure, and it's way better than Temple of Doom. I just think Raiders has always been the hands-down winner. It's more serious.

Not serious, but more serious. Just funny enough, like the right Star Wars movies.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

I love'em all, Temple included. I have no problem with Short Round whatsoever. (His scared expressions amuse me.)

Jordan said...

From a pure technical/filmmaking perspective, Last Crusade is hands-down the best.

Spielberg's coming off Empire of the Sun (and Ford's coming off Working Girl, for what it's worth). The visuals in Last Crusade are stunning, incredible (Utah, Venice, Morocco) and the sequences are put together like swiss watches. They were consciously trying to "undo the damage" of Temple of Doom and "get it right." Even John Williams did some unexpectedly inspired work (on everything that isn't the Indy Theme). And you get Sullah and Marcus Brody too! Can't beat it.

Don't get me wrong: I prefer Raiders. (I have to; that's just the way it works. I prefer Star Wars to Empire; The Godfather to The Godfather Part II (against the grain on both counts). It's really hard to invent something from scratch. That's always the game point.

Octopunk said...

Hmm. I'm not sure I agree with your limited Best award for Crusade, but I'd have to rewatch both to be sure and I don't wanna. Right now.

I was going to snarkily point out that Raiders had no damage to undo, but upon reading that last part of your comment it seems that saying that would be needless and petty. So... good thing I didn't say it.

I really came back to say that the picture of Indy with that rocket launcher is pretty damn funny. But looking at it just now I was once again struck by the following: HE'S OLD!! I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a downer, and I'm way looking forward to this flick... but look at him! Just look at that face beneath that hat and tell me it doesn't seem more natural that he'd be trying to find his slippers instead of firing an RPG out the window.

Plus, it looks like Karen Allen must've had some work done since we last saw her. Shia Labeouf must feel like he's on a drive with his grandparents.

(Seriously, I'm the last person to gripe about such things (JPX! cough!), I don't care how old or fat or altered you are... but I think it's going to be hard to ignore this time.)

Jordan said...

Yeah, he's old.
Ford made some remarks about how he's not too old because he "can still do it" (e.g. perform the role, handle the stunts, etc.) I don't think he understands. The issue isn't whether Harrison Ford is too old to adequately perform the actions necessary to shoot this movie. The issue is whether Indiana Jones is too old to actually do all the stuff Indy does. I realize that Indy's probably not as old as Ford (if he was, the movie would have to be set in the late 1960s) but still.

Nevertheless I have to hand it to them to go ahead and do it. Same with Stallone, both times. We all want to see these guys succeed.

Malevolent

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