Indiana Jones had an easier time tracking down the Holy Grail than filmmakers have had settling on a script for the fedora-wearing adventurer's forever-in-the-works fourth installment.
Still hoping to get the globe-trotting, Nazi-battling archaeologist out of mothballs sometime before the franchise's 62-year-old star, Harrison Ford, is too old to crack his whip, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have tapped a new screenwriter to come up with a story for Indiana Jones 4.
Lucasfilm confirmed the hiring Wednesday of Jeff Nathanson, one of Hollywood's hottest scribes on the basis of his screenplays for the first two Rush Hour flicks and Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal.
Lucas, Spielberg and Ford initiated Indy 4 way back in 1993 with the caveat that they'd only go forward with it if all three unanimously agreed on a story.
After Lucas came up with a premise that the other two signed off on, the trio formally announced the project in January 2002. They turned to Oscar-nominated writer-director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) to handle screenwriting chores.
In October 2003, things were looking promising, and Paramount announced a targeted release of July 4, 2005. However, Darabont's final draft, which he spent 18 month crafting, was vetoed by Lucas in February, and the project was put on hold indefinitely, forcing the studio to scrap a planned summer start date.
Now, it's Nathanson's turn to come up with a script all can agree on. Aside from his hired-gun screenwriting work, Nathanson made his directing debut with September's little-seen Mafia moviemaking comedy The Last Shot, starring Matthew Broderick and Alec Baldwin.
Based on the Indy principals' hectic schedules, Nathanson will be able to take his time.
Spielberg is committed to helming Paramount's big-budget remake of H.G. Wells' alien-invasion classic The War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. That blockbuster is slated to hit theaters next summer. Spielberg has also agreed to direct a feature film about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.
Ford, meanwhile, is set to star in the action thriller The Wrong Element, in which he plays a security executive forced by kidnappers to steal $37 million from a bank in exchange for the safe return of his family. He also recently signed on to the sci-fi drama Godspeed, about a crisis aboard an international space station.
As for Lucas, postponing Indy 4 probably was a good thing, considering its July 2005 release would have been just five weeks after the filmmaker's Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith, due out May 19, and possibly cutting into that film's box office.
(Speaking of Sith, the new trailer is set to premiere online via AOL Movies and Moviefone.com on Nov. 4, one day before it hits theaters.)
Lucas, meanwhile, is also set to be feted with the American Film Institute's 33rd AFI Lifetime Achievement Award at a gala in June.
If all goes according to plan and the script gets a thumbs-up, Indiana Jones 4 will start shooting next year in time for a possible summer 2006 release.
schmiggens said this in post #1 : "Indiana Jones" Unearths New Writer
Lucasfilm confirmed the hiring Wednesday of Jeff Nathanson, one of Hollywood's hottest scribes on the basis of his screenplays for the first two Rush Hour flicks and Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal.
- E!
Whatever. The Terminal tanked. Catch me if you can would have tanked if not for people seeing Decaprio and Spielburg on the bill.
I don't think they should make it, and if they do, get a good writer.
The movie would have to be set in 1964 for it to work. And who wants to see that?
(Raiders of the lost ark 1980, 2005-1980 = 25 years. 1939 plus 25 years = 1964)
Raider was an awesome movie. The second one sucked.
The third one was not as good as Raiders, but it redeemed itself and saved the series.
10-28-2004 04:47 AM
