Sunday, June 17, 2007

Good Luck, Indy.



Tomorrow marks the first official day of filming, although reports have indicated that they’ve already started. In any case…

Good luck, Indy.

Above is a video of the New Haven casting call, which was fun. You can read accounts of it here.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me links over the last few months. Spoilers don’t bother me, so please keep them coming. (And if you could find a way to send me Darabont’s script, I’d greatly appreciate it.) I’ve avoided blogging about Indy IV news because the point of the blog has always been to talk about the craft of screenwriting. Besides, you can get all the Indy IV news
here, and these guys are pretty thorough.

And yet, my most popular article is the
Indy 4 post. That little gem gets about 30-50 hits a day. (I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever write a post more popular than that one.) In the comments section of that article, I had a discussion recently with an anonymous person about Drew Babcock, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Drew Babcock never existed and he never interviewed Spielberg and all those rumors about the storyline involving the “Garden of Eden” was absolute bunk.

With respect to my
City of Gods post, there is an idea that I seem to have missed. There have been rumors about a storyline involving the Crystal Skull (yawn), which pulls its ideas from Chariots of the Gods? book written in 1968 by Erich von Däniken. He theorized that technology and religion were given to ancient civilizations by aliens, whom the people worshipped as Gods. That might explain why Lucas was quoted as saying, 'We’ll have to go back to that original MacGuffin and take out the offending parts and still use that area of the supernatural to deal with it.'”

A lot has been said lately about aliens and how the opening scene involves Area 51, and how bits of various drafts will be used in the new film, including Darabont’s draft. I’ve come to the conclusion that David Koepp slapped together a script that uses what he thought was the best of all the previous drafts. And he did this rather seamlessly because most of the drafts basically had to do aliens just as we saw in
Jeb Stuart’s script. But the idea involving aliens didn’t start with Stuart. It started with Jeffrey Boam way back in 1995. You may recall how Empire reported that Boam’s story concerned “an attempt to foil a Soviet plot to establish a missile base on the moon, or had something to do with the UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico, or both.” I think the idea involving aliens came directly from Lucas, which Spielberg and Ford didn’t want to do, but Lucas stubbornly held firm to this concept FOR YEARS until Spielberg and Ford eventually agreed.

Yeah, good luck, Indy.

9 comments:

Laura Deerfield said...

Oh, if that's true, then it does not bode well. It sounds all too plausible.

Mystery Man said...

Hey, Laura! I haven't worn you out yet? There are people who come and go and some try to read every post and they last for a time but eventually, I wear them out. Hehehe...

Aliens just isn't the right fit. I certainly would've never gone for an idea like that. I loved the wedding in Jeb Stuart's script, which I would've happily used and taken credit for every word. Hehehe...

But all that aliens stuff in his script was just silly.

I finally decided what artifact I would've gone for had I been given a chance to write this script. I'll blog about that eventually.

-MM

Mickey Lee said...

Is it just me, or is Shia LeBeouf the Jude Law of 2007?

Mystery Man said...

It's okay to admit you think he's hot. Hehehe...

Mickey Lee said...

Haha, no I just meant that he seems to be in every damn movie that's come out this year.

Mystery Man said...

Well, two and some voice work in Surf's Up. That's just about right at this stage. I wouldn't let him do anything else unless it'll get released after Indy IV. He's got a good streak going.

I am curious to see how well Transformers turns out.

-MM

Nicklaus Louis said...

I hope to high heaven they get it right. I've waffled back and forthe between wanting and not wanting this film to happen.

I can't think of a more perfect ending for Indy than that shot of him, his father, Sallah, and Brody riding off into the sunset at the end of "The Last Crusade." But I would be lying if I haven't dreamed of seeing the man in the hat in action again.

Good luck Steven, George, Harrison, and (shiver) Shia.

Laura Deerfield said...

Well, as long as I'm unemployed, I'm at home most of the time, and I am a total internet/blog addict... once I start working, I may not be able to drop in as often...

Unknown said...

Wouldn't it be cool if the alien they found was Yoda??? That would tie the whole starwars/Indy jones thing up in a neat little bow.