The last week or so has been littered with Indiana Jones 4 news. Rumors have been bandied about on things like the name of the movie and the appearance (or lack thereof) of favorite characters. This is a project that will continue to generate interest up until release and that was once again demonstrated by an MTV News interview with Frank Darabont. The Shawshank Redemption writer/director wrote a screenplay for Indy 4 that was rejected by producer/assclown George Lucas. Darabont, who claims Spielberg loved his script, is a little bitter, to say the least.
Referring to Indy 4 as topping the list of his bad writing experiences, Darabont said, “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. If there is one thing that Lucas knows, it’s good scripts (see: Menace, The Phantom or Clones, Attack of), so I’m sure he was correct. But Darabont sanguinely questioned Lucas’ sanity. “I told him he was crazy.” Darabont recalled, “I said, "You have a fantastic script. I think you're insane, George." Surprisingly, this approach didn’t work.
/Film says that Darabont’s script may have had Indiana investigating UFO’s and included appearances from Kate Capshaw (booooo) and Karen Allen (yeaaaaaaa.) But the site also says the actual contents of the script are in dispute. Darabont says he has no idea if anything he wrote will remain in the new “Indy has a son” movie that will eventually get made. I don’t think Lucas has a good recent (by recent, I mean the last 30 years) record as a writer or director but Darabont hasn’t been able to break out of being a very good adapter of Stephen King’s work into a general movie writer, either. Also, Lucas may have saved us from the return of Kate Capshaw, which is never a bad thing. The Internet tide seems to be on Darabont’s side, but this might be a case where I remain neutral on who is right and who is stupid. I’m Switzerland here.
