Something I’ve always loved about Frank Darabont is his willingness to… well… shoot off his mouth. For instance, one of the very best episodes of John Favreau’s old show Dinner For Five features Darabont basically bitching about all the stuff he’s written and not gotten credit for over the years. Well now Darabont has a new movie coming out in The Mist, and that means he’s back out saying whatever the hell he wants again. And he’s not happy.
A few years ago Darabont was hired to write a script for Indiana Jones IV. He did it, handed it in, and Steven Spielberg loved it. Infamously, George Lucas did not, the script was scrapped. Frank’s response at the time was one of vocal irritation and annoyance. He thought he’d done great work, and everyone but Lucas seemed to agree. So they went a different direction. Or at least that’s what Frank Darabont was told.
Now though, Frank suspects they may be using parts of his original Indy 4 script without crediting him. He tells MTV: “I haven’t read the script, [but] at a certain point I will because I’m sure there will be an arbitration over writing credits… I keep hearing from people who are near the production and they keep saying, ‘You know, they’re using more of your ideas here than you may have thought.”
The script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is currently credited to David Koepp, who was brought in to write an entirely new take on Indy 4. It’s unlikely that Koepp would have stolen anything from Darabont, but Lucas or Spielberg, having read both versions, could well have made some changes to Koepp’s script to add some elements from Darabont’s back in. Or, this could all just be one big coincidence. If Frank’s smart, he’ll wait to see if Indy 4 is any good before he tries to take any credit for it. Oh who am I kidding, it’s Indiana Jones. It’s going to be awesome. Go get em Frank!
