Almost two decades after the Last Crusade, Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. is back in action.
By Juliann Guiffre, Features Co-Editor
It’s been more than 18 years since Harrison Ford has held a bullwhip in his hand.18 years since George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have teamed up to create a boulder rolling, snake fearing, ark searching, Holy Grail finding, Nazi fighting, cult battling adventure.
Indiana Jones is back.
After a decade of struggle, Lucas and Spielberg have finally gotten the fourth installment of their epic series, called Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, off the ground, which hits theatres May 22.
The movie was rumored to be named several different things over the past year, until co-star Shia Labeouf revealed the title in an interview on MTV.
Yes, Ford is getting up there. He’s now 65, so why did he decide to throw himself into the role once more?
In a recent Vanity Fair interview, Ford explained that Lucas would send him script after script, which he’d usually rebel against, until one came along that he thought sounded smart and that carried on the other stories without trying too hard to make reference to them. And of course?after that first step into the old clothes, everything fell into place.
“There’s something about the character that I guess is a good fit for me, because the minute I put the costume on, I recognize the tone that we need, and I feel confident and clear about the character,” said Ford.
Lucas and Spielberg are pretty hush-hush on the details of the script; however, he does promise that this fourth installment will move away from Jones’ usual inclination towards archeology and have more of a (Spoiler Alert!) science fiction focus.
Joining in on the fun is rising star Labeouf, who is rumored to be playing Mutt Williams, the love child of Jones and Marion Ravenwood, Karen Allen, who will be reprising her role from the first film.
“Since knowing about me being in this, all I do is watch Indiana Jones; that’s all I do with my time, just sit around and watch the mov?ies back to back to back,” he said in a recent interview.
In a statement released by Paramount/Lucas Films, Labeouf said he couldn’t be more thrilled, and that “to be cast in an Indiana Jones film is like grabbing the brass ring and holding on for the ride.”
Another newcomer to the Indy scene is Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, who will play Agent Irina Spalko, the mega-villain in a sea of Russian Cold Warriors pit against Jones. She calls this film (to MTV) “a big bar of chocolate, you want to eat the whole thing.”
Both Spielberg and Lucas admit that they expect some fans and critics to not like the new movies. Yet Spielberg said, “the best news is that, when I saw the movie myself the first time, there was nothing I wanted to go back and shoot, nothing I wanted to re-shoot, and nothing I wanted to add.”
With several Oscar winners and box-office hits under both their belts (between them, they have made 13 of the 100 top-grossing movies of all time), it’ll be interesting to see what this dream team has cooked up for the rugged archeolo?gist and his classic franchise.
Spielberg seemed hopeful, as he looked out onto the cast and crew on their New Mexico location shoot and said, “No one’s changed, we all look the same. I just want to say: Break a leg, have a good shoot, do your best work, and here’s looking at you, kids.”