Fifth 'Indiana Jones' Cast Into Doubt By Producer
by Sean Comer
If the news below elicits a relieved sigh, then you clearly sat through 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" at least long enough to now insist that movie is but a fanboy's awful, awful fever dream.
If you can't possibly understand why what follows could be seen as encouraging news, then it could be safely surmised you didn't see the movie at all.
Producer Frank Marshall has fingers in some tasty, tasty pies lately. He recently confirmed that after years spent in development - and alas, two more years or so ahead - a fourth "Jurassic Park" is coming probably sometime during the summer of 2014, with former two-time franchise director Steven Spielberg consulting and Marshall producing.
But speaking of Spielberg, there's this other cinematic legend he once birthed alongside acclaimed/maligned director-writer-producer George Lucas. Marshall recently told CraveOnline.com that despite claims by star Harrison Ford and Spielberg to the contrary, prospects for a fifth "Indiana Jones" adventure appear momentarily murky.
Once upon a time in 2008, despite critics and notoriously harder-to-please fanboys both savaging the nonsensical "Crystal Skull," the fact that it $786.6 million worldwide made a sequel look perfectly viable. Talk even floated about without anybody ever exactly categorically denying it that future directions included Ford eventually passing the saga's reins to the fourth film's franchise-debuting Shia LaBeouf. The ex-"Transformers" lead played Mutt, Indy's insufferable long-lost son by former flame Marion.
"I think [Lucas is] thinking about ideas but he's certainly not writing one," Marshall said. "We'd love to keep the series going but again, it's got to be a really good story. They're hard to do."
To be even more honest, Marshall apparently looks upon the fourth film as a sunset into which Ford, Lucas, Spielberg and Co. should ride.
"I say, for me, ['Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'] is the last hurrah. I know that yes, we talked about a [fifth film], but there's no idea. There's no MacGuffin," Marshall added.