Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
The genesis for Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull is believed to have come in 1992 when Harrison Ford made his appearance in ‘The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones’. Playing a slightly older Indy, it gave Lucas the idea of making a movie about a more middle-aged Indiana in the 1950s. Lucas then turned it into a story treatment, with the idea of making it like a 50s sci-fi b-movie, mimicking how time had moved on from the 1930s adventure serial style of the originals. However, at this point Harrison Ford is said to have been very resistant to the idea of having aliens in an Indy movie.
Even with Ford’s reservations to overcome, getting a new Indiana story and script together proved to be far more difficult than anyone could imagine. Initially Lucas suggested that Indy should be married by the time the movie opens and that his father should again be a major part of the plot. Initially the Russians weren’t the villains, but after Lucas learned about Stalin’s interest and experiments into psychic warfare, he decided they’d make a good addition to the storyline. After Jeb Stuart had completed a few drafts, Lucas hired Last Crusade screenwriter Jeffrey Boam, who wrote three more versions. With Ford and Spielberg still hesitant and the script still having problems, at this point Lucas decided to concentrate on the Star Wars prequels.
The idea wasn’t revived until 2000, when its believed Spielberg approached Lucas after his son had asked him when the next Indiana Jones film was going to be released. With all parties saying they were now interested in revisiting the franchise, yet more versions of the script were commissioned. It was around this time that rumours of a new Indy flick began to surface among movie fans. While little was confirmed at this stage, all sorts of ideas about what the script was going to be about surfaced, with some saying it would follow the plot of the computer game, ‘Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis’. However it’s believed that the story was always going to have sci-fi b-movie influences, with aliens and using the Crystal Skulls that had interested Lucas when he was making ‘Young Indiana Jones’.
Incidentally, while they don’t look like they do in the movie, there really are Crystal Skulls housed at various institutions around the world. According to some these skulls are from pre-Columbian South America, using techniques that would have meant it would take 150-300 years to make each one. However what more interested Lucas was the idea that some people had suggested, which was that even with modern tools, trying to make such a perfect skull out of a single hunk of natural crystal would be impossible 
without breaking it. Some have also attributed psychic powers to the skulls. However, most people who’ve studied them have come to a different conclusion, which is that they’d while very cleverly made, most are actually no older than the Victorian era. Both the British Museum and Smithsonian have crystal skulls in their collections, and both officially catalogue them as being non-South American and far more recent than the Aztec era.
Despite having the skulls as a central idea, it still proved difficult to come up with a script that pleased all those involved. Writers such as M. Night Shyamalan, Stephen Gaghan and Tom Stoppard were approached, with Shawshank filmmaker Frank Darabont spending 18 months between 2002 and 2003 working on a screenplay. The experience left him rather dispirited when he couldn’t come up with a version everyone wanted to make. However it was his idea to bring Marion Ravenwood back, although it’s believed his version would have given her and Jones a teenage daughter, which Spielberg felt was too close to Jurassic Park: The Lost World. After Darabont left, Jeff Nathanson was brought in, only to be replaced in 2005 by David Koepp. After several more drafts of the script were completed, Ford, Lucas and Spielberg were finally 
all happy and shooting began on Jun 18th, 2007. While the production visited America, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Hawaii, this was the first Indy movie not to have its interior scenes shot in the UK.
While few expected Indy IV to flop, some wondered whether audiences would take to an older adventurer, and also whether a younger generation would be as interested. As it turned out, they were very interested. It didn’t hurt either that the movie had an intense $150 million marketing campaign. Even so, the film’s $782 million worldwide take makes it by far the highest grossing of the Indy movies, and it’s currently second only to The Dark Knight as the year’s most successful film. Of course, this has led to rumours of whether there’ll be more Indy films, perhaps with Shia Labeouf’s character taking over the main role. However while we may or may not get more Indy movies, it’s certainly been nice to have him back.
Indy Extras!
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is already shaping up to be the DVD release of the year, with a two-disc package bulging with fascinating extra content. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are no slouches in the special features department, and Crystal Skull demonstrates their commitment to the cause. Disc 1 is spearheaded by ‘The Return Of A Legend’ feature, which charts the evolution of the new film, offering a fond tribute to the whip-cracking hero and his enthusiastic creators. That is followed by a ‘Pre Production’ offering, which follows Steven Spielberg as he creates the movies dazzling animatic sequences, Shia Labeouf’s strenuous swordfight training and even captures the long-awaited reunion between the cast and filmmakers on the soundstage.
The fun doesn’t end there however. Disc 2 contains an expansive production diary featuring contributions from key cast and crewmembers. Subjects that they wax lyrical on include: the commencement of shooting in New Mexico, Indy’s return to school in New Haven, Connecticut, the jungle-based action filmed in Hilo, Hawaii, the mysterious realm of Akator and even the celebratory wrap party. Other featurettes concern ‘Warrior Makeup’, ‘Iconic Props’ and even the ‘Crystal Skulls’ themselves. They are followed up by three enlightening ‘Pre-Visualization Sequences’, which examine the ‘Area 51 Escape’, ‘Jungle Chase’ and ‘Ants Attack’ scenes. Last but not least we have behind-the-scenes photographs, art department galleries and even a gallery devoted to the corpses, skeletons, mummies and aliens – courtesy of the legendary Stan Winston Studio.
If you are looking forward to checking out Indy’s adventures in high definition, then there is plenty of additional Blu-ray content to sink your teeth into. The standard definition feature list is replicated entirely, with many featurettes also benefiting from the hi-def treatment. However, the real gem comes in the form of the Blu-ray exclusive ‘Indiana Jones Timelines’ feature, which allows you to explore the movie through three interactive timelines, all of which include video featurettes, in-depth information and unique imagery. The timelines in question are a ‘Story Timeline’, a ‘Production Timeline’ and a ‘Historical Timeline’ which each explore a different aspect of the Crystal Skull phenomenon. The two-disc DVD special edition is tipped to retail for £24.99, whilst its Blu-ray counterpart will cost you £29.99.
Special Features:
DISC 1:
‘The Return Of A Legend’ Featurette
‘Pre-Production’ Featurette
DISC 2:
‘Production Diary: Making Of The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull’ Six-Part Documentary
‘Warrior Makeup’ Featurette
‘The Crystal Skulls’ Featurette
‘Iconic Props’ Featurette
‘The Effects Of Indy’ Featurette
‘Adventures In Post-Production’ Featurette
‘Closing: Team Indy’ Featurette
Previsualisation Sequences
Galleries
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