Meanwhile, Roger Friedman of Fox News talked with George Lucas last week about the future of the franchise:
Lucas: 'Indy 5' a Possibility
George Lucas tells me it’s more than a strong possibility there will be a fifth "Indiana Jones." He says that he and director Steven Spielberg have left the door open for a sequel to "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
Lucas, looking dandy with slicked-back gray and white hair in a snappy tuxedo, was a guest Thursday night at Paramount/DreamWorks’s party for "Kung Fu Panda" at the 61st Cannes Film Festival...
"I haven’t even told Steven or Harrison this," he said. "But I have an idea to make Shia LaBeouf the lead character next time and have Harrison [Ford] come back [and function] like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it working out.
"And it’s not like Harrison is even old. I mean, he’s 65 and he did everything in this movie. The old chemistry is there, and it’s not like he’s an old man. He’s incredibly agile; he looks even better than he did 20 years ago, if you ask me."
Lucas says he’s not concerned about early mixed buzz on "Crystal Skull."
"This movie is the exact same experience as the other three were. The difference is, the novelty of discovery is gone. I get worried when I hear fans say they’re expecting something different that will change their lives. This is 'Indiana Jones' just as you remember him."
But that’s exactly the gamble Spielberg and Lucas took with reviving their icon. Expectation grows into a frenzy and then no one in that frame of mind can be satisfied...
Oh, yes, and by the way: If "Crystal Skull" breaks records when it opens on May 22, Lucas could wind up having his name on a fourth title in the all-time box office top 10 (it would be Spielberg’s second).
"But these movies — the 'Indiana Jones' ones — were never big hits right away. They were always slow starters that built up to big numbers," Lucas insisted.
I don’t think that will be the case with this one. And the notion that a sequel already is playing around in his head should only fuel the heady numbers about to be posted...
Thus far, reviews for Skull indeed seem mixed--but remember, so were those for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom--and it still made $179,870,271 in the US (just $30 million less than Raiders of the Lost Ark) when it was released in the United States in 1984...
To Friedman's point about expectations...Speaking for myself--The days when movies transform my life...are over and have been for a long time...I just want it to be a good film first...Anything above that is gravy man....
Shia takes over....Hmmm?
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