In the Carleton Hotel at Cannes, a small group of journalists have navigated the maze-like hallways, made it through a series of security checkpoints and eventually brought to a suite to sit in rows and hear Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf and George Lucas talk about the making of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Despite the bizarre timing of the interviews -- Paramount scheduled the press day before the press screening of the film -- rendering the experience slghtly awkward, LaBeouf, Blanchett and Lucas were relaxed and charming as they took hypothetical questions, general inquiries and wild guesses about the film. Cinematical was there to hear George Lucas talk about the politics of Indy, LaBeouf explain why his switchblade skills needed work and Blanchett talk about being directed by her children, and much more; Cinematical's questions are indicated.
George, was it really important to have the space alien element to the story? The legend about this movie is that it was held up because you wanted to have the Area 51 segment in there. Is that true, and why is it so important to have the aliens in there?
George Lucas: Well, these movies don't work without an object that they're going after that is supernatural and that is a real object that people believe in – whether it's actually true or not true – whether it's the Ark of the Covenant, whether it's the Holy Grail, these are things that are mythological artifacts that have real mythology. It's not made-up Hollywood, by me or by anyone else, it's the real deal. So I had to have something that would be the real deal. When we finished the third film, we didn't know if we were gonna make (a next) movie. ...
27 years after Raiders of the Lost Ark burst onto movie screens, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull brings Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones and Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood back to the big screen: Reunited, as the song says, and it feels so good. What felt less good was the timing of the press interviews for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; Paramount scheduled their Cannes publicity interviews the day before the press screening of the film. (Call me a traditionalist, but normally I like to see the actual movie before talking to the actors in it; I'm just funny that way.) Still, Ford and Allen were funny and disarming -- they seemed a little amused by the hypothetical questions and broad general inquiries the chain of events required -- and Cinematical was there to learn about Harrison Ford's take on the best part sof playing Indy, Karen Allen's musings on Marion Ravenwood's sex life and much more; Cinematical's questions are indicated.
I'm just wondering how your own excitement level is, returning to the Indiana Jones character?
Harrison Ford: Well, I'm very excited to bring another one of these spectacular adventures to the screen, and to work with Steven and George again. For the last twenty years or so, these films have continued to appeal to an audience, and young kids, as it becomes age-appropriate, have been introduced to the films on DVD by their parents, and to have the opportunity for them to see it full-scale in a movie theatre, with a big screen and big sound, in the dark with a bunch of strangers, and have this common visceral experience is a brilliant opportunity, so I'm delighted to be a part of it again.
If there is one thing I want to learn from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- one damn thing -- it's why the hell Dr. Henry Jones Jr. didn't end up married to Marion Ravenwood. Was she just too much for him? Or did she dump him, fed up with a man who was not only a scattered academic, but a fly-by-night adventurer? Really, that has to be a tough combo when you just want him to take you out to dinner.
With Kingdom of the Crystal Skull not only bringing back Ms. Ravenwood, but introducing the domineering Irina Spalko, I think it's high time we discussed Indy's women. Where would Dr. Jones be without the ladies? Without Marion, he probably would have been in an early grave, without Willie Scott and Elsa Schneider, he may have been spared a few extra scars.
I don't really need to sing the praises of Ms. Ravenwood here. We already know how she was the coolest sidekick of all, the sort of kickass chick who was not only unusual in 1981, but still pretty rare today. She rivals Princess Leia as one of George Lucas' finest characters. (It's rather sobering that the man who gave us Leia, Marion and Sorsha could only conjure up the broken-hearted Amidala years later. Seriously, Lucas, you burned your geek girl cred on that one.) I give Lucas the credit because my gut says it is owed him. When it comes to his action-adventure movies, Spielberg never quite spent the kind of time on his heroines like Lucas did. But he gets major props for the way his moms shine -- Spielberg knows that when you have kids, you don't immediately become a screeching moron -- even if your kids do surprise you with an extra-terrestrial.
Universal Studios? Yawn. Disneyland? Been there. What the theme park industry needs is some fresh ideas and new blood! And what a better source for rejuvenation than the oldest movie studio in Hollywood?
Variety and the Associated Press report that Paramount Pictures will spend $1.4 billion on a theme park in Seoul, South Korea, scheduled to open in 2011. It'll be the first Hollywood-produced theme park in that country (Universal and MGM have announced plans, too), and Paramount's first theme park anywhere**. About 30 attractions are planned, based primarily on Paramount products such as Mission: Impossible and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. (Not Indiana Jones, though -- Disney already snatched that one up.)
Sounds OK, but why Korea? As in all matters of real estate, it's location, location, location. South Korea is situated right between Japan (whose citizens often have lots of tourism dollars to spend) and China (whose citizens are numerous). Southern California might seem like a more obvious choice, but have you been to L.A. lately? There's not a piece of undeveloped land there big enough for a Starbucks anymore, let alone an amusement park.
Defamer has a snarky post suggesting rides for the new park, including "The Sonny Corleone Tollbooth Adventure" and "There Will Be Fun! Daniel Plainview Musical Revue." I'd contribute some of my own, but the last thing I would ever want to do is make fun of Paramount. I won't stop you, though.
**Actually, as some commenters have pointed out, this isn't entirely true. Paramount bought several already-operating theme parks in the early '90s and installed a few movie-related attractions in them before finally selling the entire chain in 2006. The South Korea project will be Paramount's first entirely movie-related theme park, and the first one to be built specifically for Paramount rather than acquired later.
Something in the water over in France has got Jack Black loose-lipped. First he lets it out that Angelina is indeed having twins. Now, according to film-industry.biz, he's claiming there's a sequel to School of Rockin the works. There's even a script already written, and Black is anxious to return to the role of music teacher Dewey Finn. But it's not a done deal just yet. As he explained from the Cannes Film Festival: "In a few weeks we have to decide if we go through with the project or not."
I may be one of the few people who didn't love the original School of Rock, but then, I'm one of those curmudgeonly fellows who can't stand Jack Black in anything. Of course, after watching his Eddie Murphy parody in the awesome new R-rated trailer for Tropic Thunder, I'm starting to think he could do some right in the film world. Or, maybe he has that one really funny moment and a whole lot of obnoxious moments, as usual.
Everyone's favorite whip-cracking archaeologist is back, and I found myself trying to keep a very even keel as the lights went down for Indiana Jones' latest series of exploits: On one hand I didn't want to be "too nice" to the movie (nostalgia power does strange things to people), but I was more than willing to fall in love with the flick, too. Sometimes it's tough be a hardcore fan and an objective analyst at the same time. Fortunately, all that preparation was a waste of time, because while it's hardly the best of the series (not that we were expecting it to be), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull delivers an irresistible infusion of matinee-style mayhem that, really, we don't get enough of these days. If the movie suffers from a few slow spots, some action bits that really strain credibility, and a semi-clunky plot that simply goes from A to B to C, those gripes can be forgiven in the face of a total package that's this exciting, amusing, and just plain old welcome.
For those who choose to remain spoiler-free, I'll keep the synopsis sketchy: Basically, it's 1957 and good ol' Indiana Jones has fallen on rough times. He's been exploited by the KGB, berated by the U.S. government, fired from his university job, and left with little recourse but to head into the wild and get lost. But just as Dr. Jones is about to vanish, up pops a teenager who needs his help: An old ally of Jones' has been abducted while searching for a secret Incan temple -- and this assignment is all our hero needs to feel a bit better. There's a LOT more to the plot, but it's more fun to discover the secrets along with the characters. Suffice to say that most of Crystal Skull consists of Jones and his new sidekick Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) getting into all sorts of crazy scrapes with a tacky treasure hunter (Ray Winstone), a raving lunatic (John Hurt), a psychic villain (Cate Blanchett), and old girlfriend Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). Oh, and a giant crystal skull that just about everyone wants for themselves.
Inevitably, Indiana Jones evokes nostalgia. Steven Spielberg wanted to make a globe-trotting adventure, James Bond style, inspired by the black and white Republic serials of the 1930s. His friend George Lucas had just the hero for him, a rough hewn but debonair explorer who would certainly be at home in those cliffhanging pictures. What makes the first and third films in the Indiana Jones trilogy work is their affectionate regard of the past, combined with a modern, emotional undertow and jet-fueled pace.
What follows are my recollections of watching Indiana Jones through the years. The list is intended as a conversation starter: what are your favorite memories from watching Indy the first, second, third -- or 25th -- time?
Spielberg had risen to the level of unassailable god in my young mind on the basis of Duel, Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but 1941 was an awful mess that crashed and burned at the box office, and I had no enthusiasm for a callback to awful '30s serial pictures. Advance word was minimal, as I recall. Lucas' participation didn't help after he'd left me hanging at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, and I was not terribly impressed with the idea of Harrison Ford as leading man (I would have preferred Tom Selleck). None of my friends were talking about the movie.
Remember serials? I don't, because I'm too young, and by the time I began going to the movies, it was already the practice for cinemas to stick to single, self-contained, feature-length fare. With the way screenings are arranged today, scheduled so that both theater owners and studios can get as much money from as many showings as possible, there's just no room for any accompanying shorts, especially the kind that don't end in a conclusive manner.
I'd probably be okay with being left out of that experience from the moviegoing past, but each time another Indiana Jones movie is released, I can't help but think I'm at least a little less appreciative of George Lucas' intent than some of the older folk in the audience. When Lucas thought up the original Raiders of the Lost Ark, he partly meant the film as homage to the serials he remembered from his childhood.
Yet Raiders didn't end with a cliffhanger, as most serials had on a weekly basis. And with the third sequel to that film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, arriving in theaters this week, I still wonder why at least two installments couldn't have been connected with the serializing device. Lucas had already somewhat shown us, through the uncertain ending of The Empire Stikes Back and continuation/resolution beginning of Return of the Jedi, that it could be done.
Like most mega-pathetic movie spazzes, I bought this box set the day it came out. (Actually I bought this version, got home, freaked out, and brought it back to the store to exchange for the correct one.) The first "Adventures of Indiana Jones" package came with a fourth disc that has a two-hour documentary on the whole series, plus a handful of brief featurettes on stunts, sounds, magic, and music. Definitely some good stuff, but the movie discs (NOT sold separately) were entirely bare-bones affairs.
So there are two things that are welcomely different about the second Indiana Jones box set: A) Now you CAN purchase the movies individually, and B) there's no extra disc: This time around the extra features are on the "main feature" discs. This sounded pretty good to me, as I've been hoping for more "flick-specific" supplements on the re-issue ... but here's where I get a little annoyed: Obviously the new goodies are of a very high quality (given that they were overseen by DVD magic-man Laurent Bouzereau), but ... why so skimpy? I'll offer a few nerdy gripes and then offer a theory as to why this stuff happens, followed by a complete list of all the new features found on the latest Indy DVD set...
Well, for a tempest in a teapot the controversy over Mike Myers' comedy The Love Guruseems to be heating up by the day. CJ Report confirmed that the British Film Institute has responded to Hindu protests, and has issued a statement that the prestigious institution will "not be screening this title nor will be involved with a possible release of it." Now this doesn't mean the film will not be shown in the UK, but the BFI's refusal to support the film must come as a blow to Myers, a committed anglophile.
Guru is the story of an American-born guru who returns home to help coach a lovelorn hockey player with a struggling marriage. Sure, it looks silly, and a little stereotypical, but so did The Party and a lot of people seem to like that movie. According to CJ Report, "Hindu groups have recently been approaching film distributors associations, exhibitors groups, regulatory bodies, government ministries, theater owners, etc., in various parts of the world urging them not to distribute/screen The Love Guru till Paramount Pictures makes necessary changes to it." Paramount still maintains that they will screen the film for Hindu audiences, but they have not agreed to make any significant changes to the film.
If you're anything like me, you have completely given up on the next installment of Transformers having even a whiff of plot, and instead you are just going to sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Speaking of, it looks like it's going to be quite the show, too. The keen eyes over Comic2Film noticed that in the Dolby News release for ShoWest 2008, Transformers 2 was listed as a 3D film slated for 2009.
There have been plenty of updates for the film lately, but unfortunately most of them turned out to be smoke and mirrors -- just ask Teresa Palmer. But, a 3D release could be the real deal, even though we haven't heard a peep from Michael Bay on the matter. Kind of surprising, too, considering he is not the kind of guy who likes to keep quiet about these sorts of things.
Transformers 2 is scheduled to start filming on location in Pennsylvania this June, but everything is going to hinge on whether or not the SAG strike can be averted. A 3D release does make sense if you think about it, especially since the only way to top the FX of the first film is to have them flying off the screen at the audience this time around. (Yay! A monster truck is flying toward me at 150mph! Ain't this fun!)
Weigh in below and let us know if you think 3D is the way to go for our robotic friends, or will it just be an excuse for Bay to spend even more time on the FX and even less time on the script?
A comfortable and charming cinematic couple will reunite in two forthcoming comedies, but which will come first? At the end of March, Monika Bartyzel passed on the news that Steve Martin and Diane Keaton would re-team for the first time in more than a decade for the family comedy One Big Happy. Martin and Keaton were attached to the pitch from Party of Five creators Chris Keyser and Amy Lippman, which Paramount Pictures bought. Keyser and Lippman have other projects in various stages of development and no production timeline was mentioned.
Now, according to Variety, Paramount has bought another comedy pitch, this time from Steve Martin. Producer Robert Simonds presented Martin's idea for a comedy entitled From Zero to Sixty to all the major studios last week and Paramount was the "most aggresive in taking it off the table." Martin and Keaton would play a couple, but no other plot details emerged. Variety says production could start in the fall, but that's assuming a writer can be signed and the script completed very quickly. It may be that Paramount wants to fast track From Zero to Sixty because the script for One Big Happy will take a while to complete because of the writers' other projects.
Martin and Keaton starred together in Father of the Bride in 1991 and then followed that up with the sequel in 1995. Those films were very silly and forgettable, and I imagine these two new comedies will follow a similar path to box office success.
David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos -- you know, the greatest television show of all time -- has signed on to write, produce, and direct his first feature film, for Paramount Pictures. Calm down, fans of Tony and the gang -- this will not be a Sopranos flick. In fact, Deadline Hollywood Dailydoesn't have much about the movie at all, other than that it's "an original drama," and that Brad Grey, Chase's Sopranos producing partner and CEO of Paramount, brought him on board. Chase says of their relationship: "Brad has always been adventurous as a producer and looked for different ways of doing things. I look forward to once again working with him, and now his team. For years, Brad has been a great partner, who helped enable me to do what I need to creatively."
Returning the love, Grey says "David is one of the great storytellers of our time, and his debut as a filmmaker is both highly anticipated and long overdue." I second that! "In truth, David has been creating cinematic-quality filmed drama for more than a decade – spanning nine seasons and 86 episodes of The Sopranos. Having worked with David as a producer, I'm delighted to be with him again and to bring his unique vision to the big screen." The Sopranos indeed delivered an hour-long movie each week, and each was better than 99% of films. I simply can not wait. And with the Sex and the City movie likely to be a big hit, here's hoping Chase can be talked into dropping that Sopranos movie on us and making my life worthwhile again.
Hell ... what if this "original drama" is the Sopranos movie and they're trying to keep it secret? There have been rumors swirling lately, and I don't stop believin'.
I can't be the only one who's just a little relieved that Jonah Hill has dropped out of negotiations to star in Transformers 2. Hill is riding high on the comedy wave, and while a big-budget summer flick is always a career booster, it's not like Michael Bay is known for his comedy. According to Entertainment Weekly, "negotiations between Jonah Hill and Dreamworks have broken down, and the Superbad star is no longer expected play a sidekick to Shia LaBeouf in the upcoming sequel from director Michael Bay."
Bay and company are expected to start production on Transformers 2 this summer at the University of Pennsylvania, which fit with early reports that Hill would be playing Sam Witwicky's (LaBeouf) college roommate. Now that Hill is out of the picture, maybe a little co-ed co-habitation could be in his future since Teresa Palmer signed for an unnamed role last week.
There were no details about why Hill chose not to sign on the dotted line, but I'm sure a lot of fans are glad that he did. Unfortunately it's not all good news coming from Hill's people; instead of starring in Transformers 2, he has agreed to appear in the follow-up to A Night at the Museum -- so now I don't know what to think. As crappy as Transformers 2 might turn out to be (and there is a good chance it could be pretty darn crappy), it would definitely be a step up from A Night at the Museum 2. Or maybe not.
What do you think? Should Jonah stick to the simple comedies without all the big-budgeted effects?
With every piece of marketing that comes out for Mike Myer's The Love Guru, I am less sure about whether or not this movie is going to work. The new trailer for the self-help comedy is now up on The Guru Pitka's MySpace page (that's right, he has his very own page), and after watching it I just don't know what to think. The first trailer wasn't so great, but then there were those hilarious You Tube messages. The latest trailer, though, puts the film back in the 'meh' category -- talk about confusing.
Guru is the story of an American-born guru who is hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs to provide counseling to their star player (played by Romany Malco). Joining in on the hilarity are Justin Timberlake (as a French Canadian player), The Daily Show's John Oliver as Pitka's assistant, and Jessica Alba as the love interest.
Universal Studios? Yawn. Disneyland? Been there. What the theme park industry needs is some fresh ideas and new blood! And what a better source for rejuvenation than the oldest movie studio in Hollywood? 
Something in the water over in France has got 
Well, for a 
If you're anything like me, you have completely given up on the next installment of Transformers having even a whiff of plot, and instead you are just going to sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Speaking of, it looks like it's going to be quite the show, too. The keen eyes over Comic2Film noticed that in the Dolby News release for ShoWest 2008, 
A comfortable and charming cinematic couple will reunite in two forthcoming comedies, but which will come first? At the end of March, 
I can't be the only one who's just a little relieved that 
With every piece of marketing that comes out for Mike Myer's 
Cannes Review: Che
From Page to Screen: 'The Lovely Bones'
Discuss: The Women of Indiana Jones
