If they reboot INDIANA JONES, who would you pick to play Indy?

[batguy]

The first film was not called "Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark".

They might restart this franchise with somebody not named "Indiana Jones" at all. Just put it in the same universe. Have HF play a guidance role. Give the new guy some kind of personal connection, be it family or friend. Title it "Raiders of the ______".





Oh, who are we kidding? We all know where this is going.

It's gonna be Indy's granddaughter. They will go looking for new Marion Ravenwood, not Indiana Jones. She will be vaguely multi-racial. She'll be on the curvy side and wear an outfit that is strategically tight & tattered.

It will be set in the 1970s. That's the Hollywood's all-purpose "fun" retro decade when everything was cooler. It lines up with Indy's granddaugther on the timeline too. Or maybe it will take place in the 1980s-90s because that would be cheaper to shoot and appeal to kids too young to remember 2002.

Depending on how Han Solo's (suspected) death goes over with the public, maybe they will kill old-Indy at the beginning of the 3rd act.

The only question left is how to handle Indy's son, her father. That's a no-win situation.

 

[airair]

They need to add Time Travel to the series.
Have Indiana appear in present day life.
Go on Steven Spielberg, do it. Then you can have all the CGI to your hearts content!

 

[Wolfsburg]

Doesn't seem that hard to understand. They aren't recasting Indiana Jones. Thank goodness. Now to get rid of Mutt...

 

[Solo4114]

Doesn't seem that hard to understand. They aren't recasting Indiana Jones. Thank goodness. Now to get rid of Mutt...

As far as I know, Shia LeBouef is now regarded as "difficult," which means we're really, really unlikely to see him any time soon.

 

[batguy]

You know what? I could totally see them doing a relaunch movie where the new leading man/woman goes on a mission to rescue the Ark of the Covenant again.


The Ark has been effectively re-lost out at Area 51 for decades. I'm sure the writers could whip up some reason to revisit it. A new evil domestic G-man threatens it. It's needed for a noble purpose out in the world, etc.

Most of the original Raiders was not spent actually searching for the Ark. Indy was mainly occupied with extracting the Ark from its known location and then keeping it away from the bad guys. They would need to avoid doing another big scene in the Area 51 box warehouse to avoid retreading KOTCS but that's not a big deal.




I'm not trying to cheerlead this, I'm just saying I could see it happening. What risk-averse producer or studio boss wouldn't like the idea of relaunching the franchise with a loose Raiders remake?

They'll be telling Aintitcool News that it's a "re-imagining". They will flip-flop the gender roles between Indy & Marion. She will be the main star (and Jones family member) now. He will be the old flame who gets unwillingly dragged into it (Chris Pratt in Jurassic World). Etc.



Shia?

Umm, he can be the new Marcus Brody character.




Most annoying moment in the new film?

When they inevitably do the shoot-the-swordsman bit from Raiders . . . and kids give the new movie credit for inventing it.

 

[Wolfsburg]

As far as I know, Shia LeBouef is now regarded as "difficult," which means we're really, really unlikely to see him any time soon.

That's great news! Haha!

 

[Solo4114]

It's kind of to be expected when you, you know, go totally batspit insane.

 

[batguy]

But if they included Shia then the audience is primed to accept a Bayformers crossover . . . "Indiana Jones and the Lost Energon Cubes"! Megan Fox could play Indy's new granddaughter too.


Hey - don't tell me it wouldn't make at least $300 domestically.

 

[Vivek]

When will fandom accept that Indiana Jones is NOT James Bond

Steven Spielberg says no one will replace Harrison Ford as INDIANA JONES

 

[Solo4114]

Interesting HitFix piece. I'm not surprised that Ford and Spielberg want to make an Indy5. I would be...surprised if they actually did that, though, given what else is going on right now with LucasFilm.

The Star Wars machine is up and cranking. And it will keep cranking for some time. Which means production teams are currently tasked for Star Wars 8-9, as well as the Young Han Solo film and Rogue One. Which means they AREN'T tasked for Indy 5. They don't even have a screenplay written yet. There is, from what Drew's saying, literally nothing more than a generally expressed desire to make another movie...eventually.

But here's the thing.

Movie-making is a business, first and foremost. To put a film out, they'd probably need at least 18 - 24 months to make it happen. And that's assuming a pretty brisk development pace, which isn't really what I'd expect with the Indy series, since it's unlikely to be the next big cash-cow long-running franchise for Disney the way Star Wars is. So, yes, Episode 7 was developed in a pretty short timeframe, but Episode 7 is the film to launch 1000 films, whereas Indy 5 would really just be the capstone of the franchise before it's rebooted or dustbinned.

Now, take into account the fact that Harrison Ford is 73 years old and turns 74 in July. If we assume 6-9 months of preproduction, that would mean that, at the absolute earliest, Ford would be 74 when they started shooting. And all of that assumes that Indy 5 goes into development right now. Like, right this very second. It's far more likely that, with everyone focused on Star Wars, they wouldn't even be starting work on it for another, what, 3? 4 years? So, Ford would be 77 at that point -- the same age that Sean Connery was when he retired from acting.

Now, admittedly, Ford appears to be in better shape than Connery was at the same age. But do yourselves a favor and take a look at three films for me:

- Never Say Never Again (1983), starring a then-53-year-old Sean Connery as James Bond.
- A View to a Kill (1985), starring a then-58-year-old Roger Moore as Bond.
- Gran Torino (2008), starring a then-78-year-old Clint Eastwood.

At the absolute best case scenario, you're looking at Ford being able to pull off an Eastwood, who, admittedly is a tough old *******. But, to my recollection, Eastwood was not engaged in wild action sequences, running away from rolling boulders of doom, punching Nazis or Thugees while riding atop a tank, etc. Any violence in Gran Torino is far more muted than what you'd see in an Indy film.

I don't know about anyone else, but the adventures of Indiana Jones: Septuagenarian is not something I really want to see. And I think it'd be a really tough sell and likely received even worse than Crystal Skull was.

 

[Axlotl]

I don't know about anyone else, but the adventures of Indiana Jones: Septuagenarian is not something I really want to see. And I think it'd be a really tough sell and likely received even worse than Crystal Skull was.

This.
Indy will always be one of my heroes, but he's run his course.
I don't want a sequel, and I don't want a reboot.

I want a Lara Croft/Tomb Raider reboot.
Let Lara take the reigns for a while.

 

[Solo4114]

This is why I don't really buy it when Spielberg says he wants to do more Indy films with Ford -- or rather, when he says he WILL do more. I get wanting to. I doubt they actually will, though. And I'm fine with that. I haven't seen Crystal Skull and don't intend to. Indiana Jones is a perfect trilogy and should have been left alone before. If they want to reboot it, whatever. I think that's idiotic, but then I think Hollywood is rather idiotic these days as a default. Or do a pass-the-torch movie featuring Indy's grandkids or whatever. I don't know. But I'm not interested in watching my heroes wither onscreen. I'd rather they just ride off into the sunset LIKE IN THE END OF LAST CRUSADE.

 

[batguy]

Mutt (Shia) marries a woman with the last name "Croft". They have a daughter Laura . . . franchise continued.

 

[Axlotl]

Mutt (Shia) marries a woman with the last name "Croft". They have a daughter Laura . . . franchise continued.

Mutt falls down a well shortly after the events of Crystal Skull and is never seen or heard from again.

An adventurer named Lara Croft trots around the globe fighting bad guys to keep paranormal relics out of the hands of evil, and in museums where they belong.

 

[Roland]

... At the absolute best case scenario, you're looking at Ford being able to pull off an Eastwood, who, admittedly is a tough old *******. But, to my recollection, Eastwood was not engaged in wild action sequences, running away from rolling boulders of doom, punching Nazis or Thugees while riding atop a tank, etc. Any violence in Gran Torino is far more muted than what you'd see in an Indy film. ...

Let them do "Fate of Atlantis". As far as I remember the old 90s game, there weren't many fight or action scenes. But a lot of puzzles to solve. It was a great game and certainly it would be a great story for a movie, even with an old Indy. Of course, you would have to replace the Nazis by any other bad guys (Russians?) since Indy is now in the 1950s or 1960s.

 

[Solo4114]

Let them do "Fate of Atlantis". As far as I remember the old 90s game, there weren't many fight or action scenes. But a lot of puzzles to solve. It was a great game and certainly it would be a great story for a movie, even with an old Indy. Of course, you would have to replace the Nazis by any other bad guys (Russians?) since Indy is now in the 1950s or 1960s.

Unless you replace the Nazis with, I dunno, Russian commies again, it doesn't really work. Ford's too old.

And that raises the same issue that there was in Crystal Skull: commies don't work as bad guys. Not the same way that Nazis do. You could go "criminal organization" or "mad industrialist" or whatever, but for actual governmental, ideological threats, the commies don't resonate with audiences the way Nazis do.

 

[Roland]

Unless you replace the Nazis with, I dunno, Russian commies again, it doesn't really work. Ford's too old.

And that raises the same issue that there was in Crystal Skull: commies don't work as bad guys. Not the same way that Nazis do. You could go "criminal organization" or "mad industrialist" or whatever, but for actual governmental, ideological threats, the commies don't resonate with audiences the way Nazis do.

You could be right. The best parts of the four Indy movies are parts 1 and 3 in my opinion. Both parts have Nazis ... and biblical references (Holy Grail, Ark of the Covenant)!

 

[Philly]

Eric Dane could do a good job.

 

[Raiders March]

One more for HF hopefully, then leave well enough alone. Fate of Atlantis would have made a great indy installment.

 

[The Terminator]

The first film was not called "Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark".

"Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" according to Lucasfilms' website: