Indiana Jones (Disney+ series)

[ScourgiousJinx]

So many of the KK rumors are from people who hate her and pray for her to be let go. It makes believing them quite difficult especially when the rumors keep coming regularly with seemingly every project she's involved with and zero of them pan out to be true. It's like watching compulsive gamblers stare into oblivion with that "this is going to be the big score" look. Not a fan of hers but also recognize that she likely isn't going anywhere based on rumors from "legit sources" that prophesize about her demise for the 80th time.

 

[modelcitizen]

there were NO audience "test screenings" of indy 5

 

[Captain Dunsel]

there were NO audience "test screenings" of indy 5

This appears to have been confirmed by the director himself:

The Indiana Jones 5 director was asked on Twitter: "Have there been test screenings of Indy V yet? Rumours are flying."

Mangold, who replaced Steven Spielberg as director, said: "Nope. Haven't been any screenings at all."

…The director was also asked to comment on the rumour of Waller-Bridge replacing Ford at the end of the movie, to which he replied: "But not true! So not awful!"

 

[CB2001]

This appears to have been confirmed by the director himself:

The Indiana Jones 5 director was asked on Twitter: "Have there been test screenings of Indy V yet? Rumours are flying."

Mangold, who replaced Steven Spielberg as director, said: "Nope. Haven't been any screenings at all."

…The director was also asked to comment on the rumour of Waller-Bridge replacing Ford at the end of the movie, to which he replied: "But not true! So not awful!"

Apparently, Mangold did it to snipe at the Internet personality Doomcock for reporting the replacement of Indiana:

And Doomcock apparently was right, as one news source independently confirmed the replacement: Phoebe Waller-Bridge could replace Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones

It might seem like "just a coincidence", but considering that Disney also targeted Doomcock before in She-Hulk, it does comfirm something that Doomcock himself has said about him living rent free in their heads.

Frankly, at this point, I don't know what is true or not. But considering the projects that Kennedy had direct involvement in have fallen flat while those where she didn't have a big hand in it (namely The Mandalorian), it does seem like something is going on. And from my own personal observations of some of the stuff that has come out, I can see that there's a lacking in quality in story and character in most of the works presented that she's had direct involvement in. But, again, I don't know what is true or not anymore. As far as I'm concerned, the previous Indiana Jones film will be the last one for me, and it will basically lead into the Young Indiana Jones TV series.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

This appears to have been confirmed by the director himself:

The Indiana Jones 5 director was asked on Twitter: "Have there been test screenings of Indy V yet? Rumours are flying."

Mangold, who replaced Steven Spielberg as director, said: "Nope. Haven't been any screenings at all."

…The director was also asked to comment on the rumour of Waller-Bridge replacing Ford at the end of the movie, to which he replied: "But not true! So not awful!"

Because that has NEVER happened before. It's not like Kevin Smith called leakers liars for saying his He-Man show didn't have He-Man as the main character and then it turned out to actually be the Teela show... Again I hope this rumor is not true, but if they actually did do this, knowing fans would be P*SSED!!!!!, you think they are going to admit it? No they're going to hope all the fans go see it the first week before it gets out what they did, that way they make a ton of money first.

 

[HMSwolfe]

Apparently, Mangold did it to snipe at the Internet personality Doomcock for reporting the replacement of Indiana:

And Doomcock apparently was right, as one news source independently confirmed the replacement: Phoebe Waller-Bridge could replace Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones

It might seem like "just a coincidence", but considering that Disney also targeted Doomcock before in She-Hulk, it does comfirm something that Doomcock himself has said about him living rent free in their heads.

Frankly, at this point, I don't know what is true or not. But considering the projects that Kennedy had direct involvement in have fallen flat while those where she did have a big hand in it (namely The Mandalorian), it does seem like something is going on. And from my own personal observations of some of the stuff that has come out, I can see that there's a lacking in quality in story and character in most of the works presented that she's had direct involvement in. But, again, I don't know what is true or not anymore. As far as I'm concerned, the previous Indiana Jones film will be the last one for me, and it will basically lead into the Young Indiana Jones TV series.

I cannot imagine a more insufferable YouTube persona than this…thing, even if he does end up being correct. I regret having spent any time watching that video.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Because that has NEVER happened before. It's not like Kevin Smith called leakers liars for saying his He-Man show didn't have He-Man as the main character and then it turned out to actually be the show... Again I hope this rumor is not true, but if they actually did do this, knowing fans would be P*SSED!!!!!, you think they are going to admit it? No they're going to hope all the fans go see it the first week before it gets out what they did, that way they make a ton of money first.

People are sounding like they can’t trust movie makers anymore.

Why, I’m old enough to remember when all the fans were saying that Star Trek Into Darkness would feature the infamous Khan as the baddie.

Well, I remember that JJ Abrams, himself, had to deny this over and over again in the press, and set the fans straight.

'Star Trek' director JJ Abrams denies villain Khan will appear in sequel

Well, and we all know how that turned out.

Right?

Wait a minute…

Oh…

Nevermind.

 

[ScourgiousJinx]

I cannot imagine a more insufferable YouTube persona than this…thing, even if he does end up being correct. I regret having spent any time watching that video.

I turned it off after a minute. Glad to know that I didn't miss anything.

 

[HMSwolfe]

I turned it off after a minute. Glad to know that I didn't miss anything.

You really didn’t. It’s mostly him crowing about “owning” Mangold thanks to the DailyMail, and how he scares Disney, and a lot of silly voices and side characters I’m sure are very important to the Doomcock lore.

 

[robstyle]

If you feed the trolls, meaning click their YouTube videos, they keep making content.

Back to the KK tenure, I've mentioned before I suspect her contracts have a clause for certain projects to be fulfilled. If that's true I suspect Indy 5 will be the final project fulfillment. The Indy 5 production history is very suspect when it comes to stalls and release dates compared to contract renewals. I've no idea what the projected release date for the film is. But will it end up as late 2023?

 

[Lightning]

I still think Ford put making Indy 5 in his contract for agreeing to appear as Han again in TFA.

 

[JOATRASH FX]

You really didn’t. It’s mostly him crowing about “owning” Mangold thanks to the DailyMail, and how he scares Disney, and a lot of silly voices and side characters I’m sure are very important to the Doomcock lore.

DC sometimes laughs at his own jokes and, despite claims of remaining neutral and inviting to all fans, quite often lets his own personal 'anti- agenda' seep into things in distasteful comments. Add to that he's been pretty disrespectful toward Robert Meyer Burnett (who is a person that seems try to be respectful toward and get along with everyone) regarding Picard S3. (According to RMB, who hates all 'modern' Star Trek, P S3 is fantastic). So yeah, his 'character shtick' can be grating. That said, there are signs that The Mouse actually does worry about the influence he and other similar Youtubers have. There were some "evil characters" in She-Hulk that were pretty clearly taking digs at DC, parodying his (already parodied) helmet. So he definitely seems to have gotten under their skin.

there were NO audience "test screenings" of indy 5

There seems to have been internal audience test-screenings, not public ones. So they're likely trying to muddy the waters and deflect.

 

[Knightmare]

Pratt lacks the classic leading man stature and charisma that Ford oozed as Indy. Nobody points like Ford and when Indy points you look. Pratt points and im not sure if its a pull my finger pun or not. Some things are better left untouched. In the current state of pop culture Indy can't exist, his most popular adventures can't exist, his history and past can't exist... Maybe if they waited another ten years and started from scratch but to go into it out the gate with a new Ford movie to be released, makes me think his character is to be rebooted in the final Indy film.

They will remake indy at some point you can bet you’re last bottom dollar on that . I will take and guess and say with a female lead . They were trying to do that with Pirates of the Caribbean but the back lash was to big .

 

[JOATRASH FX]

They will remake indy at some point you can bet you’re last bottom dollar on that . I will take and guess and say with a female lead . They were trying to do that with Pirates of the Caribbean but the back lash was to big .

If the backlash continues, they may hesitate. So many of these agenda-driven projects have failed now that money is starting to become a problem.

Tomb Raider was a great franchise for a female-led adventure series. They could have easily toned down the 'extreme' overt 1990s sexuality of the character but still kept some of the sexiness and the 'sophisticated sass' that defined her. Instead they toned it down so much that it made the whole series about as exciting as a slab of concrete.

Disney can easily milk Indy for several years with AI modulation of Ford's voice using a soundalike actor as a baseline, as a buffer to an eventual/inevitable recasting. If they start developing an animated show now, give it 2-3 years to produce and do the voice recordings towards the end, AI synthesis will have come quite a ways. They did it recently with James Earl Jones and it sounded better than I thought it would at this point. (They also tried it with Hamill in the Mandalorian, but there you could clearly hear that 'something' was wrong. Sort of an uncanny valley of dialogue.) I've done a fair bit of Voice Over Direction professionally, and see it as very feasible option.

 

[batguy]

I'm surprised that the SFX world was delivering passable human face imagery before passable voice duplication. Neither task is gonna be easy but the visual face & expressions seem more complex to model (accurately).

Also, I would expect audiences to be much more tolerant of a 96%-accurate voice than a 96%-accurate face.

If we're talking about Morgan Freeman's voice, narrating a documentary? No, then 96%-accurate wouldn't cut it. But for a last-minute re-edit of a scene where they needed 3 sentences of Jennifer Anniston ordering a coffee . . .

 

[JOATRASH FX]

I'm surprised that the SFX world was delivering passable human face imagery before passable voice duplication. Neither task is gonna be easy but the visual face & expressions seem more complex to model (accurately). And I would expect audiences to be much more tolerant of a 96% accurate voice than a 96% accurate face.

Could be, I think humans are generally more sensitive to facial expressions than subtle voice changes- at least when it comes to entertainment. Not to go completely off-topic, but I've found that some parts of the audience have weird ideas about what constitutes 'good/believable' voicework in animation and games. For example, they tend to (in general) accept, and sometimes even want, a higher degree of over-acting as compensation for not having a photographed character in animation, even when it's not intended to be 'cartoony'. One time, I recorded military/NASA dialog to be realistic, with emotions toned down (as they would be under real conditions- just listen to the Apollo 13 tapes) but some complained that the emotionless nature wasn't believable until a real US fighter pilot chimed in and set everyone straight, haha. Audiences also tend to gloss over dialog at times. I've noticed people completely mix up character voices that sound nothing alike.

I myself tend to get very distracted when something is 'off' and usually spot actors in makeup or animation no matter what they do to hide their voice, but then I've been working with audio on and off for 30+ years. (It's almost become a game to "guess the actor" in Star Trek.)

In the last couple of years, a lot of AI generated VO companies have croppped up, claiming to be able to synthesize 'any' character performance from just a voice template. So far, I haven't been that impressed when there hasn't been a baseline performace to build on. But darn... that Vader Voice in Obi Wan was unexpectedly good.

You're essentially just doing a deepfake on audio data as opposed to visuals. (The AI routine doesn't 'care' what data you feed it, after all.) So you have samplings of Ford saying certain things, get a soundalike actor to mimic, then have the AI compare the two and modulate the soundalike to fit with Ford. With enough data, the AI will be able to fill in the blanks if Indy needs to say something that you don't have Ford ever saying.

So, I absolutely think they can get to an acceptable (for most) Harrison Ford Indy voice in the next couple of years or so. (Assuming Ford has signed away the rights for them to use his voice for Indy or Solo. Even using soundalikes can be a grey legal area.)

 

[batguy]

As I said in the (edited) comment above, I'm not surprised that we don't already have simulated Harrison Ford in a cartoon of Indy. But the lack of smaller stuff surprises me.

Paul Walker got killed in the middle of his last 'Fast & Furious' movie. The final movie has some stunningly realistic shots CGI shots of his face. But then he would open his mouth and it was painfully obvious that you were hearing cutting room scraps of sentences. They can simulate an image of his face all the way down to changing his expressions and stuff, but they cannot fabricate a couple sentences of sound from him? Like, not even stuff in a neutral tone of voice/expression? They had Paul's brothers onboard to help finish the job. And there must be many hours of reference material of his voice, including stuff from sound studio conditions.

 

[JOATRASH FX]

As I said in the (edited) comment above, I'm not surprised that we don't already have simulated Harrison Ford in a cartoon of Indy. But the lack of smaller stuff surprises me.

Paul Walker got killed in the middle of his last 'Fast & Furious' movie. The final movie has some stunningly realistic shots CGI shots of his face. But then he would open his mouth and it was painfully obvious that you were hearing cutting room scraps of sentences. They can simulate an image of his face all the way down to changing his expressions and stuff, but they cannot fabricate a couple sentences of sound from him? Like, not even stuff in a neutral tone of voice/expression?

Yeah, the same was true of the Crow- they did some creative editing with Macs and photoshop to paste in Brandon Lee's face on stand-ins way back in '93. (They had the benefit of very dark visuals, though.) Paul walker passed in 2013 though, and Furious 7 was released in 2015, correct? (Still feels like it happened more recently, though I never saw the film.) An insane amount of progress has been made since then. Even in places like the guitar world, emulating real amplifiers and speaker cabinets, only in the last few years have they become indistinguishable from the real thing.

 

[CT1138]

So from what I've heard, this series will focus on Abner Ravenwood and his globetrotting that drug Marion all over the world looking for junk. I have a feeling Disney will either ignore or completely retcon Indy and Marion's early relationship to remove the more distasteful outdated views of romance as was brought up in Raiders. Because Disney can't have their hero showing any roguish qualities, now can they. It would be interesting seeing what items Ravenwood sought. The Indy movies sometimes made a point to show that archeology is not as exciting as Indy's main adventures, with his opening adventure sometimes involving the gathering of mere trinkets. He went after the Fertility Idol in Raiders, but only brought back some minor statuettes. Same in KotCS where he was piddling around with pottery shards when the Russians abducted him. As far a we know, the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra was the most important find Ravenwood ever made.

They had separate careers by the late 1990s. I don't think there was any serious talk of Spielberg directing any of the prequels.

Biggest contribution I can think of that Spielberg made on the prequels, is when Lucas had him storyboard a new turn for Anakin, because Spielberg felt his choice was too abrupt.

Paul Walker got killed in the middle of his last 'Fast & Furious' movie. The final movie has some stunningly realistic shots CGI shots of his face. But then he would open his mouth and it was painfully obvious that you were hearing cutting room scraps of sentences. They can simulate an image of his face all the way down to changing his expressions and stuff, but they cannot fabricate a couple sentences of sound from him? Like, not even stuff in a neutral tone of voice/expression? They had Paul's brothers onboard to help finish the job. And there must be many hours of reference material of his voice, including stuff from sound studio conditions.

At the same time, there has been some incredible advancements to voice replication in the past few years. Vader's voice in Kenobi was all through AI replication and you could hardly tell. A few lines were delivered awkwardly, but it was not a hack job by any means. Other samples I've heard, when mixed right, have sounded as if the dead speak! There was one done with Richard Attenborough for a Jurassic Park fan project a little while ago that could have been the real Attenborough himself!

 

[JOATRASH FX]

So from what I've heard, this series will focus on Abner Ravenwood and his globetrotting that drug Marion all over the world looking for junk. I have a feeling Disney will either ignore or completely retcon Indy and Marion's early relationship to remove the more distasteful outdated views of romance as was brought up in Raiders.

That might actually be interesting! May I ask where you heard that? They would probably, as you say, retcon, which is a shame because the character flaws in both Indy and Marion made them work better. But in Marion they do have a pretty feisty character who can hold her own as long as they don't Rey-ify her or try to make her into some kind of action hero because many of her strengths came from cleverness, inventiveness and guile.