The Indiana Jones Franchise (Steven Spielberg/James Mangold, 1981-2023)

[domino harvey]

The "trying" implies he failed to grow facial hair, which would be my point...

[Mr Sausage]

The "trying" implies he failed to grow facial hair, which would be my point...

Seems like he failed "harder" than he tried.

[Joe Buck]

Poor Shia tried so hard to grow facial hair-- too bad he can't just plastic surgery it on like he did his new nose

Hey, don’t be bad mouthing the new Indy like that!

What, you don’t think the torch, er, whip is going to be passed at the end of the film?

[domino harvey]

Poor Shia tried so hard to grow facial hair-- too bad he can't just plastic surgery it on like he did his new nose

Hey, don’t be bad mouthing the new Indy like that!

What, you don’t think the torch, er, whip is going to be passed at the end of the film?

And then he's going to hold the whip under between his nose and lip and go "See, I told you I could grow a mustache." And then Harrison Ford dies laughing

[Jeff]

And you thought you were pissed about the obvious digital tweaks in the trailer? Check this out.

[Antoine Doinel]

I guess they haven't finished putting in the walkie talkies yet.

From IMDB:

'Indy 4' To Debut at Cannes?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is likely to have its official worldwide premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, FoxNews.com columnist Roger Friedman reported Monday, citing several unnamed sources. Friedman said that Spielberg's representatives are currently in negotiations with officials of the festival for the Indiana Jones sequel to open the week-long festivities, with Spielberg, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf, Karen Allen, and others making appearances on the red carpet at Cannes's Palais.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

From Joblo:

Is your local theater still doing things the old-fashioned way, and hasn't converted to digital projection yet? Don't sweat it, you'll still be able to catch INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL when it hits in a few months.

In fact, that's the only way you'll be able to see the whip-smart relic collector, per orders of The Beard himself.

Indy's cousin 'Ohio Munson' tells us Paramount is informing theaters that per Steven Spielberg, INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL will NOT be available in digital format. The studio is requesting that complexes who can't project 35mm format let them know.
There you have it. Our favorite scrappy part-time professor (who, sadly, is named after the dog) prefers to remain firmly in the 20th century for now.

From the New York Times:

New 'Indiana Jones' Trailer a Smash Hit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 3, 2008

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Times sure have changed in the 19 years since Harrison Ford last donned the signature fedora of thrill-seeking archaeologist Indiana Jones. The viral spread of the trailer for ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' is proof of that.

The trailer for the May 22 release has drawn highly enthusiastic responses in theaters. But it may have had its biggest impact online, on a younger audience that may not think of Ford, 65, as equal to today's spry action heroes.

After premiering Feb. 14 on ''Good Morning America,'' Lucasfilm and Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures sent the trailer to the Web, plus movie theaters and TV stations around the world. Paramount estimates the trailer was seen more than 200 million times worldwide in the first week alone.

Harry Knowles, who runs the movie fan site AintItCool.com (his official title is Head Geek), says he first saw a bootleg version of the trailer online, then the official version online, and then saw it twice in theaters.

There were cheers in the theater when the familiar theme song kicked in, Knowles said, and comments on his Web site have been positive. ''People generally really, really loved the trailer,'' he said. ''Some people think it's a little more cartoonish-looking compared to the prior (films), with him whipping the lights and swinging on them and stuff. But at the same time, it seems that everyone is extremely excited that there's a new 'Indiana Jones' film. The excitement for it is palpable. It's much more aggressively anticipated than anything else that's coming out right now.''

''The trailer caught on like wildfire, around the world, in all mediums,'' said Gerry Rich, Paramount's president of worldwide marketing, who's targeting moviegoers ''from 8 to 80. The response has been sensational and it shows what technology can do when you have material that is so appealing to audiences.''

Older audiences certainly remember Indy, but that's not the prime ticket-buying demographic. Thus the aggressive online campaign, which included what Paramount says is a record 4.1 million views on the Yahoo movie site in the first week and 2.6 million on the official IndianaJones.com site, the most ever for the studio.

''It looks to be THE highly anticipated movie of the summer,'' said Mark Mazrimas, marketing manager for independent theater chain Classic Cinemas. However, ''this hasn't been on the screen for so long, (the challenge) is capturing the youth.''

The brainchild of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, the franchise kicked off with ''Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark'' in 1981, followed by ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' three summers later. ''The Last Crusade'' was released in 1989, boosting the worldwide box office total to $1.2 billion.

Now, with the buzz sparked, Rich -- who declined to make opening weekend predictions -- just wants to keep fans' attention: ''The (only) negative comment from people was that they have to wait until May to see the movie.''

[Fletch F. Fletch]

What a surprise, Lucas and co. are double-dipping on the trilogy to coincide with the release of the new Indy film. The new extras look hardly worth it. I'll stick with my original box set thankyouverymuch.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. – According to the American Film Institute, he’s the greatest action-adventure hero of all time – and his unforgettable exploits can be relished by fans old and new as never before when all three INDIANA JONES movies debut as individual Special Edition DVDs and in an all-new box set on May 13.

Released by Lucasfilm Ltd. and Paramount Home Entertainment, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Special Edition DVDs boast all-new, exclusive bonus features that dig deeper into the making of these cinematic milestones than ever before. All three were originally restored and remastered in 2003. Created with fans of all ages in mind, the bonus features provide never-before-seen explorations of the making of these classic movies and showcase the characters, action and extraordinary visual effects that have made the movies indelible cinematic treasures.

Each film makes its DVD debut just days before the highly anticipated return of the “Man in the Hat” in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

“An entire generation of movie lovers will get to see these classic films in a digital format that makes them even more amazing than when they were first in theaters,” said Howard Roffman, Vice President of Lucasfilm Ltd. “These new, individual DVDs are a fantastic way to introduce young audiences to the unforgettable, action-packed adventures of the most daring archaeologist in the world.”

Directed by Steven Spielberg from stories by executive producer George Lucas, the three INDIANA JONES movies earned six Academy Awards® and nearly $1.2 billion worldwide. From the groundbreaking excitement of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) to the sinister mysteries of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and the father-son adventure of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), the heroic Dr. Jones continues to delight audiences with his thrilling on-screen exploits.

Previously available only in a trilogy box set, the three films of THE ADVENTURES OF INDIANA JONES, were restored and remastered to deliver an exceptional viewing experience to existing enthusiasts and a whole new generation of fans. All-new bonus content delves into the making of the legendary series as the filmmakers and cast look back and a new world of adventure opens up with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and others offering hints about what to expect in the newest installment.

DVDs
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Special Edition DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 2.0 Surround and Spanish 2.0 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The disc includes the following special features:

Raiders of the Lost Ark: An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas

Indiana Jones: An Appreciation— The cast and crew of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull pay tribute to the original trilogy.

The Melting Face—A recreation of the amazing physical effect of the villain’s melting face in Raiders of the Lost Ark, including
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas commenting on the evolution of visual effects and CGI.

Storyboard Sequence—The Well of Souls

Galleries
- Illustrations & Props
- Production Photographs & Portraits
- Effects/ILM
- Marketing

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Game Demo and Trailer

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Special Edition DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 2.0 Surround and Spanish 2.0 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The disc includes the following special features:

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas

Creepy Crawlies—Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Frank Marshall reminisce about snakes, bugs and rats.

Locations—Travel across the world to discover where the films take place and where they were shot.

Storyboard Sequence—The Mine Cart Chase

Galleries
- Illustrations & Props
- Production Photographs & Portraits
- Effects/ILM
- Marketing

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Game Demo and Trailer

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Special Edition DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 2.0 Surround and Spanish 2.0 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The disc includes the following special features:

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas

The Women: The American Film Institute Tribute—The three Indiana Jones women (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody) reunite for a discussion.

Friends and Enemies—Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Indiana Jones writers discuss how they created the most iconic characters in film history, including a look at new faces in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Storyboard Sequence—The Opening Sequence

Galleries
- Illustrations & Props
- Production Photographs & Portraits
- Effects/ILM
- Marketing

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Game Demo and Trailer

[Antoine Doinel]

God, can't Lucas just issue the original/non-updated/non-added CGI Star Wars trilogy, in a decent DVD version already?

This is just the second of many, many Indiana Jones boxsets and reissues Lucasfilm will keep churning out to keep Lucas cryogenically frozen for eons.

[dx23]

I think Paramount is missing the boat here in not releasing the Blu-Ray versions and sell them to the public as their return to the format. What bigger title could a studio possibly use to sell their comeback to Blu-Ray?

[Awesome Welles]

God, can't Lucas just issue the original/non-updated/non-added CGI Star Wars trilogy, in a decent DVD version already?

These were released in the UK... They're not brilliant but all I want from Star Wars, I just have to watch them at some point.

[Rsdio]

These were released in the UK... They're not brilliant but all I want from Star Wars, I just have to watch them at some point.

They're non-anamorphic though, aren't they? Pretty shameful for such a big franchise.

I was expecting this to be a Blu-ray announcement when I saw the title, it would've been another nudge in the direction of me finally taking the plunge on a BD drive.

[Antoine Doinel]

They were also released in North America in a very limited edition, but they were non-anamorphic and I don't believe they did much in the way of restoration at all either. By most accounts, it was a dreadful release.

[Awesome Welles]

I just saw that on the listing - they are non-anamorphic! I did not know that! That is pretty shameful though I am not surprised by Lucas. I expect Fox thought they could put them out cheaply and expect fans to double dip. I have never actually watched my own copies and I don't know when I ever will. Probably never.

[Cinesimilitude]

I have anamorphic rips on dvd-r of the original trilogy laserdisc release, with bonus features. I won't be buying Star Wars again till it's released on BD. TO get back on track, the same goes for Indiana, and those Blu-Rays WILL be coming when KOCS is released on DVD and Blu-Ray later this year. Paramount might even have had HD-DVDs of the films ready, but we'll have to wait now.

[Joe Buck]

I too refused to buy the non-anamorphic screw job dvds, but I dunno...last night I popped in my laserdisc ripped dvd-r that a friend gave me, and the picture wasn't as nice as I would like. Now that I have the 42' plasma, I'm feeling the need to upgrade. Non-anamorphic better than nothing probably. I'd only buy them used so that parasite Lucas couldn't get my money. I cannot watch Jedi at all anymore. Just knowing that Fraggle Rock ho-down in coming in Jabba's palace is just too painful. What was he thinking? It is absolutely wretched. Vomit-inducing. And it disrupts the hell out of the film. Some folks say the original negatives have been destroyed and that's why they had to use the laserdisc versions. Is that a lie? Frankly, I've just about had it with Star Wars. Too much B.S. involved. I just want to sit down and watch the 3 movies, I don't want to get bombarded with a bunch of prequel-related crap and droid slapstick. I'd like to see Irvin Kirschner walk up and punch George Lucas in the mouth.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

A look at the film's lengthy production history.

A couple of new pics.

Lucas on the new Indiana Jones film.

[King Prendergast]

Sounds like he is trying to drastically lower expectations.

[Antoine Doinel]

Sketches for the forthcoming Topps Indiana Jones trading cards.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Let the media blitz begin: Empire magazine is devoting a big chunk of their May issue to this film.

[exte]

Opening weekend box office prediction: $121 million... Something tells me that Spiderman really peaked George's interest in his franchises...

[hearthesilence]

ALLEGEDELY, the original negatives were altered (not 'destroyed' per se) for the 'Crapular Editions.' LucasFilm gave this as their excuse for using the same masters as the LaserDisc release, but a bunch of film archivists shot it down, pointing out that Lucas never asked them if they could use the excellent and certainly usable prints of the original that they had in their archives.

Whatever, these movies are aging terribly by the hour. I only care for the second, and even then I'm not crazy about the new age mumbo jumbo, I just love the visuals and the designs.

I too refused to buy the non-anamorphic screw job dvds, but I dunno...last night I popped in my laserdisc ripped dvd-r that a friend gave me, and the picture wasn't as nice as I would like. Now that I have the 42' plasma, I'm feeling the need to upgrade. Non-anamorphic better than nothing probably. I'd only buy them used so that parasite Lucas couldn't get my money. I cannot watch Jedi at all anymore. Just knowing that Fraggle Rock ho-down in coming in Jabba's palace is just too painful. What was he thinking? It is absolutely wretched. Vomit-inducing. And it disrupts the hell out of the film. Some folks say the original negatives have been destroyed and that's why they had to use the laserdisc versions. Is that a lie? Frankly, I've just about had it with Star Wars. Too much B.S. involved. I just want to sit down and watch the 3 movies, I don't want to get bombarded with a bunch of prequel-related crap and droid slapstick. I'd like to see Irvin Kirschner walk up and punch George Lucas in the mouth.

[Antoine Doinel]

I can't find it (perhaps someone with better Google powers can) but the Digital Bits pretty much tore apart the myth that the original negatives were destroyed, and even if they were, there are probably enough prints sitting in archives around the world that if Lucas/LucasFilm really did want to properly restore the orginal theatrical release, there is no reason why they couldn't.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

I can't find it (perhaps someone with better Google powers can) but the Digital Bits pretty much tore apart the myth that the original negatives were destroyed, and even if they were, there are probably enough prints sitting in archives around the world that if Lucas/LucasFilm really did want to properly restore the orginal theatrical release, there is no reason why they couldn't.

Here you go:

It's been reported previously that when Lucas went back to the original negatives of the Star Wars films in the mid 1990s, they were found to be in bad shape. Such bad shape, in fact, that had they not been restored immediately, the films could have been lost forever. So restoration is exactly what Lucas had done. Except that when he was creating the new 1997 Special Edition versions of the films... he cut the original negatives. So the original negatives of the theatrical versions no longer exist. Okay, we knew that. But what's the big deal? What about the original interpositive prints? What about high-quality release prints? Why can't Lucasfilm just use either of those elements to do a new transfer for DVD?

Well... at the same time as he was preparing the 1997 versions, Lucas apparently went on a little tear and recalled every release print of the theatrical versions that he could get his hands on, and he had them all destroyed. Which means that when Lucas said back in 1997 that the original theatrical versions of the Star Wars films no longer existed, he was serious. He apparently tried hard to make sure of it.

Nonetheless (and thankfully), we know for a FACT that beautiful dye transfer prints of the original versions of the films still exist in private hands, and that additional copies are preserved in a number of film archives around the world. What's more, Lucas would have been foolhardy if he didn't keep the original interpositives carefully stored in a climate-controlled vault for preservation's sake. Come on... of course he did. No one is THAT stupid that they'd just trash all the original elements of the films that made them rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

If good quality original elements don't exist, where did Lucasfilm get that footage of the 1977 opening crawl that was used in Empire of Dreams? And how could it have been presented in anamorphic widescreen on DVD unless a new anamorphic transfer of the footage was done or was already available? So why then can't anamorphic transfers of the films be done now for the new DVDs? It makes no sense whatsoever. In any case, neither the man himself nor senior Lucasfilm executives are willing to admit that they exist, because as Lucas has said many times in the past, "They no longer exist." So what we get are excuses and bogus claims: "We returned to the Lucasfilm Archives to search exhaustively for source material that could be presented on DVD." Right. Guess they didn't look too hard. Give us two days here at The Bits and we'll make some calls. We'll find you good quality source materials outside of the Lucasfilm Archives that could be presented in high quality on DVD... and in anamorphic widescreen too. All it takes is the money and the will to get it done right the first time.

What are we left with? Either the films truly don't exist anymore, so it simply isn't possible to give them to you in state of the art quality (unlikely in the extreme, as we've said, despite public and private statements to the contrary)... or Lucasfilm DOES have copies of the original versions in their vaults, and they're just unwilling (or too damn cheap) to spend the money to give them to you in state of the art quality... yet. If the former is true, there can be no future anamorphic release of the original versions on DVD, and there can be no high-def release on the new Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD formats. Laserdisc is as good as it will ever get for those original theatrical cuts. If, on the other hand, the latter is true (and we believe it is)... Lucasfilm's greed is truly boundless.

Here's the link - scroll down to get to it.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

TV spot

Entertainment Weekly's indepth look at the film, and their interview with Lucas and Spielberg.

The Guardian interviews Harrison Ford.