Source: Empire | Posted By: Dan Geer
Indiana Jones fans have been divided over his latest adventure in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Some enjoyed it overall (like myself), while others couldn’t get past things like Mutt swinging with monkeys, CGI gophers, or Indiana Jones surviving a nuclear blast. Either way, it seems like the general consensus among fans is that perhaps Indy needs one more outing, whether it’d simply be for the fun of it, or to right a few wrongs.
Empire recently sat down with Spielberg to ask for an update on Indy 5, and also got the chance to hear his thoughts on some of the critiques Crystal Skull has received since it first hit theaters in 2008. Hit the jump to find out what he had to say!
Regarding Indiana Jones 5, Spielberg said :
“You have to ask George Lucas. George is in charge of breaking the stories. He’s done it on all four movies. Whether I like the stories or not, George has broken all the stories. He is working on Indy V. We haven’t gone to screenplay yet, but he’s working on the story. I’ll leave it to George to come up with a good story.”
Spielberg on the criticisms of Crystal Skull and his loyalty to George Lucas as a storyteller:
“I’m very happy with the movie. I always have been… I sympathise with people who didn’t like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin. George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin. I didn’t want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings. But I am loyal to my best friend. When he writes a story he believes in – even if I don’t believe in it – I’m going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it. I’ll add my own touches, I’ll bring my own cast in, I’ll shoot the way I want to shoot it, but I will always defer to George as the storyteller of the Indy series. I will never fight him on that.”
Surprisingly, Spielberg went on to sort of defend the gopher from the beginning of Crystal Skull, as well as the “nuke the fridge” scene:
“The gopher was good. I have the stand-in one at home. What people really jumped at was Indy climbing into a refrigerator and getting blown into the sky by an atom-bomb blast. Blame me. Don’t blame George. That was my silly idea. People stopped saying “jump the shark”. They now say, “nuked the fridge”. I’m proud of that. I’m glad I was able to bring that into popular culture.”
So, not really anything new regarding Indy 5, but he does confirm that the story is still in the works.
It is also quite interesting to know that nuking the fridge was Spielberg’s idea and not George Lucas’, since Lucas is constantly criticized (most unfairly, in my opinion) for some of his more recent choices in storytelling with the Star Wars prequels and Indy 4, and was originally blamed for the fridge scene by many Indy fans. Yes, even Spielberg is capable of making poor decisions.
Definitely some good insight into the mind of Steven Spielberg in this article. Here’s to hoping that choices like nuking the fridge won’t be made if Indiana Jones 5 ever gets off the ground!
Head on over to Empire for the rest of the article, including some information on Jurassic Park 4!
