New 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' Pics!

Vanity Fair has published a preview of their pretty massive Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls feature which, online, runs roughly five pages and includes photos from Annie Leibovitz and a video showing the behind the scenes of the photoshoot. As you can see above, we finally get our first look at Cate Blanchett as the villainous (but still extremely sexy) Agent Spalko. The Vanity Fair piece covers it all; from the first time we saw Indy on screen to this (final?) production to interviews with the cast.

When director Steven Spielberg is asked how far along he is in the editing process, he said, "I'm in my second cut, which means I've put the movie together and I've seen it," he says. "I usually do about five cuts as a director. The best news is that, when I saw the movie myself the first time, there was nothing I wanted to go back and shoot, nothing I wanted to reshoot, and nothing I wanted to add." George Lucas, on the other hand, talked a bit about how hard it was coming up with a good MacGuffin this time around: "I'm the one that has to come up with the story, and the MacGuffin, the supernatural object that everyone's going after ... The Ark of the Covenant was perfect. The Shankara Stones were way too esoteric. The Holy Grail was sort of feeble-but, at the same time, we put the father in there to cover for it. I mean, the whole reason it became a dad movie was because I was scared to hell that there wasn't enough power behind the Holy Grail to carry a movie."

We've included the rest of the photos after the jump, and be sure to head on over here to check out the full story.

P.S. In that second photo below of LaBeouf and Allen, check out the background. Look a little familiar?

[via Joblo]

Above: George Lucas, Harrison Ford, and Steven Spielberg on the set of the new film in Los Angeles. "Neither of them is ashamed of making audience films," Ford says of his partners. Photographs by Annie Leibovitz.

Above: Shia LaBeouf and Karen Allen on set in Downey, California. Allen returns as Marion Ravenwood, Indy's spunky girlfriend from the first film, while LaBeouf joins in-or so rumor has it-as Indy and Marion's love child.