Ford, Spielberg and Lucas Talk 'Indiana Jones'

With a little over a month left before Indiana Jones hits theaters for a fourth time, it's time to hear from its creators. First up, USA Today revealed a new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull photo (see above) along with their interview with Harrison Ford. An interesting note from that interview is Ford does not rule out an Indiana Jones 5, except he'd prefer that it not take another 20 years to come together. On the character, Ford says, "He's a guy who is pretty clear from the beginning. He has not changed so much between films. But we've learned more about him, through various plot devices, such as the introduction of his father. And we'll learn something more about him in this film. I think it's required. If you're going to bring back a character, you'll have to supply the audience with something more and different. The adventure is very, very important. But it's interesting to discover a facet of the character that perhaps you hadn't explored before."

Additionally, Entertainment Weekly sat down for a very informative interview with both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Their talk is extensive and very fun to read (if you're a fan of either man or both); topics covered include, of course, the entire Indiana Jones series. On the Russian villainess Irina Spalko (as played by Cate Blanchett), Lucas calls her an "uber-villain," while Spielberg says, "Of all the villains I've been able to work with in the Indiana Jones movies, I can say she's my favorite. And I think Cate made her that way."
From there, they talk about Shia LaBeouf's character and how the kid didn't even know what a greaser was. Lucas says, "I had to train him. Shia got sent to the American Graffiti school of greaserland. And I became the consultant on his comb." The conversation begins to get a tad more interesting when they start talking technology. Spielberg points out that he wished he could've used the same old matte paintings in this film like he did in the others, instead of creating the backgrounds digitally. "For a while, I wanted to make them look bad, so they looked exactly like they did in the other movies."

And hey, the boys even go into a lengthy discussion on blogs and the nature of spoiling content on the web prior to a film hitting theaters. It's fascinating because clearly Spielberg is more against this than Lucas. Here's a nice quote from George: "Y'know, Steven will say, ''Oh, everything's out on the Internet [in terms of Crystal Skull details] - what this is and what that is.'' And to that I say, ''Steven, it doesn't make any difference!'' Look - Jaws was a novel before it was a movie, and anybody could see how it ended. Didn't matter."

I strongly suggest checking out both interviews, especially the EW one with Spielberg and Lucas, as they're both fun, engaging reads. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull touches down on May 22.