IndianaJones Tagged Articles at Cinematical

A little known fact about Empire Strikes Back was that George Lucas had popular singer/songwriter L.B. Rayne put together a righteous power ballad for the film's soundtrack, and supposedly the song -- titled "Skywalking" -- was to be featured throughout the film and over the credits as well. Lucas, however, scratched the idea at the last second, later admitting that it didn't really fit with the film's themes. Rumors suggest there's a lost cut of Empire Strikes Back that contains "Skywalking" in the film, though I've personally never seen it, nor do I know anyone who's seen it.

Back in the late 80s, I remember my friends passing around a bootleg cassette tape of "Skywalking", but that was the last I heard of it ... until now. Yes, folks, the power ballad that was at one time a tall tale Star Wars fans shared with one another around a late night campfire has finally arrived online in music video format. Of course this song would never have worked in the movie, but it's great to have it out there again so that younger Star Wars fans can enjoy a little piece of galactic history.

As far as L.B. Rayne goes, his career pretty much ended in 1985 when he lost to a one-legged mule in a drinking contest ... but his legacy lives on! After the jump, check out Rayne's power ballads for Empire Strikes Back and Indiana Jones (another one Lucas commissioned but never used).

Indiana Jones ... Ferris Bueller ... James T. Kirk ... Harry Potter ... Freddy Krueger ... Sam Witwicky? This summer has certainly seen it's fair share of iconic characters returning to the big screen, most notably in Star Trek and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. And next year we'll see new incarnations of Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street and the titular Alice in Wonderland. More often, though, it seems that memorable characters have been crowded off the stage in favor of interchangeable "types" rotating through a stock collection of cliches. The robots were better defined in Terminator: Salvation and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen than the people. Where have all the great characters created expressly for the screen gone?

True, most of the great movie characters of the past sprang either from real life or the fertile imagination of novelists. Yet Charles Foster Kane, J.J. Gittes, Travis Bickle, Rocky Balboa, Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, and Ferris Bueller were all original characters, even if they were influenced by various literary works. We still see larger-than-life characters that emerge fully-formed from the pages of a novel, like Harry Potter. And independent films are filled with indelible portraits of an incredible range of realistic characters. Why, then, have so few distinctive original characters entered into our popular consciousness from Hollywood studio productions in recent years?

Are Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Bruno the best we can hope for? Why can't we remember any other character's name from this year's crop of popular titles? Are event movies driving memorable characters from the screen in favor of CGI and action sequences? Are great original characters -- not based on a pre-existing property -- gone for good?

I guess this is the news that nobody was waiting for, but the threat of another Indiana Jones film has been inching closer to reality by the day, and now The Insider has received reports that Harrison Ford will be polishing off the fedora and the whip one last time. There have been rumblings about a fifth film ever since Crystal Skull first hit theaters, but now we've gone past rumblings and finally started to hear some details. Both Shia LaBeouf and producer Frank Marshall have recently confirmed that a film is in the works, and now, Insider's sources are saying that, "...filming will not start until next year, and it will not be released before 2011." Now, if you happen to be mathematically inclined, you might notice that Ford will be almost 70 by the time the film starts production, which would probably make for a slightly less 'active' Indy this time around.

I won't waste your time recounting all the ways that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a let-down for fans -- you know things are bad when an unflattering 'buzz-word' is created as a tribute. But maybe it's possible that a fifth film could correct some of those mistakes. Call me naive, but there is a very (and I mean, very) small part of me that thinks George Lucas and Steven Spielberg may have learned their lesson, and will go back to what made the original films so great. Maybe this time they could capitalize on the relationship between Indy and his son Mutt to try recapturing some of that Last Crusade vibe? But, I guess we can take comfort in the fact that no matter what those two come up with this time, it certainly couldn't get any worse than what was ... or can it?

Ah, the sequel no one is clamoring for has reared its head again. To be fair, some people enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and with worldwide gross receipts totaling nearly $800 million, the only question that remained was when Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford would be ready to give it another go. (Our own poll last year suggested that it was time to retire the franchise.) Reportedly, Lucas favored the idea of continuing with old Indiana Jones as the lead character rather than handing things over to young Mutt Williams, played by Shia LaBeouf. Research was being conducted to find an artifact that the movie could be based on.

In the UK to promote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, LaBeouf talked to the BBC and revealed that he had spoken recently with Spielberg about another Indiana Jones movie: "Steven just said he cracked a story on it before I left. I think they're gearing that up." Spielberg is busy filming The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, so maybe he talked with Lucas between shots: "Hi, George, it's Steven. What if Indy searches for a shabti?" "Steven, what's a shabti?" "You know, George, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, the inspiration for that segment with Mickey Mouse in Fantasia?" "Of course, Steven, who do you think you're talking to?" "Well, George, the shabti was a figurine that was buried with the dead and performed hard labor for the deceased in the afterlife." "Ooh, I know, Mutt could try to get to it first, so he would never have to do manual labor for Indy any more!" "George, I think we've cracked it."

We'll wait to see if an official confirmation seeps out. Are you holding your breath for Indy 5?

In an interesting video game/movie tie-in, GameStop has a promo running until June 30, 2009 ("or until all e-Movie Cash tickets have been distributed, whichever comes first," natch) called "Love the Movie - Live the Game," and it's definitely a mixed bag.

Basically, if you buy one of the following games, you can get a $10 voucher for select movies at participating theaters that's only good until July 31, 2009. That's a lot of ifs, especially if you check out the games they're offering, which are not all tied in to current releases. And some of them will make real gaming geeks bleed from the eyes. Take a look.

Finding out how your favorite movies came to be is generally very rewarding and educational. You seek out The Seven Samurai, and thank the film gods that a robotic shark failed to work. At the very least, you can win trivia contests by knowing what Rosebud was, and impress your friends by telling them who was originally cast as Aragorn.

And then there's the stuff you wish you had never known. This week, you may have been one of the Indy fans who eagerly downloaded the Raiders of the Lost Ark transcript, where George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan hashed out ideas for one of the greatest film characters of all time. Cool stuff. Useful if you aim to write books or movies someday. Then I read this bit about Marion and Indy, and their ideas for their early love affair gone wrong:

GL: I was thinking that this old guy could have been his mentor. He could have known this little girl when she was just a kid. Had an affair with her when she was eleven.

LK: And he was forty-two.

GL: He hasn't seen her in twelve years. Now she's twenty-two. It's a real strange relationship.

SS: She had better be older than twenty-two.

While Oscar was planning to hand out golden statues to the best films of the year, the 29th Annual Golden Rasberry (Razzie) Awards were being handed out to the year's worst. The big winner (or loser) this year was The Love Guru, which not only took home Worst Picture, but Worst Actor (for Mike Myers) and Worst Screenplay (Mike Myers and Graham Gordy). The Hottie and The Nottie nabbed two Razzies, with star Paris Hilton taking home honors in the Worst Actress category (for Hottie and the Nottie), as well as Worst Supporting Actress (in Repo: The Genetic Opera). Ms. Hilton also shared the spotlight with Christine Lakin or Joel David Moore for Worst Screen Couple.

Indiana Jones' return to the big screen garnered a whole bunch of negative reactions, and the film did little to impress the Razzie voters since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull won the award for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. Wow, there's a lot of room in that sucker ... and it went to Indy? Let's just say Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jessica Alba both got away with one there. Rounding things out, Uwe Boll won for Worst Director and Worst Career Achievement, with the tagline "Germany's Answer to Ed Wood".

Check out the entire list over here, then let us know what you think they got right or wrong. Was The Love Guru really the worst picture of the year? Did Indy deserve worst sequel/remake/prequel status?

Sean Connery did it, Joaquin Phoenix apparently did it, and countless other actors, actresses and filmmakers have talked about it at one point or another -- leaving us, along with the pages of People Magazine, to wonder when, how or what if. It's funny, too, because you don't find many people who want to retire from the entertainment business, simply because most either never make it, fall out of the spotlight or wind up overdosing on drugs, their own ego or something along those lines wayyy before they'd ever reach an age to retire at. But here's a good question: Could the fans at home ever force someone into retirement?

Our good friend Jenna Busch wrote a little thing for Sci Fi Wire on nine reasons why George Lucas should retire ... like, now. Say what you want about Lucas and his career choices, but the man definitely still has his fans -- as poor Jenna is feeling the fanboy wrath in the comments section of her post. Her reasons, of course, mention Lucas' "additions" to the original Star Wars films, the fact that he refuses to release any of his flicks in hi-def, his work on both Willow and Howard the Duck (two awesome guilty pleasures, in my opinion), etc ...

While I've thrown more than a few internet punches at Lucas over the years, I have to say I'm really enjoying the Clone Wars animated show on Cartoon Network (seriously, watch it), I didn't loathe Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as much as the rest of you did, and I feel Lucas still has a few good chunks of awesomeness left in him. That said, you all (including the lovely Jenna) may feel differently. So have at it below: Should Lucas retire?

The original title of the post over on The Toy Zone is '20 Classic Films Recreated in LEGO', but when you have stuff like Serenity, The Ring, The Life Aquatic and Men in Black -- well, do we really consider those to be classic films? I sure don't, but that doesn't mean they're bad movies ... just not classics. Casablanca, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey ... I give you those. But the rest? Eh. Nevertheless, they have up scenes from 20 "popular" films recreated in LEGO and some of them are pretty damn cool -- like the one above which recreates one of the opening scenes from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

We snagged a few of our favorites for the gallery below, so check them out and let us know which ones you like the best. Personally, for me it's a tie between Star Wars, Alien, Casablanca and The Ring (I never thought a LEGO image would creep me out, but there you have it -- creepy indeed). Enjoy.