indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skulls Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Happy New Year everyone! Here's hoping you've survived whatever madness the holidays brought forth, and have welcomed 2008 into your home and your heart. I was telling a friend on New Years Eve that it already felt like 2008; how all I've been doing for the past several months is writing about films coming out in 2008, and so in a weird way I've been living in 2008 since -- I dunno -- last May. Anyway, obviously, the big news today came in the form of this Vanity Fair article on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls. While I hate to kick off the new year on a negative note, I couldn't help but read some of George Lucas' comments and kind of get pissed off at the dude.

Ya know, God bless the guy for giving us Star Wars and the first three Indiana Jones films, but sometimes he just blurts out stupid stuff and comes off as such a d*ck. Take these quotes for example from the Vanity Fair article: "I know the critics are going to hate it [meaning the new Indy film]. They already hate it. So there's nothing we can do about that. They hate the idea that we're making another one. They've already made up their minds." Then, after pretending to know how all the critics feel about the film, he moves on to the fans: "The fans are all upset. They're always going to be upset. 'Why did he do it like this? And why didn't he do it like this?' They write their own movie, and then, if you don't do their movie, they get upset about it. So you just have to stand by for the bricks and the custard pies, because they're going to come flying your way."

First off, which critics already hate this movie? We've always supported it (though we've taken cracks at Harrison Ford and his age), and from what I can tell, all the other major movie sites support the film as well and cannot wait for it. The fans I'll cut him some slack for, seeing as we have received a bunch of comments from folks who don't think this film should've been made. But that being said, why does the guy have to be so negative? Why can't he have faith in his film -- why can't he be a little more convincing and -- I dunno -- give us a reason to support a fourth Indiana Jones film? Is it just me, or is Lucas unleashing his negative vibe a tad too early?

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]

On October 11, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls officially wrapped production, and a new video has popped up on the official Indiana Jones website celebrating the occasion. Earlier this year, the first video revealed a toast from director Steven Spielberg to his crew on the first day of shooting. There wasn't much to see, except for George Lucas in a "Han Shot First' t-shirt, but in this latest video they actually go back to each Indiana Jones film and show footage from the last day of shooting. On both the first and the third film, we see Spielberg call it a wrap, but on the second -- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom -- I'm not quite sure if it is the last shot, but we see video of them shooting the final bridge sequence.

So basically, we go through each film before settling in on the fourth. We see shots of the entire cast (we get a brief look at Cate Blanchett and John Hurt for the first time) in what appears to be interview mode, leading me to believe that future videos will incorporate interviews with the cast. Finally, we see Spielberg, with a glass of champagne, toasting his crew once again ... however, unfortunately, we do not get to see the final shot. Additionally, it appears the website is gearing up for a big marketing run leading up to its May 22, 2008 release -- adding top bars for stuff like galleries, news, adventures, games, merch, community and one for Marshall College. The majority of them only show a "coming soon" at this point, but I expect the website to be hella active in the coming months. Next up: Our first trailer?

The other day, Paramount invited a select group of online writers to attend a special luncheon with director Steven Spielberg who wanted to reward them for their help in apprehending the dude who was trying to sell all those stolen Indiana Jones photos. In doing so, the folks in attendance asked Spielberg tons of questions regarding all of his most talked-about projects, including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, Transformers 2 and Tintin. Of course, when you bring this all-star team of websites together, don't expect a bunch of B.S. questions -- they cut straight to the chase. As far as Indy 4 goes, there's only two days left of shooting, Shia LaBeouf and Harrison Ford have performed most of their own stunts, the flick was shot on film, not digital (with as much practical effects work as possible) and Drew Struzan will be back for the poster.

Additionally, there's been talk about re-releasing the first three Indiana Jones films on the big screen prior to the fourth installment arriving in theaters. No doubt this was George Lucas' idea, and Spielberg said he's not so sure he wants to do it. He'd rather Indiana Jones 4 be the first time folks are seeing Indy on the big screen in 18 years. (Personally, I'd like to see the first three on the big screen at some point -- not long ago, I caught a screening of Raiders and had such a friggin' blast.) As far as Transformers 2 goes, they're working double-time to complete the script and Spielberg said it will be handed in a couple weeks from now, with the potential goal to begin shooting early next year. Spielberg also played coy when folks asked whether Shia LaBeouf would continue the Indy franchise, saying "we will see, he still has multiple Transformers films to do." I suppose that means LaBeouf will stay with the robots through at least a third film.

Finally, for the Tintin news. All three films will indeed be motion capture, with Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg each directing one installment. The cool news is that if they do not find a director to helm the third installment, Jackson and Spielberg will co-direct. Now if that's not a fanboy's wet dream, I don't know what is. Those interested in reading more about the Spielberg fireside chat, feel free to check out reports from any one of the following sites: IESB, Coming Soon, Latino Review, IGN, CHUD, JoBlo, Slashfilm and AICN.

Throughout my entire life, I've had to deal with people who think they're clever and original when saying: "Oh, Erik Davis ... like the baseball player!" Luckily, there's only one relatively famous man with the same name as I, and even then only hardcore baseball fans know who he is. But it still happens all the time. One day, about 10 years ago, I actually got to meet the baseball player Eric Davis during a Yankees game. It was always a dream of mine to tell him exactly how horrible it was growing up with the same name as him, and when I finally got the chance, he laughed, signed my ticket and high-fived me. Oh well. Anyway, this morning I woke up to a bunch of people IM'ing me with things like, "So, how much were you trying to sell those Indiana Jones photos for?" and "Ooohh, you have to tell me more about those Indiana Jones photos!"

Obviously, I had no idea what they were talking about until my friend sent me a link to that story about the dude who ripped off thousands of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls photos. We first told you about the situation the other day, back when IESB had already broke the news that this guy was caught in a sting operation. Well, it took the rest of the world a few days to catch up, and finally the culprit's name has been released to the media: Roderick Eric Davis. Nice. Thankfully, it's spelled with a 'C' and there's that whole 'Roderick' thing in front of the name, but still -- I imagine some folks might glance past the story and say to themselves, "Isn't that the guy who runs Cinematical?" Well, it's not me. And I have no idea who he is. But wouldn't it be wonderful if Eric Davis (the baseball player) woke up this morning to someone asking him about the missing Indiana Jones photos? Mmmm, one can only hope ... high five!

Though we haven't heard much about Steven Spielberg's Abraham Lincoln biopic, Lincoln, Newsweek seems to think Sally Field has been cast as Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. All we know so far is that Liam Neeson has signed to play Lincoln, and according to IMDb, Marcia Gay Harden was rumored to be up for the role of Mary Todd. But things seemed to be put on hold once Spielberg decided to direct Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, and with a strike looming, we weren't sure whether the director would have time to helm another film -- let alone which film that would be.

But in a Newsweek article discussing a new exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, "Mary Todd Lincoln: First Lady of Controversy," they come right out and say that Liam Neeson and Sally Field will be playing Lincoln and Mary Todd respectively in the new Spielberg film. In her later years, Mary Todd was committed to an insane asylum, but only after three of her four kids had died and her husband was shot to death while she held his hand. But was she really insane? Spielberg will base his film on the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. According to the Amazon description, "Team of Rivals doesn't just tell the story of Abraham Lincoln. It is a multiple biography of the entire team of personal and political competitors that he put together to lead the country through its greatest crisis. Here, Doris Kearns Goodwin profiles five of the key players in her book, four of whom contended for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination and all of whom later worked together in Lincoln's cabinet." Sally Field is currently starring on the TV show Brothers & Sisters (for which she just won an Emmy), and so for her to be able to take on the role, I assume she'll have to do so while the show is on hiatus. As of now, nothing is official.

After that big plot leak this morning from an extra, I didn't think I'd ever again see another spoiler about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls. But then, thanks to Movieweb, I came across an interview with George Lucas, himself, at TV Guide.com. And guess what? The Indiana producer shares some new information about the seemingly secreted blockbuster. Mind you, he doesn't really technically share any plot points or spoilers, but he does confirm one major thing: Sean Connery will not be making a cameo. All our hopes that somehow Connery had taken the role without it getting out to the media are now over. Turns out that Connery would rather stay retired and "play golf." But that isn't all. It turns out Lucas actually replaced Connery with another actor.

Say what? Don't worry, Lucas assures us that not only was Connery substituted, but so was his character. So, the replacement isn't Henry Jones (aka Indy's dad), it is some other minor character who somehow fulfills the same narrative role. In the end, Lucas claims it was better this way, because fans would have seen Connery early on and then hoped he was going to appear throughout. The original script, though, had Henry Jones show up only for a short part. Could this substitute character be Jim Broadbent's academic colleague at Yale? Makes sense. Check out Lucas' exact reasoning for why the switch was better in TV Guide's interview.

In more tune with this morning's leak, MTV Movies Blog yesterday posted some words from Cate Blanchett regarding her character. Of course, the actress was more tight-lipped than Tyler Nelson, and only confirmed that regretfully she was not a romantic interest for Indy and nowhere in the script did it call for she and Harrison Ford to share a kiss. So, before today's spoilers, it was already speculated with strong evidence that Blanchett would be playing some sort of villain.

Granted, this might be stepping into TV Squad's domain, but it is about Steven Spielberg after all. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Spielberg's adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub's 1984 novel, The Talisman, has hit a financial roadblock. According to THR, the miniseries originally slated to premiere on TNT in 2008, "has been put on hold because of budgetary issues" -- which will definitely put a crimp in the plans to expand the story into an ongoing series. The Talisman focuses on a young boy who journeys into a parallel dimension to save his mother. Sources for THR said that once all the scripts had been completed, it became obvious that the project would require a huge special FX budget that TNT wasn't ready to fork over. Spielberg first bought the novel for his own Amblin Entertainment over 20 years ago. Never one to give up, as late as 2004, he was still trying to make the film under his DreamWorks shingle. Past directors attached to the project include: Vadim Perelman (who just signed for Angelina Jolie's Atlas Shrugged), and Ed Zwick (Blood Diamond).

As I'm sure we are all aware, Spielberg is still working on the fourth installment of Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull -- and I don't think I'm alone in saying that they managed to pick a doozy of a title this time around. There has also been talk that Spielberg might be taking over directorial duties on Aaron Sorkin's film about the 1968 Democratic convention. If he does, the only question will probably revolve around how he's going to work Shia LaBeouf into that one. As for his TV aspirations, until TNT can sort out a budget for the mini-series, it looks like The Talisman is going to stay on the shelf just a little while longer.