Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Indiana Jones series of movies is one of the best loved probably because they are some of the most fun adventure movies of all time and are directed by Steven Spielberg. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the fourth in the series and has been in the development stage since 1989.
According to 101 CELEBRATIONS, that’s because the main hero Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg had some disagreement.
Spielberg and Ford initially disagreed over executive producer George Lucas’s choice of the skull as the plot device. Screenwriters Jeb Stuart, Jeffrey Boam, M. Night Shyamalan, Frank Darabont and Jeff Nathanson wrote drafts, before David Koepp’s script satisfied all three men. Shooting finally commenced on June 18, 2007, and took place at New Mexico, New Haven, Connecticut, Hawaii, Fresno, California, and soundstages in Los Angeles.
This time, instead of Nazis, Indiana Jones is going to be up against agents of the Soviet Union who are also looking for the crystal skull. To keep the atmosphere of previous films they used computer-generated imagery as little as possible. Harrison Ford also had to spend two hours in the gym every day to get in shape for his role.
The Movie Blog includes some of Lucas’ comments on the movie.
We came back to do (Indy) because we wanted to have fun. It’s not going to make much money for us in the end. We all have some money. … It would make a lot of money if you weren’t rich. But we’re not doing it for the money.