The Indiana Jones movie we could've had.

[funkjomamma]

I recently purchased the new Sci-Fi magazine (for the Doctor Who article) and the feature article is on the fourth Indy movie. There's a timeline showing the different scripts that had been written for the movie by different people, and this is the first one:

"Mid-1980's-Gremlins writer and future Harry Potter director Chris Columbus reportedly writes Indiana Jones and the Monkey King (aka Indiana Jones and the Garden of Life), about A Chinese deity living in a hidden city in Africa that holds sacred peaches trees that are the key to immortality. Action scenes reportedly include a moment in which Indy rides a rhino to fight a Nazi tank, and another moment in which super-intelligent gorillas (like something out of Gorilla City in the Flash comics) hook up with Indy and an army of pygmies to fight those dirty Krauts."

I for one am very thankful that this is NOT the movie we are getting.

[MaxTheSilent]

Yeah, the Columbus script has been online for years.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010306195243/http://www.kino.orc.ru/continue/INDIANA_JONES_4_2.html

You can also get the Jeb Stuart/George Lucas script for INDIANA JONES AND THE SAUCERMEN FROM MARS.

http://www.theindyexperience.com/zip_file_archive/saucer_men_from_mars_script_notepad.zip


For me I'm desperate to read Darabont's rejected '06 draft, because by all accounts the actual ...CRYSTAL SKULL movie cribs tonnes of Frank's stuff anyway.

Should be an interesting arbitration issue if this is true.

[scoobydiesel]

i still want atlantis or whatever but im down with the skull

[stubadub]

It's hard to imagine that the Darabont script was anything but stellar, especially considering how quickly Spielberg and Ford jumped on board. I'm curious to find out what the deal breaker was for Lucas. At this point I think the last person who should be allowed creative control is George Lucas. "People think Empire is the best Star Wars film, but they're wrong. It's actually the worst." Thanks for the tip, George. I'll throw that one away and just watch more Phantom Menace.

[MaxTheSilent]

Both Spielberg and Ford loved Darabont's script, which Frank and Spielberg had slaved over for a year. And with Darabont being an A-list director in his own right he turned down a lot of jobs to devote himself fully to writing the film.

I remember in an interview him saying that he actually called Lucas "crazy" to his face for turning the script down, and that Lucas didn't so much as blink.

Certain websites (such as C.H.U.D.) have read Darabont's script and have dropped little hints as to it's content. Mainly that apparently Marion was in it all the way through, with her and Indy being a matched team. I think now she's more an extended cameo.