Here’s another update in the story of Indiana Jones and the Fifth Film Stuck in Development Hell.
I know the last time Indy news dropped it was a huge “shake my head” moment for you Screenagers. Spielberg is out and James Mangold is in as director. Well, it looks like that with Mangold at the helm, screenwriter David Koepp is no longer needed for script duties.
Koepp has been attached at various points in Indiana Jones 5‘s development. However, it looks like he just couldn’t crack the story. Harrison Ford revealed back in February that the sequel was dealing with script issues. That’s probably one reason Spielberg left. Indy was taking up too much of his valuable time and he would rather use his remaining years to kickstart a War Horse Cinematic Universe.
Speaking with Collider, Koepp confirmed he was no longer writing Indy 5:
“When James Mangold came in … he deserves a chance to take his shot at it. I’d done several versions with Steven. And when Steven left, it seemed like the right time to let Jim have his own take on it and have his own person or himself write it.”
It looks like Mangold will take a crack at telling the next (and perhaps final) Indiana Jones adventure.Last month, Mangold revealed he wanted to bring something new to the franchise:
“I think the most important thing is, in an age when franchises have become a commodity, that serving the same thing again. At least for me, in the dances I’ve had with any franchises, serving the same thing again, the same way, usually just produces a longing for the first time you ate it. Meaning, it makes an audience wish that they just had the first one over again. So you have to push something to someplace new, while also remembering the core reasons why everyone was gathered. And to use Logan as an example of that, when you’re dealing in a world of a very pressured franchise.”
I’m definitely onboard to see an Old Man Indy film, especially if the plot revolves around the Fountain of Youth and Indy questioning whether or not he should use it. Of course, it’s been 12 years since Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and we still have two more years until the film is scheduled to hit theaters. That would put the franchise’s time period into the late sixties-early seventies. That’s getting a bit too recent for my liking (although technically it still honors the fifty year difference from the film’s time period to our real life).
Let’s just not wait another ten years and have Indiana Jones confronting the Cold War in the 1980s. That just seems a bit too weird. Maybe Indiana Jones could save kidnapped film directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas instead? Too meta? Probably.
Indiana Jones 5 hits theaters July 29, 2022 (but let’s be honest, it’ll probably be delayed).
Do you think Mangold can pull off one final adventure for Indy? Tell us which characters you’d like to see Mangold bring back down in the comments.
