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Darabont's Indy 4 Screenplay
June 15 2008 12:13 Filed in:
Movies
I wasn’t sure that within the mess that
was Indiana
Jones and the Kindgom of the Crystal Skull that there really was the potential for
a great film. Unfortunately, from my point of view, what we see in
Darabont’s screenplay, Indiana Jones and the City of the
Gods, are that
almost all the elements are there for one and pissed away by what
was actually put on screen. By halfway through the screenplay I was
scratching my head wondering what the hell could possibily have
motivated Lucas to prefer what they eventually filmed to what
Darabont turned out. It almost makes me wonder if it was personal.
They stole enough of Darabont’s material that he absolutely needs
to be irritated that he got no story credit...and he has a right to
be pissed, but probably relieved as well.
As a fan, though, I’m pissed that they stole Darabont’s story, stripped out the good stuff and replaced it with generally inferior material. Most importantly, after finishing the script I can without question say that I WANT TO SEE THAT MOVIE, and I am pissed that I will never get the chance.
First, the
similarities. Indiana Jones and the City of the
Gods is
generally the same story. Our heros are swept up, given the Skull
early, and are part of a quest to find the city to replace the
skull. This time, minus one Mutt Williams. I actually feel that
Shia as Mutt Williams was one of the bright spots of
Crystal
Skull, but I
would have sacrificed that in a heartbeat for the opportunity to
get Darabont’s version on screen.
The film starts with Indiana and his Russian partner Yuri on a dig. Yuri is the basis for Mac in what was the eventual film. One of the basic criticisms of what was on screen was that Mac was completely unnecessary to the plot -- flip-flopping sides and generally being more of a waste of time than anything else, In City of the Gods, Yuri is a key piece of the story. He is working with Indy but turns out to be a Russion spy as we find out very early in the screenplay. The opening sequence ends up pitting us in a similar scenerio as we’ve seen only this time as a Russian plot to steal some plutonium. The opening scenes work really well, but do end up in the same place as the movie, with Indy crawling into a lead-lined fridge to escape a nuclear blast. That’s okay, it’s ridiculous and a point of contention for fans, but I liked that bit in the movie and in this script.
Before I get any deeper, it’s important to say from the early scenes that the real grabber for me right off the bat is that Darabont’s aging Indy is much more the Indiana Jones we remember. In the inital scenes between Yuri and Indy, Yuri is giving Indy a hard time about getting old and boring on his digs and even quips “Adenture used to have a name...” Sound cheesy? Could be depending on how it would have been handled on film, but ultimately, Darabont peppered the script with little nods to the old films. We even have a revisitation of another classic Raiders line where Indy has to declare to Marion that “It’s not the mileage, honey, it’s the years.”
In any case, again, Indy is dragged out of the nucluar fridge situation right where he was in Crystal Skull, standing accused of treason. Only this time, it’s played a little more seriously and he’s in a lot more trouble. The big difference this time out is that this isn’t just thrown away and forgotten as it was in Crystal Skull. This sub-plot is a key driver to getting the story going, plays itself out, and comes to a satisfactory conclusion by the end. The accusation in City of the the Gods leads to a great scene the night Indy get’s canned from the university where he gets plastered drunk and heads to Marcus Brody’s museum to revisit some of his past conquests. He smashes open a display case with the Hovitos idol from the opening scene in Raiders...this time, the idol once again is set on a pressure sensitive pad, only this time hooked to a security system. We have an old, drunken Indy hazily recreating the infamous switch from Raiders. Of course, it doesn’t go well, and this is where the story takes off.
We have a cameo from Indy’s dad, who appears at the beginning and the end of the script...one or two days work that would have been worth paying Sean Connery for. There’s a nice scene between them as he’s trying to grab some things from their home (apparently living together) and explain to his dad that he’s now a wanted man being pursued as a communist conspirator. Of course, Dad insists that he must stay and clear his name...tell the truth while Indy tries to explain that the truth doesn’t matter since it’s a witch hunt.
From this point, Indy sets out on the adventure. This time, Marion is already embroiled in a big way in the hunt for the lost city since the expedition is being lead by her husband. Through the entire second act, the story is built and structured completely differently as we get a somewhat complex embroilment of the people seeking the city, including the Russians, the archeologists and Indy. Fairly standard double crossing spy stuff, but ultimately it’s important to the story.
The thing that really tugged at me during this reading is that we have the fun and outlandish Indiana Jones back here. More akin to his attitude and sense of adventure. Throughout the film we have some good scenes with the characters and a lot of humor. All of this was sadly absent in the film that hit the screen. Some may find the number of throwbacks to original movies a bit much, but they are handled extremely well and almost overtly tounge in cheek. The revisitiation to Indy’s fear of snakes in this script is a true gem. It would have been a bitch to pull off on screen, but suffice to say that in Darabont’s script, we find that Indy has long since conquered his fear of snakes and chastizes Marion for flipping out about one...only this time, Indy’s LACK of fear of snakes come back to bite him in a BIG way. It would have been a bitch to film without being over the top, but it was a great moment.
Probably the saddest thing we will never get to see is an arial battle/stunt sequence that would have blown the pants off the audience. I imagine that Lucas and Spielberg probably felt that it may have been too much to revisit this since we did have a plane chase in Last Crusade, but this one was much much different, and suffice to say would have made the Temple of Doom plane plunge with the raft seem like small change. Over the top unbelievable...but pure fucking excitement in my eyes.
Just a few other points of interest. No Willi Scott in this one either, but Darabont gets a great big dig on Spielberg with an exchange between Marion and Indy regarding whatever happened to Willi. Of course, the response is that she had moved out to Hollywood to be a star and fell in love with some big shot director. Capshaw, who played Willi fell in love with and married Spielberg after the second Indy film...blah blah, look it up on the internet.
The third act comes back to a little more of what we saw. This time, there’s a little more at stake with the aliens at the end and we find out a bit more about their purpose and intentions...and there’s a little more threat than just the weirdness we saw on the screen in Crystal Skull. In the end though, in another throwback, we come back to what Indiana Jones has been seeking: his real lifelong quest for “Fortune and Glory.”
Ultimately, throughout City of the Gods, we see flashes of many of the elements that made it to the screen in Crystal Skull, including the infamous monkeys, handled in a much less ridiculous manner and the killer ants...this time a lot more threatening and ferocious than we saw them. The title for the movie was originally announced as City of the Gods, per Darabont’s script, but it was changed quickly after that unofficial announcement. There is good reason for that. Ultimately, that the references at the end that throw in the aliens being the root of the ancient culture’s God mythology was pretty much skimmed or stripped completely from Crystal Skull. Part of me wonders if Lucas wussed out and was a little uneasy with playing too much with contradicting people’s religious beliefs.
I will forever be disappointed that we didn’t get this version of the movie, but I can’t say that I would rather have never gotten to spend another couple of hours with my friend Indiana Jones again, even knowing that it could have been so much better than what we had. There was still just enough to like about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to make it worthwhile. Part of me would really like to see them take one last shot with Ford and Spielberg, reconcile with Darabont and take some of the great sequences from this script and incorporate it into a nice parting visit with Indiana Jones. A handful of great dialogue exchanges and some uber cool action sequences from this script would be enough to build another film around that would ultimately be much better. Cynically, though, I would have to believe that we will probably see is more Shia and swinging monkeys before we had a shot at redemption for the Indy character.
As a fan, though, I’m pissed that they stole Darabont’s story, stripped out the good stuff and replaced it with generally inferior material. Most importantly, after finishing the script I can without question say that I WANT TO SEE THAT MOVIE, and I am pissed that I will never get the chance.
The film starts with Indiana and his Russian partner Yuri on a dig. Yuri is the basis for Mac in what was the eventual film. One of the basic criticisms of what was on screen was that Mac was completely unnecessary to the plot -- flip-flopping sides and generally being more of a waste of time than anything else, In City of the Gods, Yuri is a key piece of the story. He is working with Indy but turns out to be a Russion spy as we find out very early in the screenplay. The opening sequence ends up pitting us in a similar scenerio as we’ve seen only this time as a Russian plot to steal some plutonium. The opening scenes work really well, but do end up in the same place as the movie, with Indy crawling into a lead-lined fridge to escape a nuclear blast. That’s okay, it’s ridiculous and a point of contention for fans, but I liked that bit in the movie and in this script.
Before I get any deeper, it’s important to say from the early scenes that the real grabber for me right off the bat is that Darabont’s aging Indy is much more the Indiana Jones we remember. In the inital scenes between Yuri and Indy, Yuri is giving Indy a hard time about getting old and boring on his digs and even quips “Adenture used to have a name...” Sound cheesy? Could be depending on how it would have been handled on film, but ultimately, Darabont peppered the script with little nods to the old films. We even have a revisitation of another classic Raiders line where Indy has to declare to Marion that “It’s not the mileage, honey, it’s the years.”
In any case, again, Indy is dragged out of the nucluar fridge situation right where he was in Crystal Skull, standing accused of treason. Only this time, it’s played a little more seriously and he’s in a lot more trouble. The big difference this time out is that this isn’t just thrown away and forgotten as it was in Crystal Skull. This sub-plot is a key driver to getting the story going, plays itself out, and comes to a satisfactory conclusion by the end. The accusation in City of the the Gods leads to a great scene the night Indy get’s canned from the university where he gets plastered drunk and heads to Marcus Brody’s museum to revisit some of his past conquests. He smashes open a display case with the Hovitos idol from the opening scene in Raiders...this time, the idol once again is set on a pressure sensitive pad, only this time hooked to a security system. We have an old, drunken Indy hazily recreating the infamous switch from Raiders. Of course, it doesn’t go well, and this is where the story takes off.
We have a cameo from Indy’s dad, who appears at the beginning and the end of the script...one or two days work that would have been worth paying Sean Connery for. There’s a nice scene between them as he’s trying to grab some things from their home (apparently living together) and explain to his dad that he’s now a wanted man being pursued as a communist conspirator. Of course, Dad insists that he must stay and clear his name...tell the truth while Indy tries to explain that the truth doesn’t matter since it’s a witch hunt.
From this point, Indy sets out on the adventure. This time, Marion is already embroiled in a big way in the hunt for the lost city since the expedition is being lead by her husband. Through the entire second act, the story is built and structured completely differently as we get a somewhat complex embroilment of the people seeking the city, including the Russians, the archeologists and Indy. Fairly standard double crossing spy stuff, but ultimately it’s important to the story.
The thing that really tugged at me during this reading is that we have the fun and outlandish Indiana Jones back here. More akin to his attitude and sense of adventure. Throughout the film we have some good scenes with the characters and a lot of humor. All of this was sadly absent in the film that hit the screen. Some may find the number of throwbacks to original movies a bit much, but they are handled extremely well and almost overtly tounge in cheek. The revisitiation to Indy’s fear of snakes in this script is a true gem. It would have been a bitch to pull off on screen, but suffice to say that in Darabont’s script, we find that Indy has long since conquered his fear of snakes and chastizes Marion for flipping out about one...only this time, Indy’s LACK of fear of snakes come back to bite him in a BIG way. It would have been a bitch to film without being over the top, but it was a great moment.
Probably the saddest thing we will never get to see is an arial battle/stunt sequence that would have blown the pants off the audience. I imagine that Lucas and Spielberg probably felt that it may have been too much to revisit this since we did have a plane chase in Last Crusade, but this one was much much different, and suffice to say would have made the Temple of Doom plane plunge with the raft seem like small change. Over the top unbelievable...but pure fucking excitement in my eyes.
Just a few other points of interest. No Willi Scott in this one either, but Darabont gets a great big dig on Spielberg with an exchange between Marion and Indy regarding whatever happened to Willi. Of course, the response is that she had moved out to Hollywood to be a star and fell in love with some big shot director. Capshaw, who played Willi fell in love with and married Spielberg after the second Indy film...blah blah, look it up on the internet.
The third act comes back to a little more of what we saw. This time, there’s a little more at stake with the aliens at the end and we find out a bit more about their purpose and intentions...and there’s a little more threat than just the weirdness we saw on the screen in Crystal Skull. In the end though, in another throwback, we come back to what Indiana Jones has been seeking: his real lifelong quest for “Fortune and Glory.”
Ultimately, throughout City of the Gods, we see flashes of many of the elements that made it to the screen in Crystal Skull, including the infamous monkeys, handled in a much less ridiculous manner and the killer ants...this time a lot more threatening and ferocious than we saw them. The title for the movie was originally announced as City of the Gods, per Darabont’s script, but it was changed quickly after that unofficial announcement. There is good reason for that. Ultimately, that the references at the end that throw in the aliens being the root of the ancient culture’s God mythology was pretty much skimmed or stripped completely from Crystal Skull. Part of me wonders if Lucas wussed out and was a little uneasy with playing too much with contradicting people’s religious beliefs.
I will forever be disappointed that we didn’t get this version of the movie, but I can’t say that I would rather have never gotten to spend another couple of hours with my friend Indiana Jones again, even knowing that it could have been so much better than what we had. There was still just enough to like about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to make it worthwhile. Part of me would really like to see them take one last shot with Ford and Spielberg, reconcile with Darabont and take some of the great sequences from this script and incorporate it into a nice parting visit with Indiana Jones. A handful of great dialogue exchanges and some uber cool action sequences from this script would be enough to build another film around that would ultimately be much better. Cynically, though, I would have to believe that we will probably see is more Shia and swinging monkeys before we had a shot at redemption for the Indy character.