No, this isn't game news, but it's a pretty big deal. I'm not sure how many of you have been keeping up with the crazy fifteen year development history of a fourth Indiana Jones movie, how production was almost going to happen like 5 billion times under five billion different screenplays before something insane always happened to throw a wrench into everything (like when George Lucas, the guy who gave us the sterling dialogue of Phantom Menace, rejected a screenplay by the Shawshank Redemption guy), etc.
But Indy finally seems to have gotten a script that the Big Three (Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford) can agree on and Lucasfilm has announced that filming will take place next year for a 2008 release. Lucas' thoughts on the project are excitingly immodest: "It's going to be fantastic. It's going to be the best one yet." Awesome!
There is of course the whole thing about whether the movie will be utter rubbish or not, but don't think about that right now, we've got a new Indiana Jones movie to look forward to. It's probably a huge relief for the marketing folks over at LucasArts, as the fact that the movie will actually come out will certainly benefit the new game, due out next summer. Get out your whip and fedora and get excited.
Update:
Phew! Everything's cool. Go back to celebrating. And here's the Lucasfilm press release to allay any remaining doubts.
Anyway, Spielberg/Lucas duo it's always great.
And yes, usually filming takes up to 6 month (maybe less) and the rest up to just weeks before the release it's all postproduction. Preproduction was very likely been carried away during all 2006.
Bah, seriously now, I don't exactly have high hopes for this. Next thing you know, Zemeckis will be shooting a Back to the Future IV. *shudders*
Also if you look at the previous Indy movies they weren't really these huge budgeted films and they had pretty normal 3-5 month shooting schedules. I don't think the new Indy is being treated like it's the biggest movie of all time, but that could be a good thing.
Actually, I think it's been said awhile ago that storywise the new game has absolutely nothing to do with the new movie. They weren't basing it off the script, and if they were it would have been a completely different script than the one the movie is actually using now. While it probably would have been ideal for the movie to be released in 2007, I think it was clear as far as like two years ago that such a release date was not possible. From what I've gathered, it's pretty remarkable that this movie is being made at all.
http://www.theindyexperience.com/may_2005.shtml
"While the movies have moved forward in time to accommodate Harrison Ford's maturation, the game has no such constraints. It will take place in the prime of Indy's career: the roaring thirties.
Although it won't be a prologue per se, you can expect story seeds that tie to the new film. Those will include cinematics from the new film to help flesh out the plotlines. "
Which is why I wonder if some of the game will be retooled to contiue the links to the final script.
>> After he went on about how inexcusable it is to delay games?<<
LOL. Yeah, well we all know how he needs to tie every game release with some sort of other marketing 'event'. The issue Ward had with release dates slipping was that the game that slipped (Superman?) missed the movie launch. Given there isn't a firm release date for the Indy game yet, I'd say the schedule could be rejigged for the movie release. Or I gues at the least tie in with the timing of the first movie trailer (perhaps even putting the trailer on the DVDs as an exclusive).
As far as delaying the game. Worth noting is that interview happened at a time when the film was thought to be on track with the Darabont script. Since then and until now it's been in limbo and LucasArts obviously knew that when they've kept repeating their summer 2007 release date, so I think they've long given up on their "we're going to integrate scenes from the new film" plan. They're going to take advantage of the new movie as much as they can, but they're not going to reschedule or redesign the game around it. (That's my prediction. Could be wrong.) Whatever links there were supposed to be between the game and the movie, I'm sure you're right and they will be updated accordingly.
Also I guess Indy 4 will be the final feature film to come out of Lucasfilm, and afterwards it'll all be their crazy television stuff.
Source
"A few days ago, Variety, trying to make headlines, reported that Uncle George would stop making films and strictly go into the TV business starting with both the animated and live action Star Wars TV series. While acknowledging that he still had two projects in the works, Red Tails and the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series, the trade stated that he was quitting the movie business.
As it turns out Daily Variety was twisting his words quite a bit, he is not quitting the film business and actually told us the he will never give up filmmaking and agreed that the trade publication blew things out of proportion . ''I?m still doing large features, we are not doing large budgets, even on Indiana Jones we are going to keep the budget down,'' says Lucas."