The International House of Mojo

Okay, so we're all aware of the behind-the-scenes soap opera concerning the various screenplays that attempted to rejuvenate the Indiana Jones film series before a script was finally written that was actually produced into the film we're all going to be seeing on May 22. By far the most well-known of the rejected drafts was the one by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, some Young Indy episodes), a treatment reportedly loved by Spielberg but not-so-loved by big George. Despite the attempts of the internet media to make it look like Frank Darabont is incredibly pissed off and wants to shoot George Lucas repeatedly in the face, it's evident that he's pretty chill on the whole thing:



Something you'll notice in that interview, though, is that Darabont mentions the possibility of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull containing more than a few similarities to his own work. The above interview was conducted a few months ago when Darabont was promoting his latest film, The Mist, and he had not yet read the script to see just how much of his ideas were used.

Well, it would seem, according to this annoyingly written article that not enough of Darabont's work survived the finished film to get his name in the credits, at least in the opinion of the WGA or whoever's responsibility it is to decide such matters. Interestingly, though, Jeff Nathanson shares a "story" credit with George Lucas in the final credits list - Nathanson is the guy who penned a draft between Darabont's dismissal and the final screenplay by David Koepp. Is there in fact a good deal of Darabont's work in the final product? Who knows, but I thought this was worth sharing.