Did anyone see this coming?
Going strictly by the worldwide gross ($787 million) of INDY 4, it should come a surprise to no one that, according to Shia LaBeouf (in an interview with the BBC), George Lucas and Steven Spielberg - two guys who love racking up box office records as much as they love making movies - would want to continue with the series. But considering that the last film ended with the whip-cracking archaeologist settling down and getting, *gasp*, married, wouldn't it seem a bit weird to drag him--
Okay, so this was totally a done deal the minute everyone realized the franchise was more popular than it's ever been. Yes, it may have been received poorly by some fans and critics, but money is money, and INDY 4 made a fucking pile of it. The question before us now is "Who's the lead: Indy or Mutt?" And if the answer is the latter, then I think it's fair to start wondering "Who's going to direct?", since I'm having a hard time seeing Spielberg return for what would essentially be a spinoff. I could be wrong (and that's not meant as any disrespect to Shia, who's a fine actor in my opinion), but that's the way it always felt like it would play out before we saw INDY 4. And now that we've seen INDY 4, I have a hard time believing Spielberg has a shred of interest in directing this kind of film anymore.
But I guess I could see him coming back for INDY 5 if his old pal Harrison was eager to take the lead one more time.
Frankly, I hope he pushes forward with INTERSTELLAR, the Kip Thorne-inspired, Jonathan Nolan-scripted science-fiction film which has been the most promising project on his plate for the last several years.
