In the latest entry of our ongoing series, Screen Rant’s Ryan George reveals what (probably) happened in the pitch meeting for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In 2008, director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford returned to the Indiana Jones franchise after almost two decades, much to the excitement (and later, disappointment) of fans.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has a lot in common with the Star Wars prequel trilogy - starting with the fact that George Lucas wrote the stories for both. It received mixed-to-positive reviews at the time, but is generally remembered as the downfall of the franchise, even more so because the return was so hyped. And much like the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull also has its defenders and is often the subject of retrospectives trying to determine whether or not it was really that bad.
Set in 1957, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull sees Indy kidnapped by Soviet agents, forced to locate an alien skull inside Area 51, escaping to a nuclear test site where a bomb is about to go off, surviving by hiding inside a lead-lined fridge and being blown clear of the explosion, then being accused of working for the Soviets himself - and that’s just the start of the movie. From there, Indy meets the son he never knew he had (Shia LaBeouf as Henry Jones III, better known as Mutt) and is reunited with old flame Marian Ravenwood. Check out the pitch meeting video below for the full, strange story.
However you may feel about the CGI gopher, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was definitely a success when it came to the box office. It pulled in $786 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing movie of the year (beaten to the top spot only by The Dark Knight). With numbers like that, it should come as no surprise that Indy is soon to be pulled out of retirement once again.
Since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released, Indy has been packed up, sold, and shipped to the ever-growing Disney warehouse of movie franchises. While Star Wars was the main attraction in Disney’s $4.05 billion purchase of Lucasfilm, plans for Indiana Jones 5 have been slowly grinding away in the background. The fifth movie in the franchise is finally set to begin filming in two months with Ford once again donning the fedora. Who knows - perhaps the fridge will even get a cameo role.
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