Disney and Paramount have reached an agreement regarding the Indiana Jones franchise, Variety reports today. Disney retains Lucasfilm’s ownership rights but gains “distribution and marketing rights to future films.” Paramount will continue to distribute the first four films and will receive “financial participation” on future ones.
There have been rumblings of an Indy 5 since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out, and actions on it have been rumored to be a part of Harrison Ford’s still unconfirmed Episode VII contract.
Drew McWeeny of HitFix speculates that this could lead to other actors taking on the iconic fedora:
…Only truly deranged and damaged people would take something as rich with potential as Indiana Jones and then just remake the movies that already exist. “Raiders Of The Lost Ark,” “Temple Of Doom,” and “The Last Crusade” should all be considered canon, and if you’re going to make new movies, then do it in a way that works around those films, not that tries to replace them.
Indiana Jones as the new James Bond? Well, as McWeeny points out, the character has already been played by four others besides Ford. I certainly prefer the idea to simply remaking Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, but it’s hard to imagine anyone stepping into Ford’s shoes. (Yeah yeah, Nathan Fillon, blah blah blah noshitcakes. At least try and think outside the box, fancasters.)
And our final word:
Could lack of Indy news in last 64 minutes signal production problems?
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) December 7, 2013
Sigh.
Note to all: when Disney makes a theme park attraction of your property, eventually they will just own it.
First of all: Thank you, Disney and Paramount, for talking it out and finding some common ground. That’s how business should be conducted (yes, I’m looking at you, Star Trek franchise, with your TV and movie rights scattered all over the globe).
Second: I think they can do maybe one or two more films with Harrison Ford (and personally I would love for him to become a secret agent in the 1960s or star in a disaster type movie in the 70s), but at some point they will have to make prequels: If Young Indy stays canon, they still have all the 1920s and the early 1930s to fill, and as Sean Patrick Flanery proved, Young Indy is a viable and very interesting option. Especially since the whole Ravenwood backstory has never been explored on film. They could even do the fabled Indy 4 Atlantis story in reverse and set it in 1932 or so (even going as far as making it a catalyst for Hitler’s rise to power, if they wanted to). Lots of possibilities there. :-)
More importantly, though, I think that another Indy TV show is in order. It could even be animated if they don’t want to go back to Young Indy and do a less canonic show: Action oriented, fast-paced, with Indy getting into all kinds of shenanigans all over the world. Or they could reboot the franchise as an animated show and keep on pushing the actual story forward in live-action format.
Either way: I think that Indy’s future after Harrison Ford should be in television.
Flannery is now the right age for WWII era OSS Indy referenced in KOTCS. I want to see Indy & Co. racing to recover artifacts before the Nazis reach them.