Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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May 7, 2008 - The most anticipated movie of 2008 is almost here! Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hits theaters on May 22, almost 19 years to the day since the previous installment in the preeminent action-adventure franchise debuted.
The fourth film in the Indiana Jones series sees our aging hero facing off against Cate Blanchett's Irina Spalko -- a sexy Soviet agent determined to coerce him into helping locate an object of great power, the mysterious crystal skull said to unlock the secrets of a mythical lost city in the Amazon. Indy's ex-girl Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and Mutt, a motorcycle riding greaser played by Shia LaBeouf, join in the adventure. As does Ray Winstone's Mac, an archeological associate of Indiana Jones.

- Paramount/Lucasfilm

Early Development
Fans have been looking forward to another Indy flick since it was first rumored in the early 1990s that series producer George Lucas had commissioned a new script by Die Hard writer Jeb Stuart entitled Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars.
Lucas wanted the movie's tone to be more akin to B-movies of the '50s, rather than the 1930s serials from which the previous Indiana Jones installments took their inspiration. The style and events of the film would reflect the actual passage of time that would've taken place in Indy's world since we last saw him. To that end, Saucer Men saw Indy going up against Russian agents and had a climactic battle scene between the United States military and actual Martian flying saucers. That early ancestor to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was ultimately scrapped, but some of Saucer Men's DNA remains in the film that will hit theaters later this month.
Both star Harrison Ford and director Steven Spielberg balked at Lucas' idea of a full-on alien invasion in an Indy flick, prompting Lucas to cancel a planned rewrite by late Last Crusade writer Jeffrey Boam. And the movie hit the first of many snags that would keep it locked in development hell for more than a decade.

- Paramount/Lucasfilm

The Ruskies are holdover from the original script.

The Crystal Skulls
By 2000, Lucas had seemingly found his new MacGuffin -- and one that everyone could agree on -- in the crystal skulls. These real-life artifacts, alleged to be Aztec or Mayan relics (though thought to be fakes by some researchers), have been linked to the paranormal by some in the New Age movement. Others claim that they were made by an ancient alien civilization.
The skulls have been featured in numerous works of fiction. And in fact, this won't be the first time Indiana Jones has dealt with them. George Lucas planned to make an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles about the crystal skulls, but production ended on the series before he could get around to it. The skulls have appeared in a number of Indy novels by Max McCoy, and there's a theme park attraction at Tokyo DisneySea, Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, in which a crystal skull guards an Aztec temple where the Fountain of Youth is located. But the skulls in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull aren't likely to be related to those in any of these other stories.
All of the principle players were on board with the concept and publically expressed their desire to go ahead with the movie. But that sentiment wouldn't get them any closer to agreeing on other tricky elements of the story.

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