If Spielberg retired today...

[Daniel Riser]

and George Lucas gave the decision to you. What crew would you choose?

Living or dead...

My dream crew:

Michael Curtiz (Director)

He directed Casablanca, was the number one director for Warner Bros his entire career, this man could make Indy 4 great.

David Koepp and Billy Wilder (Writers)

David wrote Jurassic Park and all of his work add a layer of darkness that I have always appreciated, and Billy Wilder is absolutely genius with his use of dialogue to establish, develop and connect with characters.

Conrad Hall (Cinematographer)

The first time I saw the making of Road to Perdition I knew that I wanted Conrad Hall to photograph Indy 4 because he said "I tried to photograph this as monochromatic as possible. I think every film should be made in black and white." His use of lighting to tell a story is aesthetically breathtaking and intellectually stimulating. Kaminski (Spielberg's fav DP) only plays with matches compared to the late-great Conrad Hall.

John Williams - Composer

42 nominations. 5 wins. Need I say more?

Mary Zophres - Costume Designer

Her work with Spielberg and the Coen Brothers proves that she is the right person for the job and one of only two people, in my dream list, that will ever have a credit on Indy 4.

George Tomasini - Editor

I love Michael Kahn but George cut Psycho and I am so impressed with the subtle power that every image expresses leading to the externally powerful moments.

So there you have it. My dream team. What's yours?

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

Do you know if Indy 4 is going to be set chronologically later to account for Ford's er... "maturity?"

 

[Daniel Riser]

Several rumors have spread for years that it would be set in the fifties and acccording to what I have heard nothing has changed that belief.

 

[airfrogusmc]

How about someone with an edge

Director, Darren Aronofski (Pi, Requiem for a Dream)

Screen Play, Quentin Tarantino

Cinematography, Laszlo Kovacs (Easy Rider)

Music, Howard Shore (High Fidelity, Lord or the Rings, The Aviator)

Well this would be my dream team just to shake thing up a little.

 

[Daniel Riser]

I was going to mention Tarantino but I wanted to pay homage to some late-filmmakers.

A Tarantino Indy would be incredible. Absolutely stunning.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Well with him (Tarantino) writing the screen play I could see dialog like "Why do I have to be Indie, Why can't I be Texas Jones or Alaska Jones why Indiana? What the F---s in Indiana? Gary? Why Can't I be like Big Apple Jones or Chicago Jones?"

 

[Ken]

Director: Sergio Leone
Music: Ennio Morriconne

Now there would be an interesting Indy flick.

Ken

 

[MudInYerEye]

Screenplay: John Huston
Music: Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography: John Alton
Producer: Howard Hughes
Director: Raoul Walsh
...would do a bang-up job I'm sure. Imagine what a David Lean or Akira Kurosawa Indy film would be like.

 

[Daniel Riser]

John Huston and David Lean. Those are two perfect directors for Indiana Jones.

 

[shamus]

Tarantino? Are you serious? Were talking about an Indy film. That's like saying let's have Dr. Zeus write Gone with the Wind II.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Hey Shamus wouldn't it be a gas to hear Indiana talk'n 'bout foot messages or Madonna?

 

[shamus]

Exactly...

"Dr. Jones.. Do you know what they call an Quarter Pounder with Cheese in France?..."

 

[Daniel Riser]

The choice of Tarantino would be for the pure enjoyment of seeing a very violent Indy, much more like the original drawings of key moments in Raiders. Like the flying wing fight.

 

[Daniel Riser]

INDY:
"You know the funny thing about India? It's the little ##!@ things."

SALLAH:
"Chilled Monkey Brains taste good!"

RANDOM BAD ACTOR WHO HAS AN UNCANNY RESEMBLENCE TO TARANTINO:

"I don't need you to #$@*! tell me how good my @*%$$#@*$ %* *#* *#&@*@*#*@& whiskey is Indy, Marion buys the cheap #$*."

and finally...

SALLAH:
"Indy why does the floor move?"

INDY:
"Give me your torch."

...

INDY
#@$#)(@#$*)@$*%&@&&@#(%& &@#&%*(&@#$% &%#&#$&^*&$#@&$(*@)#&)%*% @#&$%(#@$&((@#$^&*!!(!&(*$&(#^!!)*!$%)&@#*&(%@#$ &@#($&(*@#&$& $ @#$(&*@(&#$ !&*( @#$(&@#(*$&(@&# %^Y(@&%&@# $&! &Y@#9*&$%#(@$&(@#^%^(^$%&#@((&$#@(^*&% &(*&@#^*(%(*@#%&(@#%& @#&$(*#&$ &%#@(^&$(@#$ !@(!(!@(&(%*@ #% #&4&#^%...... snakes."

 

[airfrogusmc]

And director Darren Aronofski way of creating tension sometimes where theres not any could be amazing.

 

[Calico Jack]

I would like to see a script done by George MacDonald Fraser. Fraser, who is best known for his Flashman novel series, is also a top-notch film historian, and has a real passion for the exotic high adventure pieces of the thirties and forties. He's proved he can handle a franchise with "Octopussy," and has one of the best senses of period and place of any writer out there. His dialogue is usually pretty good, too, and he has a great sense of comedy (take for example, the Michael York musketeer films).

For directing, I would like to put Joe Johnston at the helm. He's done extraordinarily well with the type of adventure films he's done - "The Rocketeer" and "Hidalgo" being foremost - and I think that he has a great sense of how best to depict action as well as comic timing, which is really necessary to the Indy films. The Rocketeer is as close to an Indy picture as anyone has ever gotten, without seeming like a rip-off, and did an amazing job of really pushing the thirties feel.

For cinematography, I'd like to see Roger Deakins try his hand. He's done most of the Coen brothers movies, including "Oh, Brother," and that one, I think, shows how he'd be able to manipulate light and color to give the film a very tonal quality - Sepia and Indy go together like peas and carrots. He's also shown us that he can handle action scenes. I think that the climactic sword battle in "Rob Roy" is one of the best ever put on film, and certainly the most realistic.

 

[Daniel Riser]

That is a most excellent reply. It is people like you that make me thouroughly enjoy this board.

Roger's work in The Coen's less-popular film "The Hudsucker Proxy" is terrific, not necessarily Indy, but is a stylistic romp that, in my opinion, shows off Roger's creativity.

Allen Davieu (SP?) Spielberg's DP on E.T., Color Purple and Empire of the Sun, is a terrific cinematographer. His talents should be used more often.

 

[The Wolf]

but Raiders is a cliffhanger

If the sequel was made by different people in any time I say we go back to its roots.
Clayton Moore as Indiana Jones
Kenne Duncan as the older, suave villian
Bela Lugosi as the sinister foreign villain
Linda Sterling as the woman for whom Indy falls
Lyle Talbot as Marcus
Noah Beery, Jr as Sala

Directed by William Witney who directed some of the best serials

That might be fun to see, the problem is I would have keep going to the theater week after week to see the whole thing.

Humbly,
The Wolf

 

[jake_fink]

I'm with wolf...

If we are free to take talent from the past, then dipping into the Republic serials is what I'd like to do. William Whitney and John English directing, special effects by the Lydeckers, stunts by Yakima Canutt and Dave Sharpe... Really, if it moves, if it keeps you in suspenders, who cares who stars. That solves the Harrison (Methuselah) Ford problem.

I also like the idea of John Huston directing. The Indiana Jones character in Raiders is as single minded and ruthless as some of the lead characters in Huston's greatest films. As well, it has a bit of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to it.

Another Golden Age possibility is George Stevens, whose Gunga Din informs The Temple of Doom. John Ford might also be an interesting choice, and Michael Curtiz was a dab hand at action and intrigue.

As far as modern film makers go, I'd be interested in a Coen brothers take on the character, but only because I'm interested in anything they do.

I guess I'm not really a huge Indiana Jones fan. I hope that's not sacrilege here, I know a lot of Loungers have come from COW. I recently watched the trilogy (it really isn't a trilogy as there is no continuity, it's just three movies with the same character), and the law of diminishing returns applies pretty firecely. As interesting, thrilling, entertaining and generally excellent as the first one is, the second is a poor follow-up and the third one just stinks.

So, if Spielberg retired today, I hope they'd just leave the Indiana Jones films alone, and give poor, old, crumbly, craggy, creaky Harrison Ford a break.

 

[Calico Jack]

Instead of George Stevens, try Henry Hathaway.
To me, Gunga Din is not one of my favorites. I know I'll probably get booted off the board for saying so, but Cary Grant usually mugs far too much for me to really get into a movie that he's in - you never forget that you are watching a movie, and one with a very hammy actor, to boot. Granted, not all of his films are like this, but Gunga Din certainly is, and regardless of its merits, it pales in comparison to the far less popular but vastly superior India action flick "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer," a Gary Cooper film with a similar comrade threesome and 10 times the action, intrigue, and period feel. I recomend that anyone with the slightest interest in exotic adventure (which I imagine includes everyone on this board). It's finally in print again, part of the Gary Cooper collection DVD ($20) and also includes the fantastic 1939 version of "Beau Geste," as well as three others.

If we're talking potential casting, it seems that the roles were tailor made for the big actors of the late thirties. Peter Lorre would be perfect as Toht. The part of Belloch seems made for Claude Rains. I can see Orson Welles doing a very nice Salla, and as for Indy... well, as he's fresh in my head, I think that Gary Cooper could handle the part pretty well. He has that rugged look, he has good, subtle comic timing... Such a movie would work very well, I think. I often think that the first two parts that I mentioned were written with those actors in mind.