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Everything You Could Possibly Want to Know About Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Are you ready for this? Because if you don't want any spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, then you better stop reading right now. From here on in, it's a GIANT mass of spoily goodness.
This came from the message boards at The Raider.net who got it from IMDB Pro where someone posted a link to what supposedly are the production notes for the movie. I'm just gonna paste all this in so take a deep breath and get ready:
THE STORY:
This newest adventure begins in the desert Southwest in 1957 – the height of the Cold War. Indy and his sidekick Mac (Ray Winstone) have barely escaped a close scrape with nefarious Soviet agents on a remote airfield.
Now, Professor Jones has returned home to Marshall College – only to find things have gone from bad to worse. His close friend and dean of the college (Jim Broadbent) explains that Indy's recent activities have made him the object of suspicion, and that the government has put pressure on the university to fire him. On his way out of town, Indiana meets rebellious young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), who carries both a grudge and a proposition for the adventurous archaeologist: If he'll help Mutt on a mission with deeply personal stakes, Indy could very well make one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in history – the Crystal Skull of Akator, a legendary object of fascination, superstition and fear.
But as Indy and Mutt set out for the most remote corners of Peru – a land of ancient tombs, forgotten explorers and a rumored city of gold – they quickly realize they are not alone in their search. The Soviet agents are also hot on the trail of the Crystal Skull. Chief among them is icy cold, devastatingly beautiful Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), whose elite military unit is scouring the globe for the eerie Crystal Skull, which they believe can help the Soviets dominate the world ... if they can unlock its secrets.
Indy and Mutt must find a way to evade the ruthless Soviets, follow an impenetrable trail of mystery, grapple with enemies and friends of questionable motives, and, above all, stop the powerful Crystal Skull from falling into the deadliest of hands.
"All the traditions of Indiana Jones are back again," says Spielberg. "We've got the map; we've got the plane and the vehicles with the little red line showing you how you're hop-scotching across the globe – and it's just part of the milieu that we've spent many years establishing."
The end result is a movie for both old fans and new ones. "There's a tremendous feeling among everyone to hit the high bar and live up to the huge expectations for this movie," says producer Frank Marshall. "And when people ask me, 'What's the new movie like?' the only thing I can say is: It's Indiana Jones!"
ON MUTT:
"Mutt's a kid who's never really had a normal upbringing. He quit school and became obsessed with motorcycles and machinery," he (Shia) says. "There's so much about Mutt that he never really got to talk about, so now he prefers not to. He's like a man-boy, a person who on the outside is presenting himself to be something he's really not."
Mutt's isolated, solitary '50s rebel proves to be an interesting counterpoint to Dr. Jones himself, LaBeouf says. "In some ways, this quest is really about forging and re-creating a family. First with Indiana, then with the others they meet, their unit becomes stronger as all this insanity happens – you know, each punch is bringing them closer together!"
ON MARION:
"She's a very strong character," Allen says. "I think she's somebody who fell very hard for Indy when she was a teenager, and in that wonderful, old-fashioned, romantic way, Indiana Jones is the love of her life.
"But," Allen observes, "he wasn't the kind of person who could be around, and she understood that from the beginning. She was a modern girl. A lot of people said she was 'spunky.' It's not just spunk – she's resourceful. She knows how to take care of herself and take care of other people. She didn't want to stop Indy from being who he is."
ON SPALKO:
"Spalko has an almost impenetrable steel-like quality to her – you know, not a hair out of place, no matter what she's doing, never anything on her boots no matter what mud she's walking through," Blanchett says. "There's a remarkable precision about her. She's penetrating and, therefore, potentially lethal."
While on set, Blanchett says, "You've got to be ready for anything, because Steven often changes things in the moment." Blanchett learned to fence for an intense sword fighting scene that took place in the jungle – on top of moving vehicles. And if that wasn't enough, the director decided to throw one more thing in the mix. "We were doing a chase sequence through the jungle in Hawaii and all of a sudden, he wanted to introduce a karate-chop sequence," Blanchett recalls, "so we had to get that together very quickly. It's a great way to work, actually, because it means that everything you do is really fueled and focused by adrenaline."
Executive producer George Lucas thinks audiences will have a fantastic feeling when watching Blanchett. "Movie stars don't get a chance to play villains very often, so it's a fun, juicy, exciting thing," he says. "Spalko is somebody who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and that's what makes a good villain. As the audience, you have to believe it, you have to be afraid of it, and the way Cate plays this, you're definitely afraid of her."
ON JOHN HURT:
Director Steven Spielberg says he hoped from the start that Hurt would accept the role, which was inspired by the character Ben Gunn in the Robert Louis Stevenson classic Treasure Island. "I sent the script to John and said, 'Please, John, think of Ben Gunn when you read the script.' And he did. And he plays the part brilliantly."
Hurt elaborates: "He's the man who was left on the island for 20 years before they came back for him. But, as it turns out, my character isn't a man who was simply left on his own – he is a man who has become possessed, which comes out as a kind of madness. Of course, the Russians have also now become interested in the skull for completely different reasons, and that's where the story picks up."
ON MAC:
Indy regards "Mac" George Michale as a friend, but screenwriter Koepp says Winstone's character isn't quite as simple as that. "The fun part about Mac is that you never quite know whether to believe him. He bends the truth to suit his purposes. But it's utterly charming, and he's really good at it, so just like Indy, we like him and, against our better instincts, we trust him."
Winstone was Spielberg's first and only choice to play Mac. "I knew Ray Winstone from seeing him in "Sexy Beast." When I saw that film, I said, 'I want to work with that actor!' I think he is one of the most brilliant actors around."
Winstone himself says he sympathizes with Mac, who finds himself walking a jagged line between the competing powers of the Americans and the Soviets. "There was a lot of confusion after World War II, with the rise of the Iron Curtain and the start of the Cold War. Figuring out who you were working for and who you were working against must have been crazy."
ON JIM BROADBENT:
Dean Charles Stanforth, played by Oscar® winner Jim Broadbent, is also "a close friend and colleague of Indiana's, and they have known each other for many years at the university," Broadbent says. "Dean Stanforth is Indy's immediate supervisor, but they have a good, humorous and close-sharing relationship. Harrison is a lovely actor to work with, so that makes it easy."
Spielberg says Broadbent "brings a beautiful camaraderie in replacing the loss of Denholm Elliott. Jim brings the same kind of humanity that Denholm lent to the character of Marcus. The deep, deep friendship Dean Stanforth has with Indiana Jones is very important, and plays a major role in the story."
ON DOVCHENKO:
To accompany evil Agent Spalko, this adventure introduces a new character, Col. Dovchenko, the leader of Spalko's traveling henchmen. Igor Jijikine, who had been a high-wire trapeze artist for Cirque du Soleil, plays Dovchenko. His comrades-in-arms include Dmitri Diatchenko and, from the hit television series "Lost," Andrew Divoff.
"Pat Roach, who was our iconic muscleman villain, passed away, and we were very sad not to have him in this picture," explains Spielberg. "I was looking for someone to fit the kind of role he used to play. Debbie Zane, our casting director brought Igor in, and I thought he'd be a terrific villain."
THE SETS:
The first leg of production unfolded in the stunning and desolate desert landscapes of New Mexico. From Ghost Ranch, the company traveled 300 miles southwest to Deming. There, hangers at an old World War II Army Air base were virtually unchanged since their heyday, and with a little set dressing and some War-era army Jeeps and Soviet soldiers, the area was transformed to provide the backdrop for the opening sequences of the movie.
In a small town at the jungle's entrance, Indy and Mutt locate important clues that draw them deeper into the mysteries of the Crystal Skull. While the exterior of the town was shot on the Universal backlot transformed by production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas into a dusty Peruvian street, the jungle itself was a more difficult find. The filmmakers scouted far and wide for an ideal location that would reflect that primeval forest.
A disappearing "stone" staircase built around a 35-foot cylinder went up on a soundstage on the other side of Los Angeles, at Sony Studios, formerly the legendary MGM backlot. The task of creating practical stairs that would retract as our heroes swiftly make their way down, fell to special effects coordinator Dan Sudick. (As opposed to the visual-effects work of Industrial Light & Magic, "special effects" refers to practical effects created on set.)
Across the road, Universal's Stage 27 housed another piece of the production puzzle – a Peruvian cemetery set. It was a large, multi-level construction that would allow the characters to crawl amid dusty ruins and ancient artifacts under the treacherous eyes of the keepers of the cemetery and its secrets. Running from a ghoulish mob, Indy and Mutt make their way down to the deepest part of the pit that links up to another set built 20 miles away in Downey, California.
At Downey Studios, a number of sets were erected in a massive hangar that, at more than 600,000 square feet, once served as a home to the development of the Apollo spacecraft and the Space Shuttle. Downey would serve as the home of several notable sequences in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" – among them, a series of cave tunnels in which portions of the adventure unfold, and an experimental military-style bunker that's related to another location filmed in New Mexico.
A 1950s diner, inspired by the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks, was built on Paramount's sprawling backlot, augmenting scenes filmed in Connecticut.
On the Warner Bros. lot, the production took over the massive interior of Stage 16 to build some of the most elaborate sets for the climax of the film.
SNAKES:
Luckily, there's only one snake in "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." But it's a doozy: a giant Olive Python. "We had the requisite snake, a beautiful snake to us but not to Indy, of course," Spielberg says with a laugh. "It was a rather large python. The audience wouldn't forgive us if we didn't have at least one snake in the movie." In addition to the real snake (two for shooting purposes), Stan Winston's studio worked with Harlocker to create a perfect replica out of rubber.
Well, there ya have it. Sounds pretty convincing to me. Otherwise, somebody went to a whole heap of trouble for something that will probably get shot down overnight.
This came from the message boards at The Raider.net who got it from IMDB Pro where someone posted a link to what supposedly are the production notes for the movie. I'm just gonna paste all this in so take a deep breath and get ready:
THE STORY:
This newest adventure begins in the desert Southwest in 1957 – the height of the Cold War. Indy and his sidekick Mac (Ray Winstone) have barely escaped a close scrape with nefarious Soviet agents on a remote airfield.
Now, Professor Jones has returned home to Marshall College – only to find things have gone from bad to worse. His close friend and dean of the college (Jim Broadbent) explains that Indy's recent activities have made him the object of suspicion, and that the government has put pressure on the university to fire him. On his way out of town, Indiana meets rebellious young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), who carries both a grudge and a proposition for the adventurous archaeologist: If he'll help Mutt on a mission with deeply personal stakes, Indy could very well make one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in history – the Crystal Skull of Akator, a legendary object of fascination, superstition and fear.
But as Indy and Mutt set out for the most remote corners of Peru – a land of ancient tombs, forgotten explorers and a rumored city of gold – they quickly realize they are not alone in their search. The Soviet agents are also hot on the trail of the Crystal Skull. Chief among them is icy cold, devastatingly beautiful Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), whose elite military unit is scouring the globe for the eerie Crystal Skull, which they believe can help the Soviets dominate the world ... if they can unlock its secrets.
Indy and Mutt must find a way to evade the ruthless Soviets, follow an impenetrable trail of mystery, grapple with enemies and friends of questionable motives, and, above all, stop the powerful Crystal Skull from falling into the deadliest of hands.
"All the traditions of Indiana Jones are back again," says Spielberg. "We've got the map; we've got the plane and the vehicles with the little red line showing you how you're hop-scotching across the globe – and it's just part of the milieu that we've spent many years establishing."
The end result is a movie for both old fans and new ones. "There's a tremendous feeling among everyone to hit the high bar and live up to the huge expectations for this movie," says producer Frank Marshall. "And when people ask me, 'What's the new movie like?' the only thing I can say is: It's Indiana Jones!"
ON MUTT:
"Mutt's a kid who's never really had a normal upbringing. He quit school and became obsessed with motorcycles and machinery," he (Shia) says. "There's so much about Mutt that he never really got to talk about, so now he prefers not to. He's like a man-boy, a person who on the outside is presenting himself to be something he's really not."
Mutt's isolated, solitary '50s rebel proves to be an interesting counterpoint to Dr. Jones himself, LaBeouf says. "In some ways, this quest is really about forging and re-creating a family. First with Indiana, then with the others they meet, their unit becomes stronger as all this insanity happens – you know, each punch is bringing them closer together!"
ON MARION:
"She's a very strong character," Allen says. "I think she's somebody who fell very hard for Indy when she was a teenager, and in that wonderful, old-fashioned, romantic way, Indiana Jones is the love of her life.
"But," Allen observes, "he wasn't the kind of person who could be around, and she understood that from the beginning. She was a modern girl. A lot of people said she was 'spunky.' It's not just spunk – she's resourceful. She knows how to take care of herself and take care of other people. She didn't want to stop Indy from being who he is."
ON SPALKO:
"Spalko has an almost impenetrable steel-like quality to her – you know, not a hair out of place, no matter what she's doing, never anything on her boots no matter what mud she's walking through," Blanchett says. "There's a remarkable precision about her. She's penetrating and, therefore, potentially lethal."
While on set, Blanchett says, "You've got to be ready for anything, because Steven often changes things in the moment." Blanchett learned to fence for an intense sword fighting scene that took place in the jungle – on top of moving vehicles. And if that wasn't enough, the director decided to throw one more thing in the mix. "We were doing a chase sequence through the jungle in Hawaii and all of a sudden, he wanted to introduce a karate-chop sequence," Blanchett recalls, "so we had to get that together very quickly. It's a great way to work, actually, because it means that everything you do is really fueled and focused by adrenaline."
Executive producer George Lucas thinks audiences will have a fantastic feeling when watching Blanchett. "Movie stars don't get a chance to play villains very often, so it's a fun, juicy, exciting thing," he says. "Spalko is somebody who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and that's what makes a good villain. As the audience, you have to believe it, you have to be afraid of it, and the way Cate plays this, you're definitely afraid of her."
ON JOHN HURT:
Director Steven Spielberg says he hoped from the start that Hurt would accept the role, which was inspired by the character Ben Gunn in the Robert Louis Stevenson classic Treasure Island. "I sent the script to John and said, 'Please, John, think of Ben Gunn when you read the script.' And he did. And he plays the part brilliantly."
Hurt elaborates: "He's the man who was left on the island for 20 years before they came back for him. But, as it turns out, my character isn't a man who was simply left on his own – he is a man who has become possessed, which comes out as a kind of madness. Of course, the Russians have also now become interested in the skull for completely different reasons, and that's where the story picks up."
ON MAC:
Indy regards "Mac" George Michale as a friend, but screenwriter Koepp says Winstone's character isn't quite as simple as that. "The fun part about Mac is that you never quite know whether to believe him. He bends the truth to suit his purposes. But it's utterly charming, and he's really good at it, so just like Indy, we like him and, against our better instincts, we trust him."
Winstone was Spielberg's first and only choice to play Mac. "I knew Ray Winstone from seeing him in "Sexy Beast." When I saw that film, I said, 'I want to work with that actor!' I think he is one of the most brilliant actors around."
Winstone himself says he sympathizes with Mac, who finds himself walking a jagged line between the competing powers of the Americans and the Soviets. "There was a lot of confusion after World War II, with the rise of the Iron Curtain and the start of the Cold War. Figuring out who you were working for and who you were working against must have been crazy."
ON JIM BROADBENT:
Dean Charles Stanforth, played by Oscar® winner Jim Broadbent, is also "a close friend and colleague of Indiana's, and they have known each other for many years at the university," Broadbent says. "Dean Stanforth is Indy's immediate supervisor, but they have a good, humorous and close-sharing relationship. Harrison is a lovely actor to work with, so that makes it easy."
Spielberg says Broadbent "brings a beautiful camaraderie in replacing the loss of Denholm Elliott. Jim brings the same kind of humanity that Denholm lent to the character of Marcus. The deep, deep friendship Dean Stanforth has with Indiana Jones is very important, and plays a major role in the story."
ON DOVCHENKO:
To accompany evil Agent Spalko, this adventure introduces a new character, Col. Dovchenko, the leader of Spalko's traveling henchmen. Igor Jijikine, who had been a high-wire trapeze artist for Cirque du Soleil, plays Dovchenko. His comrades-in-arms include Dmitri Diatchenko and, from the hit television series "Lost," Andrew Divoff.
"Pat Roach, who was our iconic muscleman villain, passed away, and we were very sad not to have him in this picture," explains Spielberg. "I was looking for someone to fit the kind of role he used to play. Debbie Zane, our casting director brought Igor in, and I thought he'd be a terrific villain."
THE SETS:
The first leg of production unfolded in the stunning and desolate desert landscapes of New Mexico. From Ghost Ranch, the company traveled 300 miles southwest to Deming. There, hangers at an old World War II Army Air base were virtually unchanged since their heyday, and with a little set dressing and some War-era army Jeeps and Soviet soldiers, the area was transformed to provide the backdrop for the opening sequences of the movie.
In a small town at the jungle's entrance, Indy and Mutt locate important clues that draw them deeper into the mysteries of the Crystal Skull. While the exterior of the town was shot on the Universal backlot transformed by production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas into a dusty Peruvian street, the jungle itself was a more difficult find. The filmmakers scouted far and wide for an ideal location that would reflect that primeval forest.
A disappearing "stone" staircase built around a 35-foot cylinder went up on a soundstage on the other side of Los Angeles, at Sony Studios, formerly the legendary MGM backlot. The task of creating practical stairs that would retract as our heroes swiftly make their way down, fell to special effects coordinator Dan Sudick. (As opposed to the visual-effects work of Industrial Light & Magic, "special effects" refers to practical effects created on set.)
Across the road, Universal's Stage 27 housed another piece of the production puzzle – a Peruvian cemetery set. It was a large, multi-level construction that would allow the characters to crawl amid dusty ruins and ancient artifacts under the treacherous eyes of the keepers of the cemetery and its secrets. Running from a ghoulish mob, Indy and Mutt make their way down to the deepest part of the pit that links up to another set built 20 miles away in Downey, California.
At Downey Studios, a number of sets were erected in a massive hangar that, at more than 600,000 square feet, once served as a home to the development of the Apollo spacecraft and the Space Shuttle. Downey would serve as the home of several notable sequences in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" – among them, a series of cave tunnels in which portions of the adventure unfold, and an experimental military-style bunker that's related to another location filmed in New Mexico.
A 1950s diner, inspired by the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks, was built on Paramount's sprawling backlot, augmenting scenes filmed in Connecticut.
On the Warner Bros. lot, the production took over the massive interior of Stage 16 to build some of the most elaborate sets for the climax of the film.
SNAKES:
Luckily, there's only one snake in "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." But it's a doozy: a giant Olive Python. "We had the requisite snake, a beautiful snake to us but not to Indy, of course," Spielberg says with a laugh. "It was a rather large python. The audience wouldn't forgive us if we didn't have at least one snake in the movie." In addition to the real snake (two for shooting purposes), Stan Winston's studio worked with Harlocker to create a perfect replica out of rubber.
Well, there ya have it. Sounds pretty convincing to me. Otherwise, somebody went to a whole heap of trouble for something that will probably get shot down overnight.
Comment
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Comment by Evan, aka Cerberus on April 22, 2008 at 8:49pm - *GLEE!!!*
-
Comment by Everwen on April 22, 2008 at 8:43pm - Is good to finally know what the plot is. Thanks Cyrus.
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Comment by Brock on April 22, 2008 at 8:03pm - sounds good
-
Comment by Beau on April 22, 2008 at 7:48pm -
Also:
"Movie stars don't get a chance to play villains very often"
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT GEORGE!?!?!?
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20186434,00.html
My god the man is an alien. That is his SKULL CYRUS! THE CRYSTAL SKULL IS MADE OF LUCAS!!!
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Comment by Beau on April 22, 2008 at 7:44pm
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Is it just me or does "Mutt" Labeouf up there look for all the world like Wesley Crusher? Perhaps on the holodeck performing some wretched version of "(I Just Met A GIrl Named) Maria"?
But I'm sure he won't be as annoying as Wesley was. Nope. No Way.
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Comment by NameBrandjuice on April 22, 2008 at 4:54pm - i didnt read and i wont read. I love me some indy haha. May is going to be a fun month for movies!
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Comment by Mr.Blonde on April 22, 2008 at 4:27pm - One.Month.to.Go
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Comment by A. Hacker on April 22, 2008 at 4:27pm - nice, thanks for posting this
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