Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones is an American media franchise consisting of five films and a prequel television series, along with games, comics, and tie-in novels. The franchise centers on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology. Jones is portrayed by Harrison Ford in all of the films.
The film series was created by George Lucas. It began in 1981 with Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was followed in 1984 by a prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. A sequel, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was released in 1989, followed by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. A fifth film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, was released in 2023. The first four films were directed by Steven Spielberg, who worked closely with Lucas during their production. The fifth film was directed by James Mangold. In 1992, the franchise expanded to a television series with The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which depicts Jones in his youth.
Marvel Comics began publishing the comic series The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones in 1983. Dark Horse Comics gained the comic book rights to the character in 1991. In addition to novelizations of the films, many novels with original stories have been published, including a series of German-language novels by Wolfgang Hohlbein; twelve novels published by Bantam Books which are set before the films; and a series of books set during Jones's childhood, which were inspired by the television series. Numerous Indiana Jones video games have been released since 1982.
Background
In 1973, George Lucas wrote The Adventures of Indiana Smith. Like Star Wars, it was an opportunity to create a modern version of the movie serials of the 1930s and 1940s. Lucas discussed the concept with Philip Kaufman, who worked with him for several weeks and decided upon the Ark of the Covenant as the MacGuffin. The project was stalled when Clint Eastwood hired Kaufman to write The Outlaw Josey Wales. In May 1977, Lucas was in Maui, trying to escape the worldwide success of Star Wars. His friend and colleague Steven Spielberg was also there, on vacation from work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Spielberg told Lucas he was interested in making a James Bond film, but Lucas pitched him of an idea "better than James Bond", outlining the plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg loved it, calling it "a James Bond film without the hardware", and had the character's surname changed to Jones. Spielberg and Lucas made a deal with Paramount Pictures for five Indiana Jones films.Spielberg and Lucas aimed to make Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom much darker, because of their personal moods following their respective breakups and divorces. Lucas made the film a prequel because he did not want the Nazis to be the villains again. He had ideas regarding the Monkey King and a haunted castle, but eventually created the Sankara Stones, that would be used in the film. He hired Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz to write the script; he knew of their interest in Indian culture. The major scenes that were dropped from Raiders of the Lost Ark were included in this film: an escape using a giant rolling gong as a shield, a fall out of a plane in a raft, and a mine cart chase. For the third film, Spielberg revisited the Monkey King and haunted castle concepts, before Lucas suggested the Holy Grail. Spielberg had previously rejected this as too ethereal, but then devised a father-son story and decided that "The Grail that everybody seeks could be a metaphor for a son seeking reconciliation with a father and a father seeking reconciliation with a son."
Following the 1989 release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lucas let the series end as he felt he could not think of a good plot device to drive the next installment and chose instead to produce The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which explored the character in his early years. Ford played Indiana in one episode, narrating his adventures in 1920 Chicago. When Lucas shot Ford's role in December 1992, he realized that the scene opened up the possibility of a film with an older Indiana set in the 1950s. The film could reflect a science fiction 1950s B-movie, with aliens as the plot device. Ford disliked the new angle, telling Lucas: "No way am I being in a Steven Spielberg movie like that." Spielberg himself, who depicted aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, resisted it. Lucas devised a story, which Jeb Stuart turned into a script from October 1993 to May 1994. Lucas wanted Indiana to get married, which would allow Henry Jones Sr. to return, expressing concern over whether his son is happy with what he has accomplished. After learning that Joseph Stalin was interested in psychic warfare, Lucas decided to have Russians as the villains and the aliens to have psychic powers. Following Stuart's next draft, Lucas hired Last Crusade writer Jeffrey Boam to write the next three versions, the last of which was completed in March 1996. Three months later, Independence Day was released, and Spielberg told Lucas he would not make another alien invasion film. Lucas decided to focus on the Star Wars prequels instead.
In 2000, Spielberg's son asked when the next Indiana Jones film would be released, which made him interested in reviving the project. The same year, Ford, Lucas, Spielberg, Frank Marshall, and Kathleen Kennedy met during the American Film Institute's tribute to Ford, and decided they wanted to enjoy the experience of making an Indiana Jones film again. Spielberg also found returning to the series a respite from his many dark films during this period. Spielberg and Lucas discussed the central idea of a B-movie involving aliens, and Lucas suggested using crystal skulls to ground the idea. Lucas found these artifacts as fascinating as the Ark, and had intended to feature them for a Young Indiana Jones episode before the show's cancellation. M. Night Shyamalan was hired to write for an intended 2002 shoot, but he was overwhelmed by the task, and claimed it was difficult to get Ford, Spielberg, and Lucas to focus. Stephen Gaghan and Tom Stoppard were also approached.
Frank Darabont, who wrote various Young Indiana Jones episodes, was hired to write in May 2002. His script, titled Indiana Jones and the City of Gods, was set in the 1950s, with ex-Nazis pursuing Jones. Spielberg conceived the idea because of real-life figures such as Juan Perón in Argentina, who allegedly protected Nazi war criminals. Darabont claimed Spielberg loved the script, but Lucas had issues with it, and decided to take over writing himself. Lucas and Spielberg acknowledged that the 1950s setting could not ignore the Cold War, and the Russians were more plausible villains. Spielberg decided he could not satirize the Nazis after directing Schindler's List, while Ford felt "We plum wore the Nazis out." Darabont's main contribution was reintroducing Marion Ravenwood as Indiana's love interest, but he gave them a 13-year-old daughter, which Spielberg decided was too similar to The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Jeff Nathanson met with Spielberg and Lucas in August 2004, and turned in the next drafts in October and November 2005, titled The Atomic Ants. David Koepp continued on from there, giving his script the subtitle Destroyer of Worlds, based on the J. Robert Oppenheimer quote. It was changed to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, as Spielberg found this a more inviting title which actually named the plot device. Koepp wanted to depict the character of Mutt as a nerd, but Lucas refused, explaining he had to resemble Marlon Brando in The Wild One; "he needs to be what Indiana Jones's father thought of – the curse returns in the form of his own son – he's everything a father can't stand". Koepp collaborated with Lawrence Kasdan on the film's "love dialogue".
Development of the fifth film began in 2008, but the project stalled for years. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm, the series' production company, thereby becoming the owner of the Indiana Jones intellectual property. The following year, Walt Disney Studios acquired the distribution and marketing rights to future Indiana Jones films, with Paramount retaining the distribution rights to the first four films and receiving "financial participation" from any additional films. Development on the film continued, and it eventually became Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The film was directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote the script with Jez and John-Henry Butterworth. Spielberg was initially set to direct the film, before passing it to Mangold. Spielberg instead served as an executive producer with Lucas, along with producers Kennedy and Marshall. Ford reprised the title role, along with Karen Allen and John Rhys-Davies and new cast members included Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Kretschmann, Boyd Holbrook, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Toby Jones and Antonio Banderas. The film was co-produced by Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Pictures, marking the first film in the series with Disney's involvement. Filming eventually began in the United Kingdom in June 2021 and wrapped in February 2022. It was Ford's last time playing the title character and is the last film in the franchise overall. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was released by Disney on June 30, 2023.