The Indiana Jones Trilogy: More news on the Indy trilogy which we all are longing for so badly. Lawrence Kasdan, writer of Raiders Of The Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back was recently interviewed by In Focus Magazine where he spoke about Dreamcatcher, and among other things, the Indiana Jones DVDs:
Our magazine did a survey last year asking readers to name the best films of all time, and both "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Empire Strikes Back," unsurprisingly, made the top 10. Is it wrong of us to wonder why your talents weren't utilized on more "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars" movies?
No. It couldn't be simpler. [laughs] George and Steven asked me to do the second one; I didn't want to do it. I was directing movies at that point; I was really proud of “Raiders” — it was an incredible movie — and I really didn't want to go back there. I had done the sequels to the “Star Wars” movies because George had asked me to do it. You know, I had finished “Raiders,” and he asked to come in and help him out with “Empire” — he was in a spot. And it was great fun, and it was over relatively quickly. Then I went off and I made “Body Heat” — partially with the support of George — and I had a directing career that was going pretty good. He asked me to come back and just write “Jedi” because he was really desperate at that point. We did it together, and we did it really fast; I felt like it was a job of work. But I'm not a huge sequel fan, and I didn't see any reason for me to be working on the “Indiana Jones” series. You know, when I was hired to do “Raiders,” I'd only been in the business a couple of weeks. Steven had actually bought “Continental Divide” to produce, and what he really wanted was for me to write “Raiders.” And he introduced me to George, and in 10 minutes George gave me the job — and I found myself working with the two hottest people of my generation. A few weeks later, we were outlining the story, and then I went away for six months and wrote it. It couldn't have been much more satisfying. But to me, that's never an excuse to do another one — you put it in the bank and you do something else.
Now, you told Starlog in 1981 about your “Raiders” script rewrite: “A little bit of my script's logic and character development fell out along the way.” What was missing? And will it show up on the Indiana Jones DVDs?
I don't think so. [laughs] Actually, I ran into Frank Marshall over the holidays, and he's working on that [DVD] collection. I don't think there's going to be a lot of…. I don't know what they have planned. They obviously made a lot of smart decisions about what should be in the movie and what shouldn't. When you're a beginning writer, you know, you hurt for everything that's lost. After you've directed 10 movies, you see that you cut stuff for a reason.
Don't miss out on a great interview with Kasdan. For the entire article,
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