Cracking the Indy IV “Mysteries”

A question for all my fellow screenwriters out there:

How would you have handled Indy IV?

Now that the final story is locked and going into production, let’s speculate. In the first announcement, Lucas said it’s a “character piece” involving “very interesting mysteries.” Hmm…

There are 3 things I think we can safely assume about the new film:

1. Indy will search for artifact(s) that have not been previously reported or rumored.
2. On the other hand, we could still see any number of rumors involving Indy’s personal life, such as him having a daughter or the return of all his ex-girlfriends.
3. He’ll probably have a damn character arc. The bastards.

So here’s the $100,000,000 question:

Had you been given the opportunity to pitch Lucas, how would you approach the final film of an iconic franchise? What would the artifact(s) be? How would you handle Indy’s love life? Who would the villains be? How do you end this franchise?

Of course, you’d have to be familiar with the long history of stories that have already been rejected, and you’d have to prove your worth as a writer by bringing NEW ideas to the table. (Thus, you might want to study up on my Indy IV post) Not only that, you should probably have multiple ideas handy so that if one got shot down, you’d have other ideas in your bag of goodies to bring to the table.

For the sake of our hypothetical discussion, let’s pretend that you are just being asked to pitch Lucas and he isn’t giving any hints about what he’s looking for.

Countless writers have been unable to crack this story. Can you?

I might. I’d have to think about it.

I'll share my thoughts later in another post.

(Disclaimer - this is not a call to write fan fiction. This is just a hypothetical about what your ideas would have been and how you would have pitched the fourth film. This is the kind of discussion that says more about who you are as a writer than anything else.)

If ya like, leave a comment here or write about it on your blog.

-MM

A New Year Shout-Out

Okay, okay, STOP THE PRESSES! Mickey Lee so generously pointed out Lucas' "announcement" in the Associated Press that they are actually going to make Indiana Jones IV and begin filming this year. IT WASN'T TRUE! In a recent article at Spielberg Films, both Lucasfilm and Amblin said that the Associated Press article was "inaccurate." An Amblin representative said, "While acknowledging that a lot of people want to get the movie to 'happen,' the article appeared to make plans sound more definite than they were at this time as it had omitted such words as 'hopefully' from Lucas' comments." Amblin HOPES to release something "official" about the project within a week. Sorry, Mickey, as I've proven in my Indy IV post, false hope for this film keeps turning up like a bad penny.

UPDATE:

STOP THE PRESSES AGAIN! When Mickey Lee's right, HE'S RIGHT. New articles have confirmed that they are going through with it. So why do I still have a sinking feeling in my gut about it? Perhaps it's the title on the Internet Movie Database: "Indiana Jones and the Ravages of Time." God help me... Then again, it would be a cinematic sin to not have faith in Steven Spielberg...

BACK TO SCENE:

Second, I promised I would do this eons ago and forgot. The boys at Scribosphere will keep you on top of all the latest posts on screenwriting. A very helpful resource, which I’ve added to my sidebar.

Our good friend, Carl Salminen, wrote a brilliant post on his blog called You are Selling Yourself. “If I have learned anything from this process to pass on to my fellow writers it is that if your writing craft is as absolutely as good as it can be, then your script may not sell itself, but it might sell you! Every word you write counts! Each word is vital! It's been said before but take it to heart. Every time you send out a script, you are selling yourself, not just that particular story.”

Is that not almost word-for-word EXACTLY what I’ve been saying since the day I joined TriggerStreet? Amen, brother! Preach it!

Unk continues to be brillaint with recent posts like Paint your characters on the page.

If you haven't checked out Matt Spira's blog, you should. He's been very thoughtful lately, particularly his comments the last couple of months about the Asian Film Market.

Our friend, wcdixon, has two great posts on agents here and here. In the second post, he writes: “One: agents don't get you work, you get you work. Agents can hear about projects before you do...they can hustle and get your name out there...they can even get you meetings - but ultimately it's you and your work that gets the offers. And you'll be a bored bitter client if you think otherwise. You have to be working in conjuction with your agent in terms of networking and socializing and shmoozing, not waiting for them to bring you the job. Sure some agents will be better hustlers or better negotiators or better connected than others, and they can prep you and hype you and help you - but it still will be up to you to take the meetings and land the jump.”

I also really enjoyed Emily’s great post called Why did The Island suck so very much? It was quite funny: “Is it the fact that our heroes keep experiencing the best luck in the world, like landing in a batch of netting while they fall a zillion feet inside a giant neon letter off the side of a building and end up with like, one scratch over an eye? No. I've seen that before and completely bought it in various Terminator films. Is it the fact that our heroes, who boast the education of a 15 year old, keep outsmarting our borderline retarded professional hunters? We're getting warmer…”

It’s also worth your time to take a peek at Andy Horbal’s Film Criticism Blog-a-Thon. Many of the points they make apply to us, as well, as reviewers of stories on TriggerStreet. I loved what Peet Gelderblom wrote, “It’s one thing to challenge the opinion of others, it’s another to proclaim absolutes in the name of Good Taste. A true provocateur doesn’t hamper by discouraging thought, but stimulates others to think differently. Why is it that some critics judge like punishing Old Testament Gods when their function is not to damn or win souls, but to sharpen minds? A critic’s pen should serve as a whetstone, not a sledgehammer.”

To that I say, “Amen.”

Coming soon… my review of Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon.

Happy New Year, everyone.

-MM