The DVD of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull goes on sale today. I can't say I hated the movie (the first half hour was okay), but that's mostly because I so flattened my expectations. Sure, it was a gas to see a Dr. Jones with a few more years (and miles) on him — but there was something so soulless and tired in the story and direction. Anyway, this seems as good a time as any to peep a few minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. You might remember reading about this a few years back: three young teenage Raider fans, who in 1982, decided to make a shot-for-shot recreation of the movie — a seven-year endeavor in which they had to make do with local talent, their own modest resources, and plenty of ingenuity and gumption. Check out their story (which has a great ending) and then be (in this order) amused, charmed, and impressed by the vision of three talented (and determined) middle-school students from a small town in Mississippi.
I just got a press release about tomorrow's DVD release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and apparently Best Buy is offering a "gift set with replica crystal skull from Sideshow Collectibles and a $25 gift card to Sideshowcollectibles.com." Add two zeroes to that figure (and make it cash), and yeah, I could find a spot on my mantelpiece for the hideous noggin. You?
Sex and the City — whoa! Who saw that big No. 1 finish coming? Not most box office pundits. Not EW.com's own box-office analyst. Not pretty much every man this side of, uh, Pluto. Did anybody expect that the lovely ladies of the HBO adaptation would beat Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the box office last weekend? Why yes, in fact, several smarties did — about 40 percent of the players in EW.com's Summer Box Office Challenge called it correctly! Bravo, people! And bravo to the four folks with perfect scores last week, led by our winner-by-tiebreaker, "lisawg22," who accurately predicted the final order of the top 10 at the multiplex.
Wanna get in on the fun? Wanna have a chance to win a free pair of Manolo Blahniks? Well, in that case, you'll have to look elsewhere. But if you want to have a chance to win some free DVDs, you've come to the right place: Just click on over to our game and register your picks for this weekend's big battle (Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess With the Zohan (pictured)? Jack Black's animated Kung Fu Panda?) by Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
With the summer movie season now in full swing, players in EW.com's Summer Box Office Challenge have happened upon an interesting, er, challenge: predicting the exact finish of movies outside of the top five. Sounds easy, sure. After all, last weekend, everybody knew that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was going to be No. 1, and most figured out that The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Iron Man would easily round out the first three spots at the box office. So how hard could correctly picking the next seven movies in order have been? Very, as it turned out. The battle for sixth place was decided by a Florida in 2000-esque $5,072, the teensy amount by which Baby Mama edged out Made of Honor. And occupying the No. 10 spot for the second straight weekend was the critically acclaimed (but largely unheralded) indie The Visitor, which has quietly grossed $4.4 mil in seven weeks.
Oddities like those generally go unreported, but if you can gain a firm understanding of them, you might just have what it takes to win our game — and take home some DVD prizes. (Indeed, a whopping 30 people got perfect scores over the Memorial Day span; a tiebreaker will figure out who gets the loot.) So while you may feel confident that the Sex and the City movie could pass Indy 4 for supremacy this upcoming weekend, you should really be asking yourself: Which movie will come next? And which film will come after that one? And then you should make your picks. And, you know, have a little fun, too.
Boffo box office aside, not everyone is loving the new Indiana Jones movie. A number of folks have quibbles about the movie's accuracy. (Let's not even get started on these guys' complaint.) Over at Asylum.com, they've prevailed upon archaeologist Kristin Romey (who's explored some of the Latin American turf covered in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) to see which parts of the movie plausibly portray archaeologists and their work and which do not. The implausible stuff (besides Harrison Ford, pictured, still being able to kick ass at 65) is pretty evident, but the elements that are realistic may surprise you. It turns out that archaeologists often really are spies who pack heat and behave like horndogs. Who knew? Can't wait 'til the Asylum folks apply similar investigative zeal to this season's other fantasy films, including Iron Man, Prince Caspian, and Sex and the City.
As we discovered when compiling our Harrison Ford-inspired "GILFy Pleasures" gallery ("GILF" as in "Grandparent I'd Like to..."), there are a lot of still-sexy stars over 50. So many, in fact, that we probably left off some of your favorites. One of mine that we neglected to include: Jacqueline Bisset (pictured), who went from rocking the wet T-shirt in The Deep to rocking Andrew McCarthy's world as a Mrs. Robinson type in Class in just six years, and who, in the quarter century since, has frequently proved she belongs on a list like this (most recently, during her multi-episode arc as call girl madam James on Nip/Tuck). Click through the gallery, then tell us: which other actor or actress we left off our list would you have included?
Finding a box of promotional swag in one's mailbox is a common event here at EW, kinda like writing about American Idol, or playing with dolls. Last month, however, I received three boxes stuffed with tie-in toys for three prospective May blockbusters, each more elaborately packaged than the last: Iron Man, then Speed Racer, then Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. With 20 separate items of swag inside my office, I realized I had to do something other than pick out my favorites and give the rest to the office-mates who, um, have kids.
So earlier this month, I began reviewing each box as its respective movie is released, rating them in categories of packaging, bounty, the coolest toy, the lamest toy, and the general feeling of swag overkill. We've already covered Iron Man and Speed Racer. So let's swing our whips over the jump and take a look inside our final May movie toy box: Indiana Jones.
Thank you, Internet, for giving my cerebral cortex something strange and shiny to process yet again. I'm talking of course about the viral video below, in which a guy wearing a floppy Indiana Jones hat runs away from a huge irregular sphere made of LEGOs, Temple of Doom-stylee, on the streets of San Francisco (h/t). That right there is one minute and thirty seconds of my Friday morning entertainment taken care of!
The clip is suspiciously well-edited, which has raised whispers that it could be faked — though I'd argue that it's still pretty cool if, as some have claimed, that boulder is actually made out of harmless styrofoam. More troublingly, it's been suggested that this is actually a covert ad for some product. It is structured awfully similarly to the viral ads for Ray-Ban and Levi's that got exposed here, or that Nike clip where it looked like Kobe Bryant was jumping over a speeding Aston-Martin.
The debate over the LEGO boulder continues to grow on various San Fran blogs; the most thorough debunking effort is here. But who really cares? If Kingdom of the Crystal Skull provides this much fun this weekend, I'll be happy. Won't you?
Attention, all you Indiana Jones-hating bloggers: Shia LaBeouf is on to you. I caught up with the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull star (pictured, with costars Harrison Ford and Karen Allen) at an Indiana Jones cocktail party here in Cannes, and when I asked him about those spoiler-heavy reviews that appeared on the web last week, he told me he doesn’t believe the writers actually saw the film. “Those reviews were not real,” he insisted. “You know it’s not a real review when no mention gets made of cinematography, or the camera setups, or anything pertaining to Steven’s direction of the film. It’s just all about Harrison and myself, when 70 percent of the movie is direction and shots and set pieces. I read all of it. As soon as I heard there was a review, I was like, Really? That’s crazy, ‘cause I haven’t seen the movie.” I also asked him what it was like to complete two days of interviews in Cannes when none of the journalists had actually seen the movie. “And you can’t say anything!” he responded. “You wind up talking about mundane things like shoelaces. But there’s beauty in that. People think they want to hear things, but they don’t.”
A few minutes later, his costar Harrison Ford, who had cameras shoved in his face whenever he went out in public, told me he was unfazed by the Cannes insanity: “I’ve been doing this for long enough, I know what to expect,” he said. “I don’t have any illusions about it or any fear of it.” When I mentioned LaBeouf’s comment about the shoelaces, Ford pointed to Steven Spielberg, who was standing behind me. “Check out Steven: He’s got no shoelaces in his shoes. So I don’t know what he’s thinking about!”
UPDATE: Lisa's full review of Indiana Jones 4 is now available here.
IF YOU ARE A PLOT PURIST AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS MOVIE, DON'T READ THE FOLLOWING!
It's a measure of the unique panache of the aging guy in the fedora that people started lining up hours ahead in the full midday Cannes sun for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And in the few moments of silence and dark screen before the Lucasfilm logo appeared, uncontainable devotees in the balcony began singing the famous four-note theme — dahhh-di-duh DAH — that's as much a part of the Indy experience as the expectation of a bullwhip well used.
I felt like singing, too. And I burst out in a laugh of pleasure when Henry Jones II first appears — rumpled, grimy, his gray hair thinning, within sight of his iconic topper but not within reach. (Indy has been kidnapped by Russians posing as U.S. military personnel in the New Mexico desert — long story — and brought to the feet of Cate Blanchett, in rich Natasha Badanov mode as a Soviet mind-control expert in hot pursuit of the title skull.) There's joy and a middle-aged playfulness to the best of Steven Spielberg's unlikely sequel. And I mean that as a full compliment: All the movieman's themes are here, his interests, obsessions, trademark strengths as a cinematic storyteller, and Spielbergian "tells," too, with hubcap and sideview mirror reflections dating back over 35 years to Duel.
Harrison Ford? Terrific — and re-energized after too many recent action roles he has appeared to sourly resent. This older, creakier (but still spry) adventure hero wears his worldly wryness with even greater earned authority. Shia LaBeouf? Inspired, channeling one-half James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, the other half Spielbergian Everyson.
If you went to see Iron Man this past weekend, odds are you saw the full trailers for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dark Knight, two sequels I couldn't be more excited to see. But after taking in what I was sure was going to be a double-barrelled shot of unvarnished awesomeness, I came away a little bit — to borrow from Dark Knight's Harvey Dent — of two minds.
The Indy trailer gave me exactly what that first spot failed to: a sense of respect for my love of the character. I didn't need to be reminded who Indiana Jones was, I just needed to see him bring the derring do. This time around, they nailed it — more info about the crystal skull, more Marian, and more running-and-jumping-and-blowing-stuff-up from a spry Harrison Ford. (There were dudes in the theater who applauded after the trailer ended. I was too busy GRINNING.)
On the other hand, The Dark Knight also gave us more--more of the story, more of the cast besides Heath Ledger--but I came away less impressed. It was less evocative than the first trailer; less thematic. I've still got a lot of faith that Christopher Nolan will deliver a splendid flick — Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent looked especially promising (considering that the character had been played previously by both Billy Dee Williams and Tommy Lee Jones, he's got no place to go but up).
But for me, these two were very much a case of one step forward, two steps back. (And, yes, you singing "Opposites Attract" is my own cruel Joker-y parting gift.)
What did you think? Still as jazzed as ever about these movies, or a little more cautious? And which one are you more stoked to see?
Harrison Ford may be 108 years old, but I'm 14 again, thanks to the release this morning of the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull teaser trailer at Yahoo Movies. It looks pretty dang awesome, even if the clip does waste the first half of its two-minute running time with a retrospective of Indy's past glories. (Wait, he "saved the cradle of civilization"? That's what the Temple of Doom was? I thought civilization started in Iraq or Egypt, not India.) Note to Paramount: we all know who Indiana Jones is; just because it's been 19 years doesn't mean we need a refresher course. We also know that Harrison Ford is, like, old, so we don't need the obligatory quip about his age. (Sidekick Ray WInstone: "This ain't gonna be easy." Indy: "Not as easy as it used to be.") Besides, by the look of things, Ford can still do stunts quite nicely, thank you. (Better quip: Shia LaBeouf: "You're a teacher?" Indy: "Part-time.") Also, I'd have liked to see more than a glimpse or two of Cate Blanchett (coiffed in a nifty Louise Brooks bob) and Karen Allen (back as Marion Ravenwood). But enough quibbling. Still a pretty dang awesome teaser. Watch, and we'll discuss, after the jump.
You've probably already read the spoiler-y Vanity Fair cover story on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (in theaters May 22), but if you haven't, here's the link. Now we'll issue a SPOILER ALERT of our own...
As more — well, a little more — plot information about the fourth film surfaces, are you feeling confident that Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Harrison Ford (pictured), and Cate Blanchett are on the right track? Are you looking forward to an Indy movie that's less supernatural and more sci-fi, as befits its Atomic Age/Cold War 1950s setting? Or are you already planning on throwing bricks and custard pies at George Lucas, as he suspects?
I'll be honest: Reading Spielberg's quotes about staying true to the franchise's old-school cinematography and Lucas' musings on Ford's perfect "befuddled, oh-my-God-I'm gonna-die look" got me excited.
Now, I consider myself pretty well-versed in the entertainment spectrum. I've seen more movies than is probably healthy — and can remember more about them than I should. (There was a time, a few years ago, where me and fellow PopWatcher Wook Kim performed Raiders of the Lost Ark from memory while standing outside a coworker's cubicle. Or most of it, at any rate...I think we were derailed by a laughing fit somewhere around Sallah's little H.M.S. Pinafore interlude. "I am the monarch of the sea," indeed.)
But for as complete a geek as I claim to be, I know there are still some embarrassing pockets of never seen/never read/never listened to on my CV.
To wit: I've never seen All About Eve (pictured). Or The Third Man. Or any film by Pedro Almodovar. Or Wong Kar-Wai. Never listened to a Bruce Springsteen Album. Or N.W.A. Or Neil Young. And if you printed out the list of great books I've never even cracked open, you could paper the Pentagon.
What about you? Where's your weakness when it comes to pop-culture consumption?
Sometime last week, the sock (that's right, a sock) worn by the cameraman whose foot Britney allegedly ran over was reportedly sold on eBay for more than $1,000. Disappointed you missed your chance to bid? No worries, as celebrity paraphernalia is never in short supply. This week, you can purchase the actual Mercedez-Benz convertible driven (and crashed) by Lindsay Lohan (pictured) for a mere $120,000. Behind the wheel of this dream ride, you'll see the world the way we imagine LiLo sees it, through cracked glass. Don't let your current anonymity put the anti-lock brakes on your budding celebrity: buy this car today, sit back, and set the cruise control for your own road trip of fame, misfortune, and frequent traffic-law citations.
Okay, I wouldn't break my bank account to buy Lindsay's car. But I'll admit, eBay has quite an addictive quality, and I find myself wondering if, perhaps, I really need a personalized Patrick Dempsey screen print pillowcase. Or considering where I'd display a $400 bust of Harrison Ford as the legendary Indiana Jones. Or deciding if I'd use a Fight Club bar of soap for practical or decorative purposes. My own fascination notwithstanding, I've never actually bought anything off eBay, but I'm wondering, what's your biggest entertainment-themed purchase? Do you look at your life-sized wax replica of Wayne Newton and think that maybe you should have saved your money for something a little more practical? Like food? Or rent? Or are you very happy with your decision to get that Star Trek Worf Starfleet wrist lamp?
Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. is a hero. If you grew up in the latter half of the 20th century, this is a given. Encoded in our social DNA. (Or is it RNA? Nevermind... questions like this are precisely why I became an entertainment journalist.) In any poll of the Greatest Action Heroes of All Time, he'll consistently rank in the top 5.
And we can all agree that a hero's job is to save the day, right? To stop the bad guys from carrying out their nefarious plan, whatever it may be. That's their raison d'etre, pardon my French.
Then follow the jump to find out why we were all wrong about Indiana Jones. To see why, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, he's not a hero... he's a bystander.
Now, I want you to watch this compilation...and listen closely. I'm not gonna tell you what to listen for, I think you'll notice what ties all the clips together. (And the audio has not been monkeyed with at all.) We'll talk about it after the jump.
Amid all the fuss at the VMAs over Britney, Sarah Silverman, and Kid Rock vs. Tommy Lee, a major announcement got lost in the shuffle — namely, Shia LaBeouf's revelation that the fourth Indiana Jones movie, currently in production, will be called Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (LaBeouf's announcement reportedly bucked the objections of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, but the actor, pictured at left, said he felt the time was right because "I'm 21, and we're in Vegas, baby.") Now, normally, PopWatch is hesitant to lend much credence to LaBeouf's Indiana Jones-related pronouncements — after all, the Transformers star denied to our face that he was going to be costar in the Harrison Ford sequel until the truth came out — but the Crystal Skull title was one of six possible titles Lucasfilm reportedly registered with the Motion Picture Association of America last month. And today, the official Indiana Jones website confirms LaBeouf's assertion.
So there it is, PopWatchers. Sounds like the plot will involve the aging archaeologist visiting a head shop before a Grateful Dead concert. Among the six registered titles, I'd really been hoping for Indiana Jones and the Destroyer of Worlds, a title that invokes both the dawn of the atomic age and Hindu mythology (bringing to mind what J. Robert Oppenheimer famously said when the first A-bomb was exploded in 1945). I'll leave it up to you all to guess what the title means, what possible mystical artifact Indy could be chasing this time, and whether the title (and the forum in which it was announced) bode well for the 2008 film.
Speaking of Indiana Jones IV (which will be awesome; see previous post on fourquels), you gotta wonder what they're gonna call it. And you gotta worry that George Lucas is gonna call it something crazy; be grateful that he can't call it Indiana Jones and the Phantom Menace and Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Clones. Aside from that — yeesh — anything goes.
To that end, Slashfilm.com has reportedly scored the latest Title Registration Report from the MPAA, listing six potential titles that Lucasfilm has filed to get approval on. Here they are. Is one of these the title of the new Indiana Jones movie?
Indiana Jones and the City of Gods
Indiana Jones and the Destroyer of Worlds
Indiana Jones and the Fourth Corner of the Earth
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Indiana Jones and the Lost City of Gold
Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Covenant
On Thursday, Paramount stole the day — and possibly the entire four-day Comic-Con show — with their drool-worthy, standing-room-only, two-hour presentations. Here's what we learned...
The fans like them some Iron Man. And Paramount like them some Black Sabbath, based on the three or so times they cued the band's song "Iron Man" (if only Beavis & Butthead figured in somehow). Superskinny director Jon Favreau — who told EW he's lost 80 pounds ("I just ate less") — introduced his trailer, which featured Robert Downey Jr. effortlessly nailing the role of Tony Stark, the cocky billionaire who dons a metallic suit after a near-mortal injury. Biggest nerdgasm: Watching I-Man fly the sky in his Mark III suit with jet propulsion capabilities... in his freakin' hands!
Steven Spielberg led a taped on-set message from the Indiana Jones cast on-set and in costume: Harrison Ford, Ray Winstone, and Shia LaBeouf inexplicably, though perhaps tellingly, wearing biker gear. The big announcement: Karen Allen (pictured, with Spielberg, on the Indy IV set) will reprise her role of the whiskey-swilling Marion Ravenwood from 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark. This almost makes up for the absence of Temple of Doom's Short Round. Almost.
Paramount cruelly dangled a carrot in front of us — the logo for Sweeney Todd — only to pull a bait and switch by showing us this poster (but, to be fair, a cool poster).
Okay, we take back what we said about Tight Lips Abrams. He did confirm the long-standing rumor that in his upcoming Star Trek, Heroes' Sylar, Zachary Quinto, will play Spock. As will Leonard Nimoy. That's right, people: Two Spocks for the price of one movie. Quinto stars as the Vulcan in his younger years, Nimoy as the elder Spock. When asked why he'd revisit the pointy-eared smarty-pants of his past, Nimoy said: "The answer is, it was logical."
Last Monday night, TCM aired Spielberg on Spielberg, a 90-minute romp through the master’s filmography led by the master himself. I didn’t get to catch it live, because I was too busy that night TV-Watching Spielberg’s all-too-painful Fox reality show, On the Lot, but I finally got around to firing up the program on my DVR this weekend. Like most good movie docs, it made me want to watch a boatload of films I’ve already seen a boatload of times. So I enjoyed Spielberg on Spielberg, and I recommend it. But one thing about it drove me up the wall, and I want to know who’s with me.
As SonS got going, we were zipping along through Spielberg’s movies in chronological order — Duel, Sugarland, Jaws, Close Encounters, 1941, Raiders, E.T. By the end of this, I’m getting excited, because I want to hear what Spielberg has to say about one of my favorite Spielberg movies, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I know he’s been down on it for most of his career, and I’m thinking I’ll finally get to hear why. But then, for some unknown reason, the doc jumps straight from E.T. to Jurassic Park, and for the rest of the night we’re all over the place, hopping from this film to that. Temple of Doom got no mention at all. Neither did Last Crusade or The Lost World.
After the jump, I’ll elaborate on why these omissions were egregious.
I don’t care how much you might hate the idea of a 64-year-old Harrison Ford putting his battered fedora back on for next summer's Indiana Jones 4 — don’t you look at this first official photo, taken yesterday on the set (by this fella named Steven Spielberg), and get at least a little excited?
Indy doesn’t look that elderly. And it’s great that nobody’s hiding the gray hairs and peppery stubble. With Spielberg directing, a movie about Indiana Jones as an old guy still bouncing around is inherently mysterious. I wanna see where they go with it — more than I wanna see any movie coming out between now and then, honestly.
And I’m telling you, Ford can still handle the action. In June 2005, I spent two days on the set of Firewall in Canada, and I watched Ford fly through windows and fall down a lot as he shot that movie’s fisticuffs-packed climax. I don’t care who you are; the Harrison Ford I saw two years ago could still kick the crap out of you. Indiana Jones lives!
Don't count me among those disappointed that Sean Connery (pictured, right, with Harrison Ford) won't be reprising his role as indiana Jones' father in the fourth Indy movie, which begins shooting in 10 days. Connery posted an announcement at the official Indiana Jones website, saying that not even the prospect of working with Steven Spielberg and Ford again could coax him back in front of the camera because "retirement is just too damned much fun."
That sounds like an awfully glib excuse, but whatever the real reason — maybe he's not mentally or physically up to the demands of the role anymore, or he doesn't want audiences to see the ravages of his 76 years, or he really is having too much fun playing golf — I won't begrudge him his desire to sit this one out. His announcement echoes the one made a couple weeks ago by Paul Newman; the 82-year-old told ABC News he's happy to devote his working hours to his food businesses and that he's not up to the challenges of acting anymore. Both men had world-class runs in movies, and both deserve to rest on their laurels.
Sure, we'd all like to see Connery and Newman continue to sparkle on screen, but then again, movie history is littered with late-career embarrassments by performers who didn't know when to hang it up, who didn't observe the showbiz adage that you should always leave 'em wanting more. What say you, PopWatchers? Should we try to coax these guys back into action, even if they're not in fighting shape, or should we let them be and just enjoy their bodies of work?
Less than a month ago, Shia LaBeouf was denying, to PopWatch and anyone else who would listen, that the reports of him being cast in Indiana Jones IV were anything more than rumors. Now, however, the Disturbia star's casting is a done deal, and as much as I think LaBeouf is a funny and inventive young performer, I'm on the fence as to whether his casting is a good idea.
On the minus side: Do we really need to see Indy distracted from his adventures by some midlife father-son drama, the playing out of some abandonment issues that will read like an allegory of the midlife crisis of a busy Hollywood power player? Been there, done that, in both Last Crusade and Temple of Doom (pictured). Or, if LaBeouf isn't playing Indy's son, but perhaps some impostor who claims to be the whipcracker's offspring in order to scam him into an adventure, would that really be any better? Either way, there's something artificial about using these old warhorse/young hipster-geek pairings to prop up long-dormant action franchises, which is why I have similar apprehensions about Bruce Willis and Justin Long in Live Free or Die Hard. If Adam Brody pops up as a junior freedom fighter in Stallone's fourth Rambo, run for the hills.
On the plus side: Kid's got talent, Cate Blanchett and Ray Winstone are also going to be on hand to step up everyone's game, the franchise could certainly use some youthful energy, and Spielberg can usually be trusted to know what he's doing. And if Shia gets out of line, Ford'll make him feel the sting of the lash.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Does LaBeouf's casting make you more or less eager to see Indy don his fedora one more time?
Did you beware the Ides of March, PopWatchers? Well, being
in Las Vegas for ShoWest afforded me the rare opportunity to mark dear Julius' demise in
unique style. I started out yesterday, March 15, by hoofing it across the Strip
to, yep, Caesar's Palace. But — Ecce, PopWatcheri! — I seemed to be
the only one who remembered. Nothing was going on. No mock betrayals. No staged
executions. Vegas, great home of the meticulous re-creation of the outside
world, you disappointed me!
In actual fact, I could say the same thing about ShoWest, which wrapped up its
least-flashy, least-newsworthy, least-star-studded installment in years. The
convention's final day saw the obligatory annual 3-D digital cinema
presentation, an event that included footage from U2 3D, which may sound
like a Star Wars droid but is actually a concert film featuring Bono
& Co. Every year they say digital cinema and 3-D is fast on its way to
theaters near you; I'm still waiting.
Then, Sony hosted the obligatory annual animated-movie clip reel, this in honor
of the talking-animals pic Surf's Up (June 8). I totally dug the
faux luau atmosphere that they had concocted for all the ShoWesters in
attendance: Everybody got leis and mai-tais and pineapple slices. And the 20
minutes of the film were kinda fun, too. The flick is all about wave-riding penguins who hang 10 in a big competition on a tropical island. In introducing the footage, producer Chris Jenkins winked at recent films like March of the Penguins and Happy Feet when he quipped, "More bloody penguins!" But then he added that this is "not just another penguin movie," and it seemed like he had a point, for Surf's Up is set up like
a clever mockumentary. Think The Office — but animated, feature-length,
and featuring surfing fowl. Cute!
Anyway, the day wrapped with the convention's obligatory annual awards banquet,
in which a number of random stars trot out to receive made-up prizes like
"Animation Directors of the Year" (that'd be Shrek the Third's
Chris Miller and Raman Hui), "Female Star of Tomorrow" (Nancy Drew's
Emma Roberts) and "Comedy Star of the Year" (Steve Carell, pictured).
It's always a good time. All the nation's theater owners get dolled up for the big
occasion, and I get to talk to most of the talent on hand. A few highlights:
Shia LaBeouf must have done something extremely good in a previous life, because he's getting hit with a truckload of good karma casting. Not only is the Disney Channel breakout the star of this summer's Transformers (pictured), a practically surefire fit from director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg, but the latter is apparently so besotted with the 20-year-old actor that he's cast him as Harrison Ford's son in the finally-moving fourth Indiana Jones installment. Though precious few other details have been released about the film, it's expected to begin shooting this summer for a 2008 release.
Between his trippy performance last year in Emilio Estevez's Bobby and winning turn in 2003's family flick Holes, LaBeouf certainly has the potential to make more of name for himself, but I'm not fully convinced that he's a major star in the works. In the past few years, he's primarily played the quirky sidekick (in such films as Constantine and I, Robot), and he has an obligatory teen gorefest — the Rear Window-ish Disturbia — in the can. Then again, who am I to second-guess Steven Spielberg? One thing's for sure: entertainment journos are going to be spell-checking his name a lot in the upcoming year.
What say you, PopWatchers? Can LaBeouf pass as Harrison Ford's son? Is he primed to become a ShoWest Star of Tomorrow?
Hey, good lookin'! What you got cookin'? Got any plans for Memorial Day 2008? Wanna go to the movies with me that day? You do? Great! Because I know what I want to see: the next Indiana Jones movie. If you're really in, lemme know, because I think we should probably buy our tickets early.
Oh, I jest — though maybe not the part about reserving seats in advance. Certainly, the film (which Paramount calls The Fourth Installment of the Indiana Jones Adventures) is going to be a white-hot ticket when it opens on May 22, 2008. That's the Thursday before Memorial Day, a.k.a. the same day on which highly anticipated blockbusters with words like Star Wars and Matrix in their titles have debuted in recent years. Considering the two-decade wait and all the starts and stops and, you know, Harrison Ford's 64th birthday, fans everywhere are clamoring to see what happens to Indy in his advanced years. Maybe the Nazis poison his Centrum Silver. (Oh, if Paramount actually uses that, I'm going to go all Buchwald on their ass!)
But will The Fourth Installment of the Indiana Jones Adventures crack a whip on the competition? I mean, I'm psyched, but the franchise is awfully old: Folks born when Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade premiered are now entering college. And, amazingly enough, we already know that Speed Racer is due the same weekend, while Iron Man and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian are set to open in the preceding weeks. Will they keep our hero from tracking down his latest treasure at the box office?
Holy Grail! Imagine what that might mean! Kid-Indy, youthful midichlorians raging, enters a big whip competition! Sallah delivers massively elliptical speeches about destiny! Indy falling in with a prat-falling Nazi officer named Gestapo Binks (Ahmed Best)! But wait, wait, don’t seethe yourself into a coma just yet, Joe Indy-fan, there’s more:
“We're basically going to do The Phantom Menace ... People's expectations are way higher than you can deliver. You could just get killed for the whole thing... We would do it for fun and just take the hit with the critics and the fans... But nobody wants to get into it unless they are really happy with it."
OK, you could take this one of two ways: Either it’s a bold, damn-the-torpedoes approach to the pure fun of the Indy franchise... or it’s a man who’s been so richly rewarded for sucking, he’s decided sucking ain’t so bad.
Let’s go tentatively with the former, and parse some of George’s other comments. He cites a creative disagreement as one cause of Indy 4’s long delay. Apparently, George’s idea for a new quest objective -- the Ark in Raiders, the Grail in Last Crusade, the, uh, Short Round in Temple (what was the goal there again? Those glowy egg things?) -- wasn’t a hit with Spielberg or Harrison Ford. Seems like the difference of opinion on this “area of the supernatural” was enough to derail the project for years.
Two questions, PopWatchers: What’s your favorite McGuffin? The briefcase in Kiss Me Deadly? The briefcase in Pulp Fiction? The briefcase in any of those other get-the-briefcase movies?
More intriguingly, I ask you this: What potentially radioactive “area of the supernatural” do you think George is talking about? The sacred black stone (possibly a meteorite) in the Kaaba of Mecca? Yeah, we might not want Indy to go poking around that particular religious relic at the particular moment.
Or, much more likely, it's a vintage L. Ron Hubbard-shaped paperweight kept in a vault on the 13th floor of the Scientology Celebrity Center. But I could be completely wrong: Maybe Indy’s after Madonnah’s Kabbalah bracelet. (Hint: Only the penitent man shall pass.)
So let the speculation begin. It’s all we have for now. But maybe someday, we’ll know if George chose wisely, or... poorly.
Day 2 of E3 began with an appointment with Sony
Computer Entertainment prez Kaz Hirai, who rather graciously said
nothing about our arriving 10 minutes late to the meeting. It ended 13
hours (and three strawberry smoothies and two chalky power bars) later
as we made a sad trip back to our hotel from Dodger Stadium, where we
were denied entry into the Sony press party. Was it the doing of an
irate Mr. Hirai? Nah, it turns out we just forgot to pick up our tickets
at the Sony booth.
Anyway, back to the games. Since the PopWatch staff
rather unbelievably chooses not to work weekends (slackers!),
we’ll be wrapping up our tireless coverage today. And though we
visited countless (okay, 14) game publishers, limited space (and the
late hour) compels us to offer this abbreviated summary of E3 2006:
ELECTRONIC ARTS
What we liked:Army of Two, an action-packed
shooter starring a strangely contentious pair of mercenaries (think: The Odd Couple-meets-Commando) and Madden ’07 for the Wii, in which you
can score a TD with a dazzling 60-yard bomb -- and still look like an
idiot while using the Wii’s motion-tracking controller.
What we liked
best: Create a space-faring civilization from a single critter
of your design with Spore, an utterly fascinating PC title from designer-deity
Will Wright.
The first day of E3 left us bone tired (not so much
because of the convention as it is our annoying inability to adjust to
a new time zone), near deaf (why do exhibitors feel it necessary to
turn all their TV monitors and sound systems up to 11?), and bursting
with news to report to you, our gaming readers (oh, GatorBait, to
answer your question you posted yesterday: many specialty stores like
GameStop will accept pre-orders in exchange for a small down payment).
We met with a bunch of game publishers on Wednesday -- and offer you
these two quick impressions:
Harrison Ford says he has ''no doubt'' that a fourth Indiana Jones movie will come together. ''We're closer than we've ever been. There's a script upon which there's pretty general agreement,'' he tells EW writer Gregory Kirschling in the magazine's new issue. Why the holdup? ''George [Lucas] has been a bit busy making these sci-fi films he likes. And Steven [Spielberg] has had a film or two, in turn. So it really is not that easy to pull the pieces together, but I think everybody feels it's a worthy ambition. I know in my heart it's gonna happen.'' Besides, he says, ''I'd like to get it over with so I don't have to answer the god-damned questions [about it] anymore.''
Among the oft-asked questions: Can the 63-year-old actor still handle the franchise's action demands? It appears so to Kirschling, who watched Ford throw himself into some punishing-looking stunts on the set of his new movie Firewall. Oops, don't call them stunts. ''I don't do stunts! I do physical acting! That's a big f---ing difference,'' Ford tells Kirschling. ''I have no ambition to do stunts. I have an ambition to tell a story with physical action.''
Okay, then, what story with physical action would you like to see Ford tell in Indy 4? And which costars should he tell it with? (I'd suggest sending Ford's whip-wielding archaeologist to find the Fountain of Youth, but I think Hugh Jackman is going to beat him to it in Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain.)
-After having been dispatched in the opening minutes of The Ring, Amber Tamblyn (left) will star in another Americanized J-horror film, The Grudge 2. She'll play the younger sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar, who'll do a walk-on.
-The long-gestating Lance Armstrong biopic cycles forward, possibly starring Matt Damon. Producer Frank Marshall tells iF magazine he plans to put his director's cap on for this one; he also updates iF on the status of Indiana Jones IV (a decision on whether or not to go ahead will be made soon, he says), The Bourne Ultimatum (shooting in August), and Jurassic Park IV (''off the radar'').
-Austin Powers director Jay Roach will make a film about a real-life international man of mystery: W. Mark Felt. He'll make his drama debut helming the Tom Hanks-produced film about the man who revealed himself to be Watergate informant Deep Throat last year.
-Passion prequel? New Line has bought a script for a biopic of the Virgin Mary, one that promises to flesh out the characters of some of the more obscure Biblical personages who figure in her backstory. Writer is Mike Rich, best known for inspirational sports movies like The Rookie and Radio.
What would you do if Harrison Ford showed up at your house to give you an Indiana Jones DVD? That's the scenario envisioned by Amazon, which is sending several such special deliveries to random customers over the next 10 days as part of its 10th anniversary celebration. (The online retailer says it will stream live footage of the deliveries each day on its website.) Other stars who may accompany the UPS guy to your door include Moby (armed with his CD Hotel), and Jason Alexander (bearing a Seinfeld DVD). Also, retiring Disney chief Michael Eisner may show up at your door with a copy of his new memoir, Camp. It's not part of the Amazon promo, but no one's buying the book, and he needs to get rid of them somehow.
I just got a press release about tomorrow's DVD release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and apparently Best Buy is offering a "gift set with replica crystal skull from Sideshow Collectibles and a $25 gift card to Sideshowcollectibles.com." Add two zeroes to that figure (and make it cash), and yeah, I could find a spot on my mantelpiece for the hideous noggin. You?
With the summer movie season now in full swing, players in 
As we discovered when compiling our Harrison Ford-inspired 
Finding a box of promotional swag in one's mailbox is a common event here at EW, kinda like writing about 
Attention, all you Indiana Jones-hating bloggers: Shia LaBeouf is on to you. I caught up with the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull star (pictured, with costars Harrison Ford and Karen Allen) at an Indiana Jones cocktail party here in Cannes, and when I asked him about those spoiler-heavy reviews that appeared on the web last week, he told me he doesn’t believe the writers actually saw the film. “Those reviews were not real,” he insisted. “You know it’s not a real review when no mention gets made of cinematography, or the camera setups, or anything pertaining to Steven’s direction of the film. It’s just all about Harrison and myself, when 70 percent of the movie is direction and shots and set pieces. I read all of it. As soon as I heard there was a review, I was like, Really? That’s crazy, ‘cause I haven’t seen the movie.” I also asked him what it was like to complete two days of interviews in Cannes when none of the journalists had actually seen the movie. “And you can’t say anything!” he responded. “You wind up talking about mundane things like shoelaces. But there’s beauty in that. People think they want to hear things, but they don’t.”
UPDATE: Lisa's full review of Indiana Jones 4 is now available 
You've probably already read the spoiler-y Vanity Fair cover story on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (in theaters May 22), but if you haven't, here's 
Now, I consider myself pretty well-versed in the entertainment spectrum. I've seen more movies than is probably healthy — and can remember more about them than I should. (There was a time, a few years ago, where me and fellow PopWatcher Wook Kim performed Raiders of the Lost Ark from memory while standing outside a coworker's cubicle. Or most of it, at any rate...I think we were derailed by a laughing fit somewhere around Sallah's little H.M.S. Pinafore interlude. "I am the monarch of the sea," indeed.)
Sometime last week, the sock (that's right, a sock) worn by the cameraman whose foot Britney allegedly ran over was reportedly sold on eBay for more than $1,000. Disappointed you missed your chance to bid? No worries, as celebrity paraphernalia is never in short supply. This week, you can purchase the actual 
Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr.
Amid all the fuss at the VMAs over 
On Thursday, Paramount stole the day — and possibly the entire four-day Comic-Con show — with their drool-worthy, standing-room-only, two-hour presentations. Here's what we learned...
Last Monday night, TCM aired Spielberg on Spielberg, a 90-minute romp through the master’s filmography led by the master himself. I didn’t get to catch it live, because I was too busy that night 
I don’t care how much you might hate the idea of a 64-year-old Harrison Ford putting his battered fedora back on for next summer's Indiana Jones 4 — don’t you look at this first official photo, taken yesterday on the set (by this fella named Steven Spielberg), and get at least a little excited? 
Don't count me among those disappointed that Sean Connery (pictured, right, with Harrison Ford) won't be reprising his role as indiana Jones' father in the fourth Indy movie, which begins shooting in 10 days. Connery posted an 
Less than a month ago, Shia LaBeouf was denying, to 
Did you beware 
Shia LaBeouf must have done something extremely good in a previous life, because he's getting hit with a truckload of good karma casting. Not only is the Disney Channel breakout the star of this summer's Transformers (pictured), a practically surefire fit from director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg, but the latter is apparently so besotted with the 20-year-old actor that he's cast him as 
What are Indiana Jones fans to make of this? It’s George Lucas, talking to Empire Magazine about the 
Harrison Ford says he has ''no doubt'' that a fourth Indiana Jones movie will come together. ''We're closer than we've ever been. There's a script upon which there's pretty general agreement,'' he tells EW writer Gregory Kirschling in the magazine's new issue. Why the holdup? ''George [Lucas] has been a bit busy making these sci-fi films he likes. And Steven [Spielberg] has had a film or two, in turn. So it really is not that easy to pull the pieces together, but I think everybody feels it's a worthy ambition. I know in my heart it's gonna happen.'' Besides, he says, ''I'd like to get it over with so I don't have to answer the god-damned questions [about it] anymore.''
-After having been dispatched in the opening minutes of The Ring, Amber Tamblyn (left) will star in another Americanized J-horror film, 
