After the swinging monkeys, giant ants and nuclear-resistant fridges of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull , most right-thinking cinemagoers thought the franchise had been killed stone dead. Time for an increasingly craggy Harrison Ford to hang up the bullwhip, and for George Lucas to have a long think about what he's done.
That said, rumours surrounding a potential fifth instalment have refused to go away, with Ford having indicated a willingness to do it and vaguely positive murmurs emerging from Spielberg's camp. However, producer Frank Marshall has been talking about the possibility, and from what he has to say, a fifth film isn't sounding likely.
“I say, for me, [Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is ] the last hurrah," says Marshall. "I know that yes, we talk about it, but there’s no idea, there’s no MacGuffin.” Last we'd heard was that Spielberg and Lucas were working on a "gem of an idea", but apparently that hasn't developed into a fully blown script."
An additional roadblock would appear to be Lucas stepping down from Lucasfilm, with Marshall's wife Kathleen Kennedy poised to take the reins. "Yeah, no he isn’t [ hungry to do another Indiana Jones ]", says Marshall, "and he’s obviously passing the baton to my wife."
That to us would suggest that any clamour there had been for another go-around has died down significantly, with Lucas having lost his enthusiasm for the franchise after the debacle of the last film. To be honest, we think it's probably for the best...
