Jeff Wells is reporting that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a locked picture, and that the final cut runs a whopping two hours and twenty plus minutes. That makes it the longest Indy film by a little bit - Last Crusade had previously held the record at just over two hours.

Wells also reports that the final cut will be screened in-house this week, but Paramount people are going to be the only ones seeing this. I was told a long time ago - when the movie was still filming - to not expect to see Crystal Skull until maybe a day or two before domestic release. According to some insiders, this policy was a smart one, as the movie may not have turned out to be what people in the industry call 'good.' I'm hoping for the best, of course.

While we're talking about long summer blockbusters, one of the posters at Wells' blog mentions something that I've also heard rumored: The Dark Knight is looking to be damn long. The poster, Mr. Gittes, says he's heard three hours; I've been told 'over two and a half hours.' Maybe we'll split the difference and call it 2:45. My source tells me that while the film is still in editing (ie, anything can change in the next month or so), Christopher Nolan seems incapable - or maybe unwilling - to cut the movie closer to 120 minutes. Of course we live in the age of the bladder bursting blockbuster, so he'll probably get away with it. But damn if all of this doesn't remind me of the excess of the 60s, right before Hollywood collapsed under the weight of shitty, pompous epics and shitty, tedious musicals.