Last night’s Academy Awards shut out of Munich has sent Steven Spielberg spiraling into a depression, causing the director to take a year off from filmmaking.
Well, I made the depression bit up, but in a surprise announcement, Spielberg told some drone from Fox News that he has nothing coming up this year – including Indiana Jones IV.
From the drone’s article:
His main work in 2006 will be preparing his Abraham Lincoln film with award-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin, and acting as a producer, not director, on several other smaller projects.
I asked him about "Indiana Jones 4." What’s up?
I said: “George Lucas told me recently that there’s a script and he’s happy with the story.”
Spielberg: “George Lucas isn’t the director. I am.”
You may recall that in this space on Dec. 6, 2005, I wrote that Lucas said he had a script by Jeff Nathanson, who wrote Spielberg’s "Catch Me If You Can" and "The Terminal," as well as Bret Ratner’s "Rush Hour" movies. But even Nathanson seems to have been succeeded in the Indy sweepstakes.
“I have David Koepp on it now, and he’s my ‘closer,’” Spielberg said, using a baseball reference to the pitcher who comes in during the 9th inning and finishes up a winning ball game (New Yorkers automatically think: Mariano Rivera, Goose Gossage, Sparky Lyle, Dave Righetti).
“He wrote ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘War of the Worlds,’” Spielberg said, “so he’ll get it done.”
In your face, George Lucas! Spielberg also mentions that Munich is his lowest grossing film ever, but that he doesn’t care since he has enough money to make you and everyone in your family disappear overnight.
As for Indy IV – every year that Harrison Ford gets a little more pickled is another year where the reality of this film slips away.