When Talking About Indiana Jones, Writer David Koepp Didn't Love Having To Include Aliens. (Also, Happy 80th Birthday, Harrison Ford!)
When one talks about failed sequels, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull usually end up on the 'worst of lists.' And for good reason.
Screenwriter of the film David Koepp sat down with the Script Apart podcast and gave his two cents as to what he would have done differently, get rid of the alien plot. Koepp said,
"When I came on, I tried to convince [Spielberg and Lucas] to change it - I had this other idea. They didn't want to change it. I'm not saying mine would've been better. But I think that a lot of the pushback that movie got, in a larger sense aside from little things people might not have liked - that were too silly or whatever - the larger one was that [fans said], 'We don't feel like aliens should've been in an Indiana Jones movie.'"
If you remember anything about Indiana Jones, he was a globe-trotting archeologist who specialized in mostly Christian and Jewish artifacts. Not to say he couldn't get out of his comfort zone and study ancient alien remains, but it was kind of a stretch. And fans knew it.
Between the ridiculous 'nuke the fridge' scene, which also took over for the term 'jump the shark' with how silly it all was, the story was just sort of lame. Now that Harrison Ford is 80 - as of the day this article is published - people are curious what Logan director James Mangold has in store for the octogenarian adventurer. (Hope he has his Ensure and is, in fact, insured.)
Well, anyways, Happy Birthday to Harrison Ford! Be careful out there.
