According to a report from Collider, Lucasfilm and director Steven Spielberg have chosen Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s Jonathan Kasdan to take over scripting duties on Indiana Jones 5, replacing Spielberg mainstay David Koepp (Jurassic Park, The Lost World, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). As on Solo, the younger Kasdan will be walking in the footsteps of his father Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote the screenplay for the original Raiders of the Lost Ark and also did an uncredited script polish on Crystal Skull. Jonathan Kasdan previously also wrote and directed the romantic comedies The First Time and In the Land of Women.
The sequel will Spielberg teaming up with Harrison Ford, who is reprising his iconic role, and franchise producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.
While neither Lucasfilm nor David Koepp have confirmed the news, the hiring of Kasdan is certainly a show of confidence in his talent after the massive underperformance of Solo at the box office. Granted, Solo was a tumultuous production that was hobbled by a switch in directors, having a majority of the film reshot and fast-tracked by Disney for a summer release, so fault may not lie squarely at the screenplay. The outlet also notes that they are unclear about when in the process Kasdan came on board and how extensive his work on the film has been, meaning it could be either a two-week polish or a page-1 rewrite.
Birth.Movies.Death also reports that the MacGuffin for the film could be the legendary Fountain of Youth, which was originally intended to be the lynchpin of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but this also remains unconfirmed. Using the Fountain as a plot point could feasibly allow producers to cast a younger version of Dr. Henry Jones Jr. in continuity for foreseeable sequels, but would also take a young Jones potentially to eras like the 90’s and the 2000’s that likely no one wants to see. That’s all speculation for now, though.
“This will be Harrison Ford’s last Indiana Jones movie, I am pretty sure, but it will certainly continue after that,” Spielberg previously said.
In further Indiana Jones 5 news, Variety reports that the film will not meet its scheduled July 20, 2020 release date. The trade now reveals that since none of the key players in the film have signed off on a script (this Kasdan’s involvement), the time table for the sequel has shifted. Production on the sequel was set to start in spring 2019 but now may not begin for months afterward or perhaps even 2020.
Famed archaeologist and explorer Indiana Jones was introduced in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark – one of AFI’s 100 Greatest American Films of All Time – and later thrilled audiences in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The four films have brought in nearly $2 billion at the global box office.
Spielberg previously promised one big thing for the fifth installment, while Bob Iger — Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm’s parent company Disney — has said that Indiana Jones 5 won’t be the last film.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
