The Hawk

Issue date: 1/24/07 Section: Entertainment

Ford and Lucas will collaborate on Jones IV.

It's official. Indy is back.

Everyone's favorite retriever of lost antiquities will dust off his familiar leather hat and once again don the whip that made him famous in a fourth entry to the classic Indiana Jones series.

This month, representatives from Paramount Pictures and Steven Spielberg confirmed that a fourth Indiana Jones movie is indeed in the works. A script written by David Koepp was approved by Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford, signaling the green light for production, which will begin this June in locations around the world.

While little has been revealed relating to the plot of the upcoming film, bits and pieces gathered from interviews with members of the Jones' team have shed light on some aspects of the movie. Fans of the series should expect something completely different, according to Spielberg. The new Indiana Jones will follow the trend of recent films like Casino Royale, being primarily a character piece. It appears that this film will delve into the personal affairs of Dr. Jones more deeply than ever before.

Michelle Yeoh, a star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha, may fill the role of Indy's love interest in the upcoming movie. Spielberg reportedly approached her on the set of Memoirs with an offer for a part. In an interview with IGN Film Force, Producer Frank Marshall revealed that Indy IV will take place in the late 1940s, 10 to 12 years after the events of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The setting is currently unknown; however, it has been confirmed that the movie will be filmed live on location rather than digitally on a green screen. This may come as a surprise to moviegoers who have grown accustomed to digitalized epics which have dominated the entertainment scene in recent years.

Elements of the supernatural will once again be featured in the plot of Indy IV. This element will likely take the form of some object of desire, or "MacGuffin," a cinematic term coined by Alfred Hitchcock. This object serves to advance the plot of the film. Past MacGuffins include the biblical Ark of the Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Holy Grail in The Last Crusade. The MacGuffin in Indy IV was originally rejected due to its overly-controversial nature, however, as George Lucas told Empire Magazine, the object was eventually accepted by all parties.

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