Frank Darabont dishes on his Indiana Jones 4 script!

[romeonarcizo]

I heard that the script that FD write for the 4th INDIANA JONES was awesome and even SPILEBERG and FORD says that was even better than RAIDERS..but LUCAS from some things didnt like it---I am a hughe fan of lucas,but DARABONT is the MEN in scripts talk...What a shame...

[mkl62]

1-28-2012. He's full of glee at 53. Happy Birthday, Frank. You've come a long way since Hell Night.

[amaxamon]

If it weren't for Lucas, Darabont wouldn't have his career. He wrote some good tv scripts but his own films are pretty mediocre :P And his Indy script needed tons of work. But as we all know, The Mist turned out to be an immortal classic!

[das9582]

Darabont needs more respect. I hear he's doing a show on TNT called "L.A Noir" nothing to do with the game. I bet it's gonna be good.

[alonsojett]

frank darabont is the man

[GorilaGorilaFilms]

i just finished reading his version of indy4 literally takes a shit on kingdom of crystal skull. it actually feels like a real indy movie (i suggest you read it). not the crap lucas dished out. George created the character and killed it....

[Resurrected2011]

I HATE how people don't respect Darabont.

He is a fucking GOD among the modern filmmakers

[Pwells1]

George Lucas passed on Darabont, and then he made THAT piece of shit. Wow. Just, wow.

[MegaMaverick1994]

Indiana Jones 5- the rise of George Lucas's neck

[alluvialedaempfer]

6 people didnt see raiders.

[Casarzino]

you know what. I think George wanted to avoid Darabont's name being attached to it. He still wanted to be seen as the 'writer of Indiana Jones', although most people know he only comes up with the ideas and others write the scripts. But Darabont is a big name to movie fans and he might have taken away some of the glory.

[morbidtherabbit]

they should have used fanks script. he is an excellent film maker. he knows what the fans want to see in movies.

[landporpus]

George Lucas is the dumbest fuck in the world of screen writing

[CElkins0011]

For some reason I think people hated Indy 4 for all the reasons that we love the original three. Is a fridge vs a nuclear bomb any more ridiculous than a knight who is thousands of years old protecting a cup that caught the blood of Jesus Christ!? Come on people.

[FCWPM]

@CElkins0011 You make an excellent point, and that's the pretty much the same argument I would make in INDIANA JONES 4's favor. But there is such a thing as believability, where you set the rules for the world you're showing to your audience, but at the same time you're following those rules. I think a lot of people felt that the refrigerator didn't follow the already farfetched rules of Indiana Jones. I admit the fridge was a stretch, but I'm not hard pressed about it either.

[MrBuc128]

I hate how Spielberg always gets off the hook.He was also to blame for indy 4.If he did not like the script than he should not have directed it.I would think that Steven is in a position in his career where he can choose what films he wants to direct .He should have insisted on Frank Darabont writing the script or not directed it.

[T0pcatFilms]

indy 4 would have been awesome if Lucas had just butted out... so would have been the star wars prequels

[KneeOfJustice2046]

I wanna hang out with Frank Darabont.

[k97cross]

I HATE George Lucas!!!!!

He raped Indy!

[underbightdog23]

@k97cross he didnt just rape indy

[maulcs]

Frank was responsible for the fucking fridge scene. It came out of his brain. Nuff said.

[Impactfilms1337]

@maulcs shut up george lucas was responsible for episodes 1-3 and frank was responsible for shaw shank.

[Omnigun2002]

No... the real scene that angers me is the damn monkey vine swing scene... why LUCAS/SPIELBERG whyyyyyyy!?

[andromidius]

@Omnigun2002 Yep, totally agree with that. I can half forgive the fridge scene due to Indy being 'immortal' due to drinking from the Grail (though I think the shot was over the top - notice how the fridge flies ALOT further then even cars and houses? Yeah), but the vines were just stupid.

[guywithtights]

@Omnigun2002 i know that pissed me off

[vitonervitoner]

Darabont original script is soooooooo much better than "kingdom" (except the fridge scene that's in both)! Damn you George Lucas, you ruined Star Wars and now Indiana Jones!

[cecinid]

I guess my wife and I are among the handful of people on this planet that totally dug 'Indy 4'...;)

I thought it was a hell of a lot of fun, good lines, ridiculous/fun over the top action, kick ass effects, and John Williams usual great score...sorry, all, but I really enjoyed it!

[Litshttam]

@cecinid I enjoyed it too.

[PurushaDesa]

When I first heard that humdinger of a title, I knew we were in trouble.

RAIDERS of the LOST ARK

The TEMPLE of DOOM

The LAST CRUSADE

And then... well CITY OF THE GODS sounds just as epic, but Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?! Who cares if that's in it? You wouldn't call it Indiana Jones and the Sankara Stones - you'd be like 'What the fuck is that?'

The film was not good. The fundamental mistake was not the aliens, but thinking the others were trivial mysteries instead of great chase movies.

[cecinid]

"CITY OF THE GODS sounds just as epic, but Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?! Who cares if that's in it?"

I did.

I think it was a great title, no worse than 'Temple of Doom'...how can you say that's any better? 'Kingdom', 'Temple'...'Doom', 'Skull'...sounds like it fits in with the others just fine to me...oh well...;)

[WallyWadeMovies]

Lets be real about something, looking at Darabont's track record and compare that to whatever Lucas has done, i say Darabont's script couldn't have been that bad.

I imagine it was a little more calmer.

Because the Indiana Jones 4 movie was toooooo ridiculous.

Darabont is able to grab fantasy, genre driven elements and make them raw enough for people to believe in them

[beantownahhh]

Hmmm. Darabonts resume of touching, genious, intellectual art or Lucas' digital, nonsensical, inflated monstrosities.

I wonder what Indy 4 could have been. I blame Steven for not telling George to shove it.

[dmlr1]

Indy 4 wasn't filmed in digital.

Also, Darabont's script, which is online, was pretty terrible and literally raped some of the series best lines and character motivations.

[BloodySerpent]

Well I haven't read Darabon'ts script, but the real movie kinda did the same thing :P

[sneakybasturd]

i didn't like his script and george's story because it was on ALIENS! WHY! anything else would be good.

NUCLEAR BOMB vs A FRIDGE WTF

and darabont had the nuclear bomb scene WHY???

[Spinelessification]

Because George Lucas wrote the original story which included the fridge scene!!! He couldn't move too far away from what George had written becuase George would've scrapped his screenplay - what a minute he did scrap his screenplay, so maybe Frank's version was better, lol.

[sneakybasturd]

well george is fucked

WHY AM I ANGRY WHILE WRITTING THIS AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH­HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

DIET COKE!

[FCWPM]

@sneakybasturd The refrigerator was Steven Spielberg's idea. He even came out and said it.

[TheOceanofapathy]

indiana jones 4 was soooo bad man

[Turindragonhelm]

Hey guys is there anywhere on the net where you can get the frank Darabont's indiana jones script?

[RolandDeschain1]

Darabont's script was brilliant. Everything Lucas screwed up in the finished film Darabont did perfectly in his draft.

[tadeuvi]

the kinda of sucks because indiana jones sucked ass, maybe he should have keep on going with the project

[Ashogo]

this is a man who loves his film quotes

[LSnicket4]

I'm so excited for his "Fahrenheit 451" film...

[soccerjockey]

His script had some really cool stuff, but a lot of it was even more over the top than Koepp's, especially the ending. If u thought the final ending was dumb, you have NO idea what Darabont had in store....there was an airplane scene that was really cool, and the villain was ok, but most of the final script was better. Except for the parts that required Mutt to swing on vines and had lines like "because [the skull] told me to." George Lucas is a joke...

[LaurenceRoques]

Everyone! You just have to believe that David Koepp's script was MUCH better than Darabont's! Go look it up for yourself...Georg Lucas was really right this time! Darabont's version had many elements that would have brought the movie down to the level that TPM is at. Not that TPM is complete trash, it just is'nt true to the originals.

Crystal Skull is great just the way it is!

[biggrex]

what is tpm? talking points memo?!

[LaurenceRoques]

Haha, The Phantom Menace (Star Wars).

[tgibfo]

Crystal Skull is an abomination. I won't say that Darabont's "City of Gods" was EXACTLY what I wanted from an Indy movie, but it was FAR superior to the trash they agreed on.

[Isorfilinde]

Darabont's script is somewhat better than the one they used. But it wouldn't have solved all of the problems which make KotCS ab abomination of an Indie movie.

[UFOSPACE1999]

ok, Frank live moves on. Sometimes we don't get our way. IN FACT was there NOT 3 or 4 scripts out there. Frank Darabont u must move on. UR didn't get picked.

[gingerbreadface]

darabont's script was a load of crap, no better than the final one. he can say what he likes...anyone can read it online and see that its even worse than the one they used. Lucas was right!

[rezzmenow]

could you please give me a link to the script ?!!

[tgibfo]

Darabont's script is SOOO much better than KOTCS. Sooooo much better....

[rezzmenow]

could you please give me a link to the script ?!!

[sonofdenny75]

he says lucas and spielberg knows their character more than anyone? after seeing Indy 4, I'm not so sure of that.

[MRCAB]

If the script floating around the internet is Frank Darabont, then it would have sucked anyways. Has anyone read it?!.. It's horrible!

[Illiknight40]

I don't think it was horrible, but I do prefer the final product. Certain aspects were better. It's nice to hear he isn't as bitter as it seems reading his responses.

[PurushaDesa]

It's such a shame that this fantastic writer can't get his work accepted in mainstream movies. Lucas shafted him on this and Tom Cruise worked his guts out for MI3 only to toss him aside afterwards as well. He's like the unlucky version of Paul Haggis. I wanna see this man do a big holiday season movie - hang in there Frank.

[Erithramere]

Don't worry! He has the number 1 film of all time under his belt!

The Shawshank Redemtion! :D

Also, he has the Green Mile.

Both cult classics and two of the greatest films EVER made.

[PurushaDesa]

For the record, I loved The Mist - especially its ending. So everyone else who didn't like it (you too? can sod off!

[Digginjim]

thank god the 'its not the mileage its the years' line didnt make it into the film. thats just lame

[sanjuro4]

Yeah, beforehand I fully expected that line to be in there. It's the obvious gag to make because hey, he's old!

[markbart]

It's much better than the corny one-liners we got in the film or Shia making fun of his old age.

[sanjuro4]

Yeh, I didn't think Shia's comments went too far. But there were quite a lot of bits of dialogue that just didn't work. I didn't feel it was too cheesy, just rather uninspired, the dialogue was a bit flat.

I especially thought that Marion didn't work at all, which is dissappointing seeing as she was really fiery in Raiders. Ray Winstone was too one-dimensional also, 'Jonesy!!'.

[Rodimus78]

I've seen Indy 4 and personally I thought that Marion and her son Mutt felt like Disney characters from a favorite show of mine which was Talespin.

[oogrooq]

i bet darabont's version was way better. SCREW YOU LUCAS. GO BACK TO LOOKING AT INTERNET GCI PORN.

[sandiablo78]

Why is the volume so low???

[rafaelmoura85]

read Roger Ebert review of The Phantom Menace for some insight

[rafaelmoura85]

theres no problem with Jar Jar Binks...being and enciclopedy of cinema as the star wars movies are, Jar Jar was the chapter on physical comedy; a Goofy reference that have added a nice color to the star wars universe...eventually the fans got their tear jerking fest that they wanted with "Revenge"; "Phanton" remains my favorite of the new ones, that screenplay is so precise and ive never seem the Star Wars universe in such a fascinating way since the firts movie

[EmSeeSquared]

i didn't have a problem with Jar Jar either. i read the Illustrated Screenplay before the film was released, and i thought he was an interesting character, not my FAVORITE character, but i saw him as a typical star wars creature. yea he was silly, but so were the droids. and since the droids weren't paired together much in that chapter, so all the comedy went to Jar Jar. notice he matured in the next chapter, and actually proved to be pivitol to the Empire's creation.

[HoneyVlover]

JAR JAR BLOWS!

[Litshttam]

@rafaelmoura85 'Phantom' has the most in-camera FX of the prequels, too, which is always a bonus. CGI isn't quite photo-realistic yet.

[rafaelmoura85]

its the new fashion this "blame it on Lucas" thing that has been going on...the truth is that Lucas knows more about this kind of movie then anyone in here and i had no problem with the new star wars movies or the new indy movie...instead of complaining about things that were diferent form the old movies, i opened my mind for the new aspects of these movies and that made then much more interesting to me; and i think i learned one or two things about this kind of cinema

[sanjuro4]

I agree about this ridiculous "I hate Lucas" rubbish that is going around.

The fact is that if Indy4 had been a big hit with the fans (like the other ones) then all the credit would have gone to Spielberg. However, when they don't like it, all the hate goes on Lucas and Spielberg gets away scott-free.

Now lets not forget that Spielberg hasn't made a perfect film for quite a while. I liked Catch Me if you Can, A.I and maybe some others. But me always seems to drop the ball at some point...

[sanjuro4]

...Now, I liked much of what was in Indy4, but there are so many weak/uneccesary bits that it's difficult to have a clear opinion for me. And I admit that much of what was wrong was reminicent of the star wars prequels' problems.

BUT to blame Lucas blindly for all its faults is frankly idiotic. The crystal skulls were in the Darabont version so you can't avoid that element.

Personally I would've liked to see a Darabont Indy film, but it won't happen now.

[Rodimus78]

Actually, I would love to see an Indy film directed by Quentin Tarantino with David Carradine or John Lone as a Fu-Manchu like villian.

[guely55]

Well, at least in the maintime we'll always have Big Trouble in Little China!

[Rodimus78]

LOL, I'm the most dispicable renegade on You Tube! BLAAHAHAHAH!

[TheSoundtrackBeast]

If Quentin ever directed it, it would be something like this-

Indy finds this guy and touchers him.

Then Indy gruesomely kills a bunch of guys and then lights more people on fire. THE END

[markbart]

I'm almost positive the 4th Indy film would've been better without Lucas' involvement. I mean, the guy just prefers to frame big action set pieces using CGI rather than developing an intriguing narrative that relies more on character and substance to deliver a grand sense of adventure to fans.

From what I heard in this interview, Darabont's script was a smart one that delivered just that, but Lucas being Lucas rejected it to focus more on action, this time making Indy look superhuman.

[gentlemanimal]

I get a feeling that Frank's script could only have been better... Of course Lucas vetoed it. He's lost his mind!!! The chinless muppet.

[blokhed22]

normally i would disagree with you, but who the hell would turn down a script by darabont then hire the guy who wrote rush hour 2 and 3? (besides lucas)

[JusFig]

George Lucas is a terrible film maker and a terrible writer. I can't believe that he managed to screw up the latest Indy film. I would recommend "Double Impact" over KOTCS.

[togalogs]

What a shame...

[videowilliams]

So George Lucas told this brilliant, committed writer and Steven Spielberg: "I know better" and had Indy 4 rewritten? That's not leadership: that's arrogant stupidity. To think he used to be my hero...

*sighing sadly*

[HTHAMMACK1]

@videowilliams LOL! Considering Lucas was the one who created the entire concept and idea of Indy, and considering Lucas funded the film out of his own pocket, and considering that Darabont's Indy IV script was an abomination, yes he can do whatever he wanted and was right to kill Darabon't script. Read it. You'll see how awful it is.

I also doubt Lucas gives a shit about a bunch of whiny losers on the internet.

[videowilliams]

@HTHAMMACK1 To be fair, I've read the Darabont script since making that comment above, and you're right, it wasn't so great- it pushed the character to the point of ridiculousness too, and still had aliens and skulls- but I stand by my assertion Lucas has lost his sense of judgement. I mean look at the Star Wars prequels- all three of 'em face-palmingly shallow. The older Lucas is making decisions the younger Lucas wouldn't approve of. He's a businessman, not an artist any more.

[ArnoArtner]

Oh com on Fraaank: Of Course YOU had crystal skulls in it: that was/is the main idea behind this movie anyway! and itwas Georges idea.

[cheese642]

noooo!!! george lucas probly just thought the script didn't have enough jar jar binks... ughh... i hope it's good anyway but my biggest fear is george lucas killing this movie cause he's crazy now. I'm sure Frank Darabont's script was perfect 2...

[nico8825]

its not the milage its the years haha so fun, hope that line not deleted

[caats19]

pretty sure it didn't make it cause the writer said he didn't do anything like that because nobody remembers something they said 20 years ago

[summershere]

Class Act

[DrKolloge]

He seems like such a cool guy, I mean with "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile" he has written film history, yet still he is so relaxed and seems so down to earth.

I really admire him for his work, although I didn't like "The Mist" that much, but he also seems to be an absolutely a cool character himself.

Great man!

[mad12ed]

yeah and after how about you go over to his house and suck his dick

[slipknotpurity00]

Frank Directed a little film by the name of THE SHAWKSHANK REDEMPTION, only one of the greatest American films ever made.

[samkittycat61]

yes it is a GOOD film BUT not a great flic, the reason we all remember now is that Ted Turner shoved it down our throats every week and weekend on TNT or TBS,

[davebuchholz]

Frank seems to dispel the whole "bitter feud" stories that were out a while back.  Seems like a cool guy!

[JulianWoods]

Stop your whinging, Frank! Nobody likes your stink films! ha ha

[sgtpepper1138]

loved the mist until the end

[deathcabformike]

you skipped over the majestic. that was his movie too.

[mjleshock]

Good point, deathcab. I just like those three movies better than "Majestic."

[deathcabformike]

how great was the mist :)

i loved the ending. frank wrote it in himself.

[mjleshock]

Yeah, it was awesome. I was shocked that a Hollywood studio would let a movie end like that.

[admiralamadras]

FRANK RUELS!!

[skill13815]

thanks for the post. He seems like a really cool guy. Im gonna hit up the Mist soon. It seemed to get good reviews

[bonniegrrl]

Frank rocks

[crystalskulls]

well, to know the real story of the Crystal Skulls you have to visit the land of the Maya where "The Second Greatest Story Ever told " is........ but be carefull, they are also the skulls of doom, beware of your intent