Up for 'Indy 4'?

2002-07-14
u.dailynews

In the last few months, both producer-writer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg confidently announced that they've finally agreed upon a concept for a fourth Indiana Jones movie, which is tentatively scheduled for a summer 2005 release. But the third factor in this equation, star Harrison Ford, is a bit more cautious about the project's prospects.

"I think we finally have the idea," the actor says about a last turn as the swashbuckling archaeologist he hasn't played since 1989. "Now, it's a question of the articulation. Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption") and George are still working on the basic story. But I think we're close to getting the movie."

Although he's reserving his judgment until the final script, Ford expresses solid faith in the writers' ability to come up with a good script. This should be encouraging to Lucas, at least, who's been roundly criticized for narrative deficiencies in his two recent "Star Wars" prequels, "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones."

Ford sees nothing to complain about.

"I haven't seen the new one, but I did see 'Phantom Menace,' " says Ford, who starred as space cowboy Han Solo in the original trilogy begun in 1977. "I think that as George has developed his concept, they have necessarily become different kinds of films. I can't bring myself to judge whether one is better than the other; they're just different, that's all. George is a terrific filmmaker and an incredible fountain of ideas.

"I think the original 'Star Wars' films were in the language of that generation, and I think that the new ones are in the language of the current generation. That's the main difference. And more power to the genius of George to have the capacity to speak to a different generation."

So which generational language will a fourth Indy adventure use?

"In the case of Indiana Jones, there's a looser structure and concept," Ford says. "They're more about the movies than they are about anything else, like a mythology. They're about the conventions of the movies, and they're fun because we all sort of know the shape that they're going to come in."

Uh, speaking of shape ... 60-year-old Ford will be eligible for Social Security when and if the cameras start rolling on the next Indy. Will he be capable of cracking the whip like before, or will adjustments in the action sequences have to be made?

"At this point, it's not anything that anybody's thinking about," he says. "We're just trying to come up with the most imaginative circumstances to put him in. I don't think there'll be much limiting of the action because of the reality of my age -- we're not talking about reality with these movies, after all.

"But you know, there are lots of 60-year-old cowboys breaking horses and falling on their asses and rodeoing. So the potential, the possibility to give physical expression to these moments is still there."

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