News.

[thebacklot]

The Genre Project aka Indiana Jones 4 aka Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods is, as you already know, currently back in Los Angeles filming the remaining portions of the film. The production is sprawling, landing at most all of the studios in and around Los Angeles. Downey Studios, Sony Studios, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers Studios.

I bring to you folks today some of what I could gather. First, Universal Studios. Yes, the South American temple is definitively for Indy/Genre. They were shooting exterior day scenes with a large blue screen this past Wednesday.


(the large white screen is used for diffusion, representing cloud cover, foliage cover, etc.)



During this period of filming, they had a production move to a parking lot near Falls Lake on the back lot. In this photo, take a look at the lower left hand corner of the picture, yes, that's Karen Allen walking away (feel free to match up her costume with the photograph on the official site).



Next up, on to Mexico Street. I don't have the most amazing photos, but think of it as the Cairo street meets HBO's Deadwood, it's very tight, cluttered, and dirty - in short, it's an amazing set from a production design standpoint (but I think we're all getting the feeling that every set is a labor of love from Guy Hendrix Dyas [he also did Sperman Returns, X-Men 2, and the Brothers Grimm]).





Next we head back over to the Falls Lake location. Located here are two large wave machines, a staircase leading somewhere (I won't spoil that for you), and an unpainted cave-like entrance. Looks like they'll be doing some pick-up/stunts shots continuing the Russian amphibious vehicle, the GAZ46, stunt. In the following photo you can see multiple GAZ46s awaiting action.





They also were prepping/touching up some Russian transport vehicles to be shot soon.



And lastly, a wide shot for you.



Notice the staicase set there...are those booby traps that might come down around Indiana Jones & Company?

Heading across the Los Angeles river over to Warner Brothers, here's where it gets a little interesting. The Genre Project is going to be shooting on Stage 16, and it's under extremely tight security. Apparentely they've been there for a long time constructing sets, however they'll only be there for about three days of filming. And yes, it looks like the interior of the South American temple. The sets are huge. And there may be more than one. Temple, that is. Or is there? The property department at Warner Brothers has a few items tucked away in the back with Genre hold cards on them... but they're Egyptian artifacts, and the location is listed as; "Ante Chamber." It's been rumored that the Deming, New Mexico location was used to stand in for Morocco, but no photos have appeared from that location. So are these to be put into a set that's a continuation of that location, or are these to be found in th South American Temple, and if so; "What you say!?" Exciting stuff, no?







I leave you now, and hope you've enjoyed the photos, and I apologize for the watermarks, but there are a lot of blogs, etc. passing off information as their own, and you guys/gals have been pretty awesome on keeping us updated and I wanted to post it here for you.

Cheers,

TheBacklot

[NWgal]

WOW, backlot, these pictures are astounding! Glad you found a way to post them - they're incredible. Thank you so much for sharing them with us - you've sure put a smile on my face. Lots of stuff to ponder! lol.

[princessdancer05]

This is something else, backlot. Great discovery! Thanks so much!

[EileenB]

This is something else. Thank you so much for sharing.

[Han_Fan]

Thanks for the pictures! None of that was there, obviously, when I went on Universal's tram ride in late May 2007, but it is always amazing to see what different films do with the settings available there.

[Lorrie]

Unbelievable! These are amazing shots! Thank you so much for sharing them with us. Even if they weren't for Indy 4, they we would still be interesting to ponder. But because they are for the movie makes me giddy! I think this film is going to astound a lot of people.

Thebacklot - we love you!!! Absolutely fantastic and informative photos that have induced and will induce plenty of dropped jaws. mile wide grins and goosebumps. I freely admit to all - as well as a loud yell of delight that woke up the other members of this household pretty early this morning.

(The Egyptian items from the Warners store fit a story speculation I've been working on for a while and parts/details of that speculation can be found in the Indy 4 Spoilers forum.)

Thanks a mil, bil, tril - you get the point.

[AimieD]

Wow!! these are amazing pics! thank you so much

[Lorrie]

Originally Posted by thebacklot

and you guys/gals have been pretty awesome on keeping us updated and I wanted to post it here for you.

Cheers,

TheBacklot

I think it's wonderful and much appreciated that you say that, Backlot! I know Grethe and Eileen have worked very hard in keeping us all informed. Thanks again for sharing these amazing photos!! Hope you'll join us often!

[mrsskywalker]

i think this is very close to being quite spoilerish...

great work, though. I'm just too weak not to look at it. they should put up some new official stuff soon ...as some kind of detraction from such leaks.
as much as i like these photos, that don't show anything specific I hope you're kind enough not to show anything too specific if you stumble across it, thebacklot!! don't leak too much!

[Lorrie]

Originally Posted by mrsskywalker

i think this is very close to being quite spoilerish...

Which ones do you think are spoilerish? The artifacts could be... but only if one takes it further by doing research about their significance. (I won't be one those people! LOL!)

[mrsskywalker]

Originally Posted by Lorrie

Which ones do you think are spoilerish? The artifacts could be... but only if one takes it further by doing research about their significance. (I won't be one those people! LOL!)

mmmmhhh...well...yeah... I quickly scrolled through the pics and after I saw those sculptures I felt like I had seen something meaningful. I guess that's all I can say

[Lorrie]

Originally Posted by mrsskywalker

I quickly scrolled through the pics and after I saw those sculptures I felt like I had seen something meaningful. I guess that's all I can say

Yeah... okay... I think I know what you're talking about.

[NWgal]

Quote:
Originally Posted by thebacklot
and you guys/gals have been pretty awesome on keeping us updated and I wanted to post it here for you.

Cheers,

TheBacklot

Originally Posted by Lorrie

I think it's wonderful and much appreciated that you say that, Backlot! I know Grethe and Eileen have worked very hard in keeping us all informed. Thanks again for sharing these amazing photos!! Hope you'll join us often!

Backlot, as Lorrie says, I know that Grethe and Eileen appreciate your acknowledgment of their tireless efforts in providing our members the most up-to-date info. The pictures are awesome and you're a DOLL for allowing us to enjoy them. Thanks again. Don't be a stranger!

[JimB]

i couldn't see a bunch of them

[Ajax the Great]

Wow, those are really amazing pictures! Thanks for sharing!

first post...

[Lorrie]

Originally Posted by Ajax the Great

first post...

Welcome, Ajax! (Love your avatar)

[Romola]

Thank you, thebacklot!

[thebacklot]

I am far too lazy to register/post on other websites, clearly a lot of people are reading this thread so let me just throw this out there...

I think people are reading way FAR into the Egyptian props. I believe these props to be used as background filler for this Ante Chamber set. Yes, there's probably going to be better designed and custom built props but these are just to add clutter to the set, etc. So for the folks on the Raider.net forum going on about how goofy some of them may look, or some of them may be based on cats like tutankhamen, they probably have nothing to do with the story, like I said, they're simply filler.

And just to clarify, these egyptian photos were not taken on a set. So anything you see in the background has nothing to do with Indiana Jones.

Oh, and one more thing. The SuperHero hold cards are for another production that has nothing to do with Indy, either. Set Decorators go into a prop house and as if they were shopping, they find what they want, place a hold card on it. Then the property department makes a list of everything that has a hold card on it, calls the production office and gives them a rental qoute for the props. Multiple productions use these props often back to back, and as you can see these dates are very close to one another, hopefully that clears that up too. Carry on :)

I agree, thebacklot, but the question still is: the ante chamber to what?

May 22, 2008 can't come fast enough!!!!

[JBCessna]

Hey THEBACKLOT those are the coolest pics! Thanks for posting. My fav is the one on Mexico street where you have a door leading to a door leading to... where ever my imagination leads.

Seeing the little tidbits of filming has only added to my final viewing pleasure. I enjoy the process.

JimB - I don't know if my problem was similar to yours but at first I had two pictures and a bunch of red Xs instead of pictures. When I'd right click on each red X it would give me choices and you can just say, "show picture" and the picture loads. Not sure if it will help you though.

[angelseyth]

Thanks for the pics !!!

[lorevy]

Backlot... Thanks a million. So great to see these.

[Becca]

Wow backlot! Thanks for those amazing and astounding pics! I am even more excited about Indy 4 now! Those props are amazing! Thanks for sharing those set pics with us too! It makes me very happy and excited! Now I have a huge grin on my face too! May 22, 2008 can't get here fast enough for me either! Welcome to our forum backlot and Ajax! I love your avatar too Ajax!

[thebacklot]

So, I didn't post a few photos because I knew it'd be getting slow news-wise. These aren't anything mind blowing, just a few new shots, taken within the same time period.

This photo shows the lengths they're going to go to, to keep these sets out of view - mind you this was put up prior to when I posted the photos so they expected this - I had nothing to do with it. :)



Image is blown up a little so you guys can see the detail a little more, this is after they finished shooting with the blue screen.



Here's a fun thing. See the prop on the upper left-hand corner? One could mistake the writing to say "Ark Chamber" however I think the assistant just has a little trouble making their "e" legible, notice the "e" in chamber is also not really legible, so that's where the Ark Chamber rumor probably came from via screamscape.com:

"(8/28/07) It seems Universal Studios Hollywood may have changed their tone about the reported filming of Indiana Jones 4 on the back lot. A Screamscape reader (not me btw!) who took advantage of the new VIP Tour experience were told by their guide about sets for the film on property in various restricted access areas and while walking through the Prop House they were told to keep an eye out for props tagged to be on hold for the movie “Genre” which is the codeword for the film. While photos are not allowed in the exclusive VIP areas, our reader did notice several props tagged for Genre, some labeled for “AnteChamber” and others for “ArkChamber”."







That's about it. :)