Steven Spielberg has done it
again. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull" reflects his unique gift for delivering both high
quality filmmaking and sheer entertainment value. Under
Spielberg's direction, and with a story idea co-created by
executive producer George Lucas, Harrison Ford has no
problem cracking the old bullwhip again as the heroic tomb
raider. Set in the Cold War 1950s, "Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" sends Ford racing against
Soviet spy Cate Blanchett to recover an artifact said to
possess special powers.Since his last movie at the end
of 2005, "Munich," Spielberg has also served as producer
on four feature films including "Transformers," a reality
TV show and three video games. Few other filmmakers could
get all that done, but Spielberg has been cranking out
movies since he was a boy.
And the indefatigable director has several more films
in the works, including "The Trial of the Chicago 7," a
biopic, "Lincoln," a film about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am
103, and a trilogy of motion-capture animated films based
on "The Adventures of Tintin."
The 60-year-old movie mogul, who is married to actress
Kate Capshaw, continues to be as productive and successful
as ever.
Q: Who had the idea that
the three of you should get together again to make this
film?
A: Harrison sort of
started the ball rolling in 1994 at the Oscars, in
suggesting maybe he was ready to put the fedora back on.
That's how it all started.
Q: Who was the most
resistant to the idea?
A: I was. I had to be the
most convinced of anybody.
Q: This was in 1994? Why
did it take so long to finally make the movie?
A: You know, it took a
long time 'cause I was sort of the holdout. I was the
person saying, "Well, I don't know. Gee, I'm in my dark
period now. I'm making all these depressing historical
dramas. I'm making movies with meaning that I want my kids
to see when I get older. And gee whiz, I'm not ready to go
out and entertain a lot of people at once."
Then, of course, I made "Jurassic Park" and said, "Gee,
that felt good. Wow! I forgot that feeling. That felt
really good!"
And then I went back and made some historical dramas.
Q: You have said that
Harrison Ford is your secret weapon. What do you mean by
that?
A: Any director who has
ever had the pleasure and honor of working with Harrison
Ford has a secret weapon. He is one of the hardest working
actors, in my experience, and not only concerned about
himself and how he looks and his own part, he is concerned
about the whole. He's concerned about the story and other
characters. And he is a collaborator in the entire process
of telling a story.
So that's a great honor for me, and it takes a lot of
pressure and weight off my back to have this kind of a
partner in the trenches every single day, shooting the
picture.
Q: What do you tell
someone who wants to get started as a filmmaker?
A: I always say that it's
a lot easier to become known as a filmmaker today than it
was when I first got started, when all we had to prove our
worth were 8mm movie cameras. We were making little 8mm
movies and trying to graduate to the 16mm that people took
a little more seriously than 8.
Today, everybody has a camcorder; they have cameras in
their cell phones. YouTube shows movies. Filmmakers have a
forum now, for the first time. It's a global stage. If you
have something, as an artist, to express, there are
outlets for that expression. And believe it or not, we in
movie studios do look at a lot of these movies on these
little venues. And we have made major discoveries based on
watching a lot of student films or just people who want to
tell all of us who they are.
Q: Why is the theme of
reunifying the nuclear family so important in many of your
films?
A: Like so many children
from divorce, it impacted me. It created "E.T." The
divorce of my mom and dad actually gave me the idea to
make "E.T." That was all about divorce first, and a
visitor from the stars second.
My own father-son reconciliation, I've been very public
about. I have a great relationship with my 91-year-old
father, but it took a while for us to come back together.
And that was why I came up with the idea of bringing Sean
Connery into "The Last Crusade," to work out unresolved
issues between father and son. And now I can say, for the
first time, we have another father-son story in this one.
So it has been very gratifying to me and it is satisfying
that I haven't been busted too hard by the media for
dwelling on this very personal subject. It does keep
popping up through my movies. Thank you for asking.
Q: Will we be seeing more
of Indiana Jones?
A: Well, only if you want
more of him. That's the reason we made this "Indiana
Jones," because we had so many people over the years come
up to us, George and Harrison and myself, and basically
just say, "When is another one coming out?"
The only two movies anybody asks me if there is going
to be another one, are "E.T" or "Indiana Jones." No one
ever asks if I'm making another "A.I." or "1941" or
"Hook." But I've been asked a lot about this movie. So
certainly we'll have our ear to the ground to hear what
happens, and that will decide where we go from here.
Visit Copley News Service at
www.copleynews.com.
© Copley News Service
