After almost 20 years, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas team up for a new whip-cracking adventure. Entertainment Weekly magazine talks to the trio about why it took so long, what to expect, and what they think about living up to their own legends.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Another focus of chatroom buzz has been the baddies, a nasty group of Russian soldiers and operatives in search of the title object because of its reputed mind-controlling powers. (About time, says Ford, that Indy moved on from tangling with German SS officers, as he did in movies 1 and 3: ”We plum wore the Nazis out. Couldn’t go there again.”) The leader of the KGB-backed pack is Cate Blanchett, in a severe, straight-banged, ink black wig, as Agent Irina Spalko. She’s a born interrogator. Gimlet-eyed and handy with a sword, she crosses blades with Mutt. Asked if Agent Spalko gives off a vaguely dominatrix vibe, Lucas says, ”Not so vaguely,” and bursts out laughing. Could be the kinkiest thing he’s helped brainstorm since he put Princess Leia in a gold bikini and chains in Return of the Jedi.

(more…)

Legendary filmmakers and and lifelong friends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg give a rare interview together to chat about finding the perfect MacGuffin for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the supernatural, villainesses, greaser tips, CGI, and fan bloggers.

Here are a few quotes from the interview:

In developing the third movie, there was a Christopher Columbus script early on, Indiana Jones and the Monkey King, set partly in Africa. And that one had a preamble involving a haunted castle.

LUCAS: We wrote complete scripts on other MacGuffins [for the third film]. And finally I said, look, let’s just try the Holy Grail. [Adopting another voice] ”Ohhh, it’s too cerebral, we’ll never make it work….” So we turned it into a tangible magic cup with healing powers, instead of an intellectual thing. It wasn’t until the idea of introducing the father came along that we kind of pulled [the third movie] out of the fire. Because it then shifted from being about the MacGuffin. But ultimately, these are supernatural mysteries. They aren’t action adventures. Everybody thinks they’re action-adventure films, but that’s just the genre we hang them on.
SPIELBERG: There’s not one that hasn’t been supernatural.
LUCAS: The supernatural part has to be real. [He taps the table] Which is why they’re very hard, and you run out [of options] very fast. You have to have a supernatural object that people actually believe in. People believe that there was an Ark of the Covenant, and it has these powers. Same thing with the Sankara stones, same thing with the Holy Grail. We may have exaggerated some of its powers, but basically there are people who believe there is a Holy Grail, brought back by the Knights Templar.
SPIELBERG: Of course, I was worried that people would hear ”Holy Grail,” and they would immediately think about a white rabbit attacking Monty Python. My first reaction was to say, ”Everybody run away! Run away!”

(more…)