Harrison Ford To Start Indiana Jones “Soon”
There wasn’t more context than that. Harrison Ford first spoke to Lee Cowan in a CBS Sunday Morning interview and — unbidden — brought up Indiana Jones.
“I am going to start doing Indiana Jones in about two months,” he said.
Which sent this aging Boy Scout, and many other fans around the world, looking forward to a world where Dr. Jones is back on the big screen.
Then, on February 14, Ford reconfirmed that “Indiana Jones 5” is happening and put the start of production as this summer:
Oops, Harrison Ford may have just given us #IndianaJones news. pic.twitter.com/YnqwooJTdH
— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) February 14, 2020
Again, his fans in the audience went wild.
A Return To Character
Harrison, however; is uncomfortable with the word “fans” and, instead, prefers customers. And with his customers in mind, he is determined to make any return to a character worth the time of those in the seats.
Indiana Jones. Image: Lucasfilm
“I’m always delighted to return to these characters,” explained Ford to CBS’ cameras. “When you have an opportunity to make another it’s because people have enjoyed them.
“I feel obliged to ensure that our efforts are as ambitious as they were when we started.”
Well, where they started was 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark – a film that enjoys a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (with a 96% audience score). The late (and legendary) Roger Ebert wrote of Raiders in review, “The movie is just plain fun.”
The latest installment of the Indiana Jones saga — Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — didn’t fare as well with critics or fans. It fell to a 78% fresh and a 54% audience rating. This time Mr. Ebert wrote, “I can say that if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you.”
I fall in line with that sentiment. I believe many of my mutuals missed many of the inside, tongue-in-cheek jokes throughout the movie. And the abortive attempt to pass the fedora to “Mutt” (Shia LeBeouf) wasn’t helped by the young actor trashing the film afterward.
A Sense of Responsibility
And Mr. Ford seems to have understood the sentiment.
“You feel a sense of responsibility to your customers,” he told CBS. “I think of the people who go to my movies more as customers than I do as fans. Fans feels kind of weird to me.
“It always has.
“But the fact that these people support my business [means] I am responsible to them for the quality of the service that I offer,” said Ford.
Interview Preview
Check out a preview of the interview, which will air on Sunday:
