Thursday, December 13, 2007

Koepp Talks More About Indy Four


[Above is the new, official teaser poster, which was created by Drew Struzan, who I guess has done posters for all the Indy films.]

Okay, as many of you may know, it’s already been widely reported that Darabont is considering arbitration over Indy IV. In an
interview with MTV news, Frank Darabont mentioned that some of his suggestions, such as casting John Hurt and bringing back Karen Allen, have come to fruition, although the idea of Shia LaBeouf's character was not his. He said, “I haven’t read the script, [but] at a certain point I will because I’m sure there will be an arbitration over writing credits,” he revealed. “I keep hearing from people who are near the production and they keep saying, ‘You know, they’re using more of your ideas here than you may have thought.’”

I can’t find the link anymore, but I also watched a different Darabont video interview in which he was promoting Mist and he talked a little about his Indy script and said that his favorite line in Raiders was always, “It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.” He said he riffed on that and, in his Indy IV script, he had Indy saying, “It's not the mileage, honey, it's the years.” Hehehe... Great line.

Anyway, in a
new interview, Koepp was asked if he used Darabont's screenplay as a reference. Koepp said: “I looked at everything that everyone had written. It's been in development since the early '90s; anything that was any good, I tried to use -- sometimes it stayed, sometimes it didn't. We're all assistant storytellers; there was a ton of material there already. Part of my job was shaper, and part of my job was coming up with new stuff.”

I would’ve done the same.

But you better believe Darabont will seize any opportunity to get his hands on some of those massive residuals.

Also:

John Rogers had a great article on
Writing Arbitration Letters.

Read the
WGA Arbitration Process and definitions of various credits.

More Indy IV stuff:

Here’s my article on the
sordid history of Indy IV.

Cate Blanchett & Ray Winstone's characters revealed

Frank Marshall shares more Crystal Skull info and locations

Karen Allen’s shock about Returning

-MM

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think David Koepp's comment shows why he's one of the most successful screenwriters of the last 25 years. He knows how to mine good material.

Stir of Echoes has been playing on cable TV lately. I love the movie, but am equally impressed that Koepp saw something in a 30 year old paperback he thought would make a cool movie.

Another fantastic Indy IV post, MM.