Writer David Koepp Not Involved in Indiana Jones 5 Anymore
By George Robbins
The ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise is one that has cemented its place in history as one of those action film series that people will always love. This hasn’t really changed over time and it has only managed to increase its fan base as time seems to go on. Unlike other action films at the time, the ‘Indiana Jones’ films harked back to older movies about exploration and treasure hunting. Putting a lot of effort into the creation of the movies was something director Steven Spielberg made note of, but it wasn’t just because of him that the movies were successful. The plots for the films, more often the first three films, are pretty strong and tell stories that are very interesting.
‘Raiders of the Lost Ark‘ kicked everything off by giving us a unique story that takes place in the early part of the 20th century. The following films continued to build on top of the story of the main character and each had their own story to tell. Every movie was unique and provided us with some fantastical end to the hero’s journey while giving us an incredible journey to follow. Although the most recent entry into the franchise, ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,’ wasn’t well received by the fan base, it let people know that there were still people willing to work on the franchise. This led to the confirmation not too long ago that there would, in fact, be a fifth entry in the ‘Indiana Jones’ series of films.
The current title of the film is simply ‘Indiana Jones 5’ due to the fact that it was only just recently announced that they would start filming and the movie is not even close to the start of production. It may also take some more time before they have a working script in order now that writer David Koepp has left the project making it more difficult for the film to come any closer to starting. When Koepp left the project he said that now that James Mangold is directing the film, he wants to give him the chance to pen his own story or have someone he knows write it up with him. There have been many issues with the start of production thus far and this just seems like another issue that must be dealt with.
The initial announcement, which revealed the fact that the fifth movie would even end up being made to begin with, was made back in 2016. Following that, the theatrical release date for the film kept getting delayed due to things like Spielberg leaving the project and most recently the coronavirus pandemic. Filming was meant to start in April, but the pandemic pushed to back to the point where they aren’t sure when they are going to restart the film. The release date was originally set for some time in 2019, then it change to 2020, 2021, and following the onset of the outbreak, 2022. At this point, it is almost entirely unknown just when the film will manage to get back into production or even what year it will end up releasing in.