5 Indiana Jones movies that never escaped development hell

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade famously features a sequence where Indy visits a castle to save his dad (the late Sean Connery). The genesis of that brief scene began with George Lucas wanting to do a follow-up to Temple Of Doom that would take place (partly) in a haunted castle or mansion. The late screenwriter Diane Thomas, then hot off the success of the Indy-esque adventure Romancing The Stone in 1984, was tapped to write the screenplay.

While Lucas was an advocate for this tale, Spielberg was not; he rejected this potential sequel and its ghost story trappings since he already scratched that itch with Poltergeist, a movie he wrote and produced (and potentially ghost directed). Little is known about Thomas’ draft beyond the basic concept, though aspects of her untitled script were somewhat repurposed in another potential Indy sequel—Indiana Jones And The Monkey King. Speaking of...

Chris Columbus’ script featured a lengthy opening prologue set in Scotland, with Indy investigating a haunted castle. In fact, Indy would have come face-to-face with a specter—Baron Seamus Seagrove III—as this movie would firmly establish that ghosts were real in the world of Indiana Jones. Feeling like that was a narrative leap too far, even for a series where divine spirits spewed out of the lost Ark of the Covenant and helped melt a Nazi’s face, Spielberg once again played the “been there, done that” card with the whole paranormal aspect and the movie was shelved.

Had Spielberg given Columbus’ draft the greenlight, fans would have seen Indy then embark on a quest to Africa, where the Monkey King presided, in a search for the Chinese equivalent of the Holy Grail. Dr. Jones would have encountered some truly out-there threats and villains, such as cannibal tribes and a Nazi with a robotic arm. The Last Crusade ending would take a page (or two) from Monkey King, with Indy finding the Monkey King and being presented with a similar “choose wisely” option.

As Short Round would say, “Hold on to your potatoes,” because the journey from The Last Crusade to Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull is a bumpy one through Development Hell. And it all starts with Lucas wanting Indy to encounter some little green men.

After Last Crusade put a nearly perfect bow on the character and his adventures, Lucas—the story impetus for these films always started with him—hired Die Hard co-writer Jeb Stuart to write a follow-up set after the original trilogy. With the 1950s setting, Lucas wanted to put Indy through the lens of ’50s pulp sci-fi and introduce alien life to the franchise. Elements of Stuart’s script that would find their way into what would become The Crystal Skull included a Nevada-set action sequence, flesh-eating ants, and Indy tying the knot—though not with Raiders Of The Lost Ark’s Marion (Karen Allen), but rather a new love interest by the name of Dr. Elaine McGregor. Stuart’s fourth installment would have featured the return of Indy’s dad but no son for Indy or any Crystal Skull MacGuffins.

Last Crusade and Lethal Weapon 3 scribe Jeffrey Boam was then hired for a rewrite in the early 1990s, but the project was shut down once Spielberg saw Independence Day. After watching that alien invasion story and believing that he and Lucas could not compete with it, as well as having done Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and E.T., Spielberg wanted to avoid aliens but struggled to convince his long-time friend of that.

Little is known about what the Signs and Sixth Sense writer-director had in mind for a fourth Indiana Jones movie, but the filmmaker was approached by Spielberg to develop Indy’s next adventure. While promoting his 2021 horror movie, Old, Shyamalan—whose favorite movie is Raiders Of The Lost Ark—teased that his Indy IV would have been a considerable departure from what the previous movies did.

“It was a darker idea,” the filmmaker told Collider. “I do have my notebooks; I still have those with all my ideas for that movie. I did have a take. I talked to everybody involved and it was so nascent at that time, that movie. Everyone hadn’t gotten into a room yet. They were bouncing ideas off of me. So everyone had different ideas of what to do ... and I had this idea.”

Before writers David Koepp (Jurassic Park) and Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can) would work on Crystal Skull, Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption) was tapped by Spielberg in the early 2000s to bring Indy back for a fourth outing.

Spielberg hired Darabont to craft a story set after World War II that centered on Indy being pursued by Nazi war criminals seeking revenge for Dr. Jones killing their comrades. His early draft reportedly featured the return of Marion, with a role for her and Indy’s daughter. Given Spielberg’s work on Schindler’s List, as well as Lucas wanting Soviets to be the villain this time around, this script was retooled—sort of a proto-Crystal Skull.

Gods’ overall narrative structure features key tentpoles that would manifest in Crystal Skull: Indy begins his journey at a top-secret military warehouse before fighting some bad guys and moving on to Marshall College. From there, he soon finds himself trekking to South America in search of the Crystal Skull while struggling to stay ahead of the dogged Soviets.

Indy’s elder colleague in Skull, Oxley (played by the late John Hurt), also appears in Gods—as does a rival archeologist-turned-Russian spy who happens to be Marion’s husband. Gods also has the infamous “nuke the fridge” scene, but a more nuanced version of it that ties into the thematic message of the movie about how all-powerful knowledge can prove to be dangerous in the wrong hands. The pursuit of such knowledge sends Indy, Oxley, Marion, and Marion’s husband to a South American jungle where they face off with one very chatty alien before Indy shoots and destroys the Crystal Skull.

Shortly after the release of Crystal Skull, a 2003 draft of Frank Darabont’s City Of The Gods script leaked onto the internet and fans rallied behind it as being a much better sequel than the one they got. If early reviews are any indication, it could have been a more fitting finale for our hero than The Dial Of Destiny.