In their continuing mission to take over the world, Disney has now reached an agreement with Paramount regarding the “Indiana Jones” franchise.
According to Variety,
“Under the arrangement, Disney gains distribution and marketing rights to future films, in addition to retaining the ownership rights it secured when it acquired Lucasfilm.
Paramount will continue to be responsible for distribution of the first four films in the franchise and will receive a financial participation on any future films that are produced and released.”
When Disney purchased Lucasfilm last year, they secured the rights to “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones,” but since Paramount distributed the original films, they had to work out the agreement in order for future films to be made.
Yes, future films. With Harrison Ford pushing 70 and the critical fan reception of “Crystal Skull,” this may or may not be music to your ears. And it took nearly 20 years for the last film to be made. What would an Indy film be if, say, Spielberg didn’t direct? (I’ll pause for a moment to let the collective gasps die down.) And what would Indy be if Harrison Ford didn’t want to wear the brown fedora once again?
Well, one could argue it might be like the “Young Indy” television series. Which wasn’t bad. At all. Let’s take a moment and remember Sean Patrick Flanery in the fedora. Let’s take longer than a moment, actually.
But new films would obviously be in a new direction. Would the Indy franchise become like the James Bond series that it was inspired by? New actors playing the title role? I don’t see that going over well with fans.
I’m not one of those that needs more Indy films. I like what we have already. I own the movies. I have the Young Indy series. To paraphrase Ian Malcom from “Jurassic Park,” Disney is so busy thinking about whether or not they could, they’re not thinking about whether or not they should.
We’ll just have to wait and see what Disney does now that they have the rights. Hopefully they will choose . . . wisely.