A New Indiana Jones Trilogy? It Just May Be

I think I may owe readers and my editors an apology, given how I handled the story on the making of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ("Keys to the Kingdom," Vanity Fair, February 2008). I was so focused on nailing down the details of this fourth installment in the Indiana Jones series that I may have missed out on the big-picture story: that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull may well be the film that kicks off a second Indiana Jones trilogy.

Steven Spielberg, the director of all four Indiana Jones movies, seemingly dropped a big hint to this effect. When I asked him why he hadn't gone forward with the "Indy IV" script written by writer-director Frank Darabont, he said, "In this case George [Lucas] was passionate that this was not the story he wanted to tell at this point in the Indiana Jones saga ..." Noting that he had used the magic phrase "at this point," I followed up by asking him, "Is that leaving room open for another one?" To which Spielberg replied, "Oh, I don't know. I haven't even thought about that. I'm still in the cutting room. I can't even think beyond the next cut."

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