Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford Whip it Good in Cannes

Spielberg and Ford talk about finally bringing Indy back to the big screen, Tintin, the overuse of blue screens and that big Internet leak.

Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford and George Lucas at the photocall for Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull during the 61st International Cannes Film Festival, Palais de Festival, Cannes, France. Photo by Matt Carr

It's been 26 years since Spielberg first walked the red carpet at Cannes as the director and producer of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, which was playing the 1982 festival out of competition. This time he walked up the steps of a different Palais — the old one was demolished the year after he brought the homesick alien to Cannes — with old friends from the Indiana Jones franchise, including writer/exec producer George Lucas and stars Harrison Ford and Karen Allen.

It has been a long and arduous journey for Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull to make its way to La Croisette; at times, it seemed as if Indy would never find his way back to the silver screen again. As the years passed and the original cast grew gray, it became essential to change the milieu of the film from its original pre-WW II era to 1957, the Atomic Age, and to introduce a new set of Cold War Soviet adversaries, including Cate Blanchett as Agent Irina Spalko, to put the fedora-wearing, bullwhip-toting adventurer to the test.

Spielberg and Ford dished at the festival about what it was like to climb back in the saddle again after all this time.

Steven Spielberg

On the reason it took so long to make Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull.
It took a long time because I was sort of the hold-out. I was the person saying, "Well, I don't know. Gee, I am in my dark period now. I am making all these depressing historical dramas. I am making movies with meaning that I want my kids to see when I get older. And, gee whiz, I am not ready to go out and entertain a lot people all at once." And then of course, I made Jurassic Park and said, "Gee, that felt good!" Then I went back and made some historical dramas. But it took a long time to find the right story. George always had the idea of the crystal skull. That was something that George brought to the table at the outset. There were a couple of other possible MacGuffins, but that was the one that stuck. But getting the focus of the story and who the villains were going to be, that took a lot of time. George was making Star Wars. I was directing a whole number of movies and I was starting a new movie company [DreamWorks]. This really didn't congeal properly until [writers] Jeff Nathanson and David Koepp came on board and all of a sudden the process accelerated. The pages were fantastic and I thought, "Oh my God, I am really going to make Indy 4. It looks like it really going to happen."

Steven Spielberg at the photocall for Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull during the 61st International Cannes Film Festival, Palais de Festival, Cannes, France. Photo by Matt Carr

On keeping the film under wraps during production
There was a great deal of interest in our movie and there was a break-in at our production office and about three thousand of our still photographs, basically covering the first three quarters of our entire production — we were almost finished shooting — were stolen, and turned over to a website. I won't mention the website. But instead of printing the pictures, the website called the legal department of Lucasfilm and Paramount Pictures and conducted a sting operation and arrested the person who broke into the office. So the pictures were recovered without ever leaking out. The way that we kept the movie a secret was, you know, we didn't give the script out to every single person on the crew, we didn't give a script out to all the agents and managers of all the people, and we were all very loyal to the story and we kept it to ourselves and we just didn't talk about it. Until now.

On the possibility of making more Indiana Jones sequels
Only if you want more of them. That is the only reason we made this Indiana Jones [was] because we had so many people over the years come up to George, Harrison and myself, and basically [ask], "When is another one coming out?" The only two movies that people ask me if there is going to be another one is E.T. and Indiana Jones. No one ever asks if I am making [another] A.I. or 1941 or Hook. I have never heard that. So certainly we will have our ear to the ground to hear what happens and that will decide where we go from here.

On speculation that the Tintin adapataions Spielberg are expected to direct will be The Seven Crystal Balls and The Temple of the Sun
A Mayan temple is a Mayan temple, and Hergé's source of inspiration was National Geographic and other travel magazines. He was like an archeologist too. He went all over the world finding interesting places to set his adventure story. I had never heard of Tintin until a film critic wrote about Tintin, comparing Tintin to Raiders of the Lost Ark. So I had never heard of the books until 1981, and that is when I got interested and went to meet Hergé [but sadly] he'd passed away. And a few weeks after his funeral, we met with his widow and we were able to get the rights to the books. Then I made other movies and dropped the rights and then I picked the rights up again five years ago. And Peter Jackson and I decided three movies based on the Tintin books. I cannot announce which books they are today at this event, but these are being made in motion-capture which means which means they will resemble the art of Hergé. We are not making them live action. They are going to be animated with actors like Ray Winstone who played Beowulf. Ray knows what that is like to put on the wet suit and have the spots on his face and yet turn in a very serious performance which is very challenging. That is how we will be making Tintin.