Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, Cate Blanchett, John Hurt, Shia LaBeouf
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Release date: May 22, 2008

The Plot: Things are sketchy at this point, but the story takes place in the 1950s and, instead of Nazis, it's Russian communists that intrepid archeologist Indiana Jones must stay a step ahead of. It is also rumored that, in addition to the titular skull, Indy must steal back that gold casket he so successfully raided the first time around.

The Pros: Indiana Jones is, arguably, the greatest action hero of all time — so if the original creative team (Ford, Spielberg, and George Lucas) want to bring him back, we won't complain. At Comic-Con, Spielberg asserted that he made this one strictly for the fans.

The Cons: "Will you still punch me/Will you still drag me/Will you still shoot me/When I'm 64?" Actually, make that 66. Indy was never a kid (Ford was nearly 40 when he did Raiders), but this might be pushing it. And given the mixed results of Lucas's past efforts to "revisit" his franchises, we can't help but have a slight twinge of concern.

Cheat Sheet:

• The Mist director Frank Darabont and The Village director M. Night Shyamalan both penned scripts for the "fourth Indiana Jones" movie, but both were rejected.
• Karen Allen returns as Marion Ravenwood (the first "Indy girl" to earn herself another adventure) and John Hurt shows up as Abner Ravenwood, Marion's father and Indy's mentor. Marion told Indy that Abner was dead in Raiders, but that appears to have been an exaggeration.
• The film is actually set in 1957, nineteen years after the events of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This also acknowledges the actual 19 years that have passed since Last Crusade was released in theaters.
• The "crystal skull" most likely refers to a Mayan artifact allegedly unearthed by Anna Le Guillon Mitchell-Hedges — the adopted daughter of famed archeologist F.A. Mitchell-Hedges — in 1926. The skull is rumored to have mystical properties, and scientists still debate how a relatively primitive society could have crafted such a minutely detailed human skull apparently using no metal tools.

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