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I've also added two three pieces of Purcell's cover concept art to the thread:

Another big problem I had with it was the sheer size of the ensemble. Having Indy on his own or at least with just one sidekick, makes everything feel much more dangerous. But if a group of four can make it through all the perils and traps, it probably wasn't too dangerous. And what the hell was the purpose of that crazy jungle cutter vehicle? Judging by Raiders' desert chase or Crusade's tank sequence, this thing would have been the perfect main element for an action sequence. Like Indy fighting bad guys on top of it, throwing them into the blades?

The Darabont draft is materially better. Lots of outrageous stuff on it, but it's actually got a pulse. The big issue with Crystal Skull in my view is the weird inertness. I tend to think that the actual story elements of the fourth movie are pretty strong. Lucas basically took some hoax legends about "Akakor" and the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull and combined them with El Dorado. While I'm sure some would regard the employment of New Age myths as off-brand compared to biblical or Arthurian legend, I think the ingredients were there for a solid 50s-era Indy movie. The problem is that story is to a large degree storytelling, and Crystal Skull fails to execute on its ideas with any sense of mystery, grandeur, intrigue, or stakes -- all pretty fundamental qualities of a good Indy movie, I would say. It doesn't feel particularly cohesive, either. For example, working in the Nazca lines is a great idea on paper, but they are just tossed in as an image and no attempt is made to relate them to the story in any meaningful way. A lot of the movie is like that, like they shot an outline as though it were a script. I also think the movie suffers from a lack of decent transitions, which adds to that nettlesome episodic feeling. The way Indy and Mutt go from the sanitarium to the graveyard via a dissolve to a CGI helicopter shot is a missed opportunity -- why not a small amount of Peruvian location footage showing them traveling there, to give us a sense of location? Why go straight from the skirmish with the cemetery warriors (who aren't given even token characterization and are instead just chirping ninjas who serve no greater purpose) to the characters already inside a crypt? Why go from the characters spotting the waterfall to already being in the cave behind it? None of these things are problems on an individual basis, but in aggregate they cause the movie to feel as though it is just jumping from sound stage to sound stage...because that is exactly what it's doing. Even the subterranean Temple of Doom makes effective use of the location footage it does have, like the Sri Lanka vistas during the elephant trek, or the famous rope bridge climax. I realize these movies aren't characterized by gritty verisimilitude, but Crystal Skull looks like it was shot in a damn hard drive. There is nothing grubby or tactile about it. I am not suggesting they should have shared tonalities, but you look at something like Apocalypto where the director actually made use of his passport to shoot in Mesoamerica because that's where the damn story takes place, and the contrast in the believability of its visuals says it all. And that's despite a movie that has a rather "video" look due to the cameras used. Spielberg shot Indy on film but seemingly did everything in his power to ensure it wouldn't look that way.

I haven’t read Frank Darabont’s script, but maybe I should. I actually think the first half of Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull is pretty great! Russians make for a great Nazi substitute, the throwback to the warehouse with the Ark, the dusty old Indy in the pastel 50’s town, nuking the fridge (I know it get’s a lot of hate, but I loved it, it’s just as ridiculous as the rubber boat in Temple, but way more fun!), the bicicle chase through college, the tombs with those Indian shooty guys, all classic Indy in my book! After they get to the Russian Camp everything goes downhill fast though. Indy gets slowed down by having to many people on board (Marion, the nutty professor guy, that ridiculous and unnecessary Mac character), I didn’t care about the ants, the monkeys, the temple, the space ship and the knowledge is power. Its just a terrible payoff to a good setup. All in all I don’t like the movie, just because of that second half. But if I rate it, it’s pretty much half good, half bad.

Lucas gave up his rights to work on the fifth movie when he sold Indy to Disney. He didn't have to do that. He could have kept LucasFilm and just shut it down. Of course I don't blame him for not doing that. $1 billion is a lot of money! And he earned it by creating two of the most popular movie franchises in history. As a result we get the modern sequels... but to be honest, they've largely been great. At least in my eyes. Certainly no worse than the video games we've enjoyed over the years, and often better. Personally I'm glad we have them (well, except the last one). Lucas was never going to make Episode VII, VIII, and IX. I would love to learn what his rough plans were though. It would be nice to Lucas and Spielberg to finish off the series, but again, Lucas had his chance. He pushed for all kinds of things that Spielberg didn't want in Crystal Skull. I don't know if you've read Frank Darabont's original script. It had its faults, but it was overall better than what we got in the end. Darabont fought Lucas on so many things, but he lost, too. Lucas is stubborn, which is great when he's right... (Related: Zemekis refused to allow them to redo the special effects for BTTF.) James Mangold is a talented director. Spielberg is Executive Producer. It might actually turn out to be a return for form for Indy... I mean I sincerely hope it is. I'd rather not have another Indy movie I don't feel like watching. And maybe Ford still has some life in him. Fingers crossed!

I don't see Disney as the bad guys here. And certainly not bullying Spielberg or Lucas out. Spielberg said no, clearly, not the other way around. Lucas got his modern sequels: Episodes I, II, and III and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There were good and bad in all of them, but given that they're considered some of the biggest disappointments in cinematic history, I'd say he had his chance. His rough plans for episodes VII, VIII and IX were likely dirge involving interplanetary trade disputes (although I would actually like to hear what they were, I do like Lucas really). I think it's time to let others play. And apparently that's what Lucas was thinking when Disney handed him a billion dollar cheque. And Kathleen Kennedy was the perfect choice to run LucasFilm after Disney took control of it, and she's largely done a brilliant job. She had produced every major Spielberg film from ET(!) onwards, including the original Indiana Jones movies. She's been around those two men, and around that world, for decades and decades. Her big mistake during her tenure was not appointing a new "Lucas" to keep an eye on Star Wars (but who would YOU pick? JJ Abrams? Maybe.) The other mistake they've made was listening to the fans. Fans are idiots. Ignore the fans. (I wonder if that was Disney execs pushing her.) If Disney get more involved in LucasFilm, without someone like Kennedy at the helm, THEN I'm going to worry. Disney don't really do a good job when left to their own devices. Their animation department is run by Pixar people. Marvel is run by Kevin Feige. LucasFilm is on the bubble of having some slick-talking suit add it to his CV and then ruining the whole thing. The new film could be great. It could also be awful. It might be somewhere in between. And I'll debate anyone who says differently!

Ehh, after the ugly digital sheen of Crystal Skull, any proper Indy 5 should be going in the opposite direction, hard. Give me every last line and crag on Harrison Ford's decrepit visage and leave the digital face scrubbing and hideous overlit shooting style to daytime television where it belongs. Phedon Papamichael has a solid track record and I am hopeful for some major course correction on the photography front this time out.