Will the real Indiana IV please stand up? (by William Thomas)
Is the world's favourite archaeologist really to get a fourth instalment? Or is it just a load of old hat?
When Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade was released in 1989, director Steven Spielberg, producer George Lucas and star Harrison Ford insisted that after three blockbusting adventures - two in the all-time box office top ten - the whip-cracking archaeologist was hanging up his fedora for good. Five years later, at the Venice Film Festival, Ford let slip that he was "reading scripts" for a fourth, and the rumours began...
November 11, 1994
In a story headlined "From Speed To Ford Escort", the Daily Mail reports that Sandra Bullock will play Indy's sidekick in Indiana Jones And The Lost Continent. However, the alleged storyline - in which the pair find the lost city of Atlantis, only to find the Atlanteans are facing extinction due to nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll - is suspiciously similar to 1992 Indy computer game, Fate Of Atlantis.
June 1995
While Last Crusade screenwriter Jeffrey Boam secretly admits to having been commissioned to write a fourth Indy film, rumours surface that the story concerns a post-war Indy's attempt to foil a Soviet plot to establish a missile base on the moon. Or has something to do with the Roswell UFO crash.
February 1996
In the first official word on the subject, the LucasFilm Fan Club tells its members that Lucas likes Boam's latest draft, but declines to give any story details.
May 26, 1996
A script entitled Indiana Jones And The Sons Of Darkness appears on the internet, supposedly posted by a light-fingered courier who lifted it from LucasFilm's offices. The script concerns a race by Indy to beat the Russians to the remains of Noah's Ark.
May 30, 1996
The script's sudden disappearance from the web provokes a frenzy of conspiracy theories. Was it the real deal, posted accidently and hastily removed? Or a fake, removed at LucasFilm's request?
June 5, 1996
In a message to America-On-Line, LucasFilm confirms that the Sons Of Darkness script is a work of copyright-violating fan fiction.
July 1996
Sean Connery publicly expresses interest in reprising his role as Indy's father. Meanwhile, the Washington Post's Drew Babcock claims that Spielberg told him that the fourth Indy film has something "to do with Adam and Eve". Babcock further alleges that the working title is Indiana Jones And The Garden Of Life.
August 18, 1996
LucasFilm fan liason executive Stephen Sansweet tells a Chicago sci-fi horror convention that Lucas, Spielberg and Ford have agreed on a script. "It's as close to being a reality as it's ever been," he says, adding that filming is unlikely to begin before 1998.
October 22, 1996
Ambitious Indy fan Robert Smith owns up to having written the bogus script Sons Of Darkness and posting it to the net, after failing to submit it to Lucas through legitimate channels. Smith claims to have received five Cease And Desist notices and a visit from the rozzers before agreeing to stop posting the script - by which time everyone already had a copy.
May 16, 1997
Apparently oblivious to Smith's claims, the ever-reliable Daily Mail reports that The Sons Of Darkness is set to feature Kevin Costner as Indy's "bad seed" brother.
September 1997
A respected theologian from Moscow, Idaho, claims to have been hired to fact-check an untitled script concerning Indy's discovery of the Garden of Eden.
May 1998
Rumours abound the script is entitled Raiders of (or Indiana Jones And) The Fallen Empire, and that Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies) has been approached to co-star.
June 9, 1998
When on "Magic" Johnson's talk show Ford says he'd love to play Indy again, but hasn't seen a decent script.
July 1998
The Chicago Tribune's Cindy Perlman quotes Spielberg as saying, "The Indiana Jones IV hat is halfway on my head," suggesting that filming could begin as soon as his next two projects, Memoirs Of A Geisha and The Notebook, are finished.
November 1998
A Paramount spokesman comments: "For all I know, they may be on the verge of signing contracts, but since no public announcement has been made, officially there is no Indiana Jones IV."
