Master Sifo-Dyas

Originally posted by: GundarkHunter
Young Indy had maybe 5 really good episodes in its run, but most were 'meh'.

“By all accounts of those who have worked with [Lucas], he isn’t one to multitask when he’s making a film. That left Spielberg and Darabont to work out the script. Imagine Darabont’s joy when Spielberg pronounced that he liked Darabont’s draft, except for some quibbles with the third act. Darabont reworked the screenplay, and a few weeks later—last fall—Paramount was told that Spielberg would shoot the picture in July 2004.”

So according to the article, the script was Darabont and Spielberg’s baby, unlike the previous three Indiana Jones films (in which Lucas, Spielberg and the screenwriters all toiled together). It’s been reported numerous times that Lucas devised the story for the new film, yet the Esquire article wraps up by stating that “the official story is that the project is not dead and that Lucas will come up with a storyline himself.”

I’m not sure if this is stating that Lucas didn’t conceive the screen story for Darabont’s drafts at all and he will be crafting a new concept himself from the ground up or if this means Lucas will be drafting a brand new script himself (God help us). Lucas’ “storylines” for the Indy films (i.e.-stories for the films, but not the actual scripts) have been great, but his work as a screenwriter, as history has proven, is not even a shadow of Darabont’s talents.

Either way, Esquire’s article is unclear whether Lucas plans on crafting a new story or drafting a new script personally, but the article does end with a couple of notes of doom.

According to someone allegedly close to Spielberg within the DreamWorks fold, Spielberg won’t be too heartbroken if the film doesn’t ever come together (Spielberg has promised in the press that it will happen still), and as Esquire tells it (for what it's worth) “many in Hollywood are skeptical that it will ever happen.”

“[Spielberg] liked the idea of it, but I don’t think he was in love with doing it,” the fellow “DreamWorker” told Esquire.

If true, this is never a great way for Spielberg to head into a movie and his filmography, the Indiana Jones series and Indiana Jones fans deserve more than that. Spielberg has throughout his career been infatuated with many a concept. We’ve all seen how many scripts he courts but never commits to, wisely in the end. When Spielberg isn’t completely in love with working on a film, he stumbles with works like HOOK and THE LOST WORLD (which he “always, sort of wanted to do”—a very non-committal reason to shoot the film from Spielberg himself).

Originally posted by: Darth ChaltabNolan didn't do that. He made it seem possible for Batman's story to actually happen in the real world, which is something no other Batman movie accomplished.

Paramount to buy DreamWorks for $1.6B (By Alex Armitage, Bloomberg News)

LOS ANGELES — Viacom's Paramount Pictures agreed to buy DreamWorks for $1.6 billion in cash and debt, wresting the movie studio away from NBC Universal and securing the talents of Steven Spielberg.

DreamWorks will almost double Paramount's slate of films for 2006. Los Angeles-based Paramount is in talks to sell DreamWorks' library of 59 movies including Gladiator, according to a statement Sunday from both companies.

The purchase is a coup for Paramount chief Brad Grey, hired this year by Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone to revive the studio. Paramount, ranked sixth at the box office this year, won DreamWorks with an 11th-hour bid that beat out General Electric's NBC. DreamWorks founders Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen are handing over a business formed 11 years ago with a vision to pool their talents in film, animation and music.

Paramount is "looking to shake things up and muscle things up," said Adi Kishore, director of entertainment and media research at Boston-based Yankee Group. "This is being driven by the new leadership."

The deal includes a worldwide distribution agreement with DreamWorks Animation, beginning in 2006. Paramount will get exclusive rights to future DreamWorks' Animation characters in television shows, the company said.

While Glendale, Calif.-based DreamWorks found success with Oscar winners including Saving Private Ryan and American Beauty, films this year such as The Island disappointed. The company began unraveling in 2000 with the sale of its video-game and music units, abandoning its ambition of forming a conglomerate to rival media companies such as Time Warner and Walt Disney. A sale also enables early investors such as Paul Allen to get some money back.

"The sale of DreamWorks' live-action unit suggests an end to the vision," said Laura Martin, an analyst at Soleil Securities Group in Pasadena, Calif.

Paramount wins distribution rights to films from DreamWorks Animation, a separate company that produced the Shrek franchise and Madagascar.

The sale also gives Paramount the skills of Spielberg, whose hits include Jaws and Schindler's List. The director has long had links to NBC, whose lots he has used to make movies including E.T. the Extraterrestrial. Spielberg is releasing his next film, Munich, through Universal on Dec. 23. Paramount is "getting a library and they're getting the Spielberg name," Soleil's Martin said.

DreamWorks will join Paramount as part of a new Viacom when Redstone splits his company in January. The film studios will be part of business run by Chief Executive Officer Tom Freston that holds New York-based Viacom's MTV cable-television unit.

Originally posted by: RRS-1980
Suddenly the joke about sequel to "Titanic" is no longer funny...

Originally posted by: battlewars
whats there to talk about if we cant argue?