George Lucas Once Admitted ‘Indiana Jones’ Caused Tension With Steven Spielberg: ‘Steven’s in the Past’
Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones was a joint project that he made with his good friend and partner George Lucas. But the two didn’t see eye-to-eye in one Indiana Jones sequel, which Lucas confided caused a slight rift between the two.
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas had two opposing viewpoints when it came to ‘Indiana Jones’
Although Spielberg and Lucas worked almost seamlessly together on the first three Indiana Jones films, the fourth one caused some issues. From the beginning, Spielberg wasn’t really on board for a fourth movie. He felt the third film, Last Crusade, marked a satisfying end to Harrison Ford’s adventures.
“When I was done with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, there was a reason why I invented the shot of Harrison riding a horse into the sunset,” Spielberg once said on the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull documentary. “Because I thought that brought the curtain down on the trilogy, and I thought we were all gonna move on and mature into other aspects of filmmaking. I never thought I would ever see Indiana Jones again.”
However, Ford and Lucas eventually convinced Spielberg to return to the franchise. But Lucas’ ideas for Indiana Jones included aliens, which Spielberg wasn’t a fan of. Especially since Spielberg had so many alien films in his filmography already.
Spielberg and Lucas would eventually reach some kind of compromise for Kingdom of Crystal Skull. But there were certain parts of the film the Oscar-winner didn’t approve of. Lucas shared this soured Spielberg on the possibility of directing another Indiana Jones project.
“Really, with the last one, Steven wasn’t that enthusiastic,” Lucas once told Vulture. “Steven’s in the past. He’s trying to drag it back to the way they were, I’m trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of tension. This recent one came out of that.”
George Lucas was worried fans approached ‘Kingdom of Crystal Skull’ the way they approached ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’
Before Crystal Skull made its worldwide release, even Lucas cautioned its fans to temper expectations. And wanted to remind audiences that Crystal Skull was only a movie.
“When you do a movie like this, a sequel that’s very, very anticipated, people anticipate ultimately that it’s going to be the Second Coming,” Lucas once said according to ABC News. “And it’s not. It’s just a movie. Just like the other movies. You probably have fond memories of the other movies. But if you went back and looked at them, they might not hold up the same way your memory holds up.”
At the time, he felt addressing expectations might’ve been necessary thanks to his experience with Star Wars The Phantom Menace. Phantom Menace, and the prequel trilogy in general, was known for initially dividing its fan-base due to Lucas’ narrative choices. Similarly, Crystal Skull saw Indiana Jones returning to the franchise after a hiatus that lasted for decades. Lucas didn’t want to see history repeating itself.
“When people approach the new Indiana Jones, much like they did with Phantom Menace, they have a tendency to be a little harder on it,” Lucas said. “You’re not going to get a lot of accolades doing a movie like this. All you can do is lose.”
However Crystal Skull would be received, Lucas held no regrets filming the movie. He asserted he didn’t do the project for money anyway, but rather for pleasure.
“We came back to do [Indiana Jones] because we wanted to have fun,” he added. “It’s not going to make much money for us in the end. We all have some money. … It would make a lot of money if you weren’t rich. But we’re not doing it for the money.”
Steven Spielberg shared that he was happy with ‘Kingdom of Crystal Skull’ despite its mistakes
Spielberg hasn’t reconciled with some of Crystal Skull’s perceived narrative flaws. However, he stood by the project, supported his best friend’s vision for the film.
“I’m very happy with the movie. I always have been… I sympathize with people who didn’t like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin,” he once said in an interview with Empire (via Slash Film). “George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin. I didn’t want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings. But I am loyal to my best friend. When he writes a story he believes in – even if I don’t believe in it – I’m going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it. I’ll add my own touches, I’ll bring my own cast in, I’ll shoot the way I want to shoot it, but I will always defer to George as the storyteller of the Indy series. I will never fight him on that.”
