Budget: Estimates range from $125 million to $185 million
Shooting Dates: June 2007 – October 2007
Shooting Locations: Ghost Ranch and Deming New Mexico, New Haven Connecticut, Hilo Hawaii, Los Angeles and Fresno California
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Facts
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the only Indiana Jones movie filmed entirely in the United States.
There’s 19 years between this movie and the third film of the franchise, The Last Crusade, and director Steven Spielberg and company chose to acknowledge Harrison Ford/Indy’s aging by actually setting this film 19 years after the events of the third movie. The Last Crusade took place in 1938; Kingdom of the Crystal Skull takes place in 1957.
Even while moving the film forward to the ‘50s and changing the villains to Russians, Spielberg was determined some things would remain constant. In keeping with the previous three films, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull includes the full Indiana Jones wardrobe we've come to expect including the bullwhip, as well as the map, the plane, and vehicles with red lines showing Indy’s globetrotting journey.
An interesting assortment of writers were reportedly approached to write or actually penned screenplays for the fourth Indiana Jones movie including Tom Stoppard, M Night Shyamalan, Stephen Gaghan, Jeff Nathanson, Jeffrey Boam (The Lost Boys), and Frank Darabont. David Koepp (Zathura, War of the Worlds) ultimately wrote the script which sent the film into production.
Every detail, including the plot, was kept secret as long possible, and one film extra found out the hard way what happens when you talk when Spielberg doesn’t want you to. Tyler Nelson violated the nondisclosure agreement he signed when hired on to the project, revealing details about his scenes in a Canadian magazine. Spielberg immediately took legal action and a Superior Court agreed Nelson had violated the agreement. No details of the settlement have been disclosed.
In September 2007 Spielberg’s office was burglarized with photos and other important documents dealing with the production and budget taken in the break-in. 37-year-old Roderick Davis was arrested and pled guilty to one count of receiving stolen property and one count of commercial burglary for plotting to sell the stolen goods online. Davis was sentenced to 28 months in jail.
Costume designer Mary Zophres (Catch Me If You Can) cites Marlene Dietrich’s look as the inspiration for Cate Blanchett’s character’s style. Zophres drew on Marlon Brando’s look in The Wild Ones to come up with the attire for Shia LaBeouf’s character, Mutt. Amelia Earhart’s look provided the starting point for Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood.
A giant Olive Python is the requisite snake in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Sean Connery was offered the chance to return as Indy’s father, Dr Henry Jones, but chose to remain in retirement.
Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett says that unlike her other female friends, when she was a youngster and saw Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark for the very first time she wanted to be Indiana Jones. Her friends just wanted to kiss him.
Random Indiana Jones Trivia
Raiders of the Lost Ark was made for just $18 million. The Temple of Doom came in around $28 million, while the budget for The Last Crusade was reportedly between $36-$48 million.
Spielberg and George Lucas decided in May 1977 while on vacation in Hawaii that there would be three Indiana Jones movies, and that they’d be stand-alone films that didn’t have to carry the story forward from one to the next. It was always Lucas’ intention that the second film of the franchise would be much darker in tone, similar to his Empire Strikes Back movie.
Tom Selleck was originally supposed to play Indiana Jones, however he was committed to starring in the TV series Magnum P.I..
After seeing Harrison Ford in Star Wars, Spielberg believed he’d be the right choice to take on the role Indiana Jones. Lucas wasn’t happy about that decision at first as he wanted Ford to be associated with Han Solo and not another action franchise.
The Indiana Jones movies were inspired by the James Bond franchise, which led to an interesting bit of casting on the third Indiana Jones film. Spielberg believed it was only fitting Sean Connery, an actor who played James Bond in seven movies, should take on the role of Indiana Jones’ father. In reality, Connery is only 12 years older than Harrison Ford.
Lucas’ favorite scene from the first three movies is the truck chase in Raiders in which Ford as Jones goes under the vehicle while it’s moving.
Spielberg claims his favorite sequence from the original three films is the sequence in The Temple of Doom where the ceiling comes down and Ford yells for help from Willie (Kate Capshaw) who has her own battle going on with hundreds of bugs. Of course, this could be because it involved Capshaw, the actress Spielberg fell in love with and married after working together on the film.
Spielberg has no problem with snakes and says that while growing up in Arizona, he’d often find them in his yard and even in his house. His favorite line of the series involves the slithery creatures: “Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?”
Spielberg intended to use mechanical snakes in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but real snakes had to be brought in when the mechanical snakes just didn’t look realistic enough. When Karen Allen read the script, she says it never occurred to her she’d be surrounded by hundreds of real snakes on the set.
3 foot long legless reptiles known as Glass Lizards were used in addition to real snakes.
5,000 rats were bred specifically for use in The Last Crusade. Ford wasn't bothered by being surrounded by the creatures as he’d had black hooded rats as pets.
The scene of Indiana Jones looking down on the Nazis carrying the Ark was filmed at the exact same location as R2D2 being taken away by the Jawas in the original Star Wars movie.
If Spielberg’s name hadn’t been attached to The Temple of Doom, it’s highly like the Motion Picture Association of America would have given it an R rating. As it was, the MPAA created a PG-13 rating partially in response to Temple of Doom.
