Everyone is ready for 'Indiana Jones 4'

Posted Friday, March 17, 2006 at 12:28 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

Dun dun-da, dunda daaa! You can almost hear that familiar Indiana Jones music from John Williams.

Everything seems to be coming to together for Indiana Jones 4. Indy himself, Harrison Ford, recently told a German entertainment magazine, "Steven Spielberg and I now have a script in hand that we both like. I believe that we can start with the filming soon." That script was delivered by none other than George Lucas. Lucas embellished the script from Catch Me If You Can writer Jeff Nathanson.

All that's left is pre-production and to clear schedules for filming. Steven Spielberg's publicist told E! Online that the director wasn't going to take a rumored year off after doing War of the Worlds and Munich. (In fact, he's working on an Abraham Lincoln biopic in addition to Indy.) "This is certainly the closest where we've been in this whole development process," publicist Marvin Levy said.

Producer George Lucas is working on two separate Star Wars TV series but they won't get serious for a while as they are expected for 2008 or 2009. Plus, he'll probably rely on producing partner Rick McCallum for much of that.

The man with the hat and whip, Harrison Ford, is no longer doing "Godspeed," a sci-fi project with James Cameron which was recently scrapped. Ford is doing a Lincoln film, Manhunt -- specifically a film about the man who tracked down Lincoln's assassin -- but that will likely happen after Indy.

With regard to scheduling, there had been some concern of Harrison Ford's age. Senior citizen Ford is 63 and will likely be 64 or 65 when production starts, but no matter. Lucas recently told TIME magazine that the script would take into consideration his age.

The odds are looking good that we'll see Indiana Jones 4 some time in 2007.