The story of Indiana Jones the movie franchise has been one of Director Steven Spielberg and actor Harrison Ford making movie magic happen three, four times in a row. Last week, when we learned that production on Indiana Jones 5 is moving forward with Ford returning to the role he made famous, there was some question if Spielberg would return too. Spielberg already has a busy schedule (he’s still finishing up “West Side Story”) and there is a real need to get Ford’s performance captured before he gets much older (he’s 77).
To give you an idea of how that compared with other iconic roles in film, Burgess Meredith was 69 when he played the trainer Mick in Rocky. Sean Connery was 65 when he was cast in “The Rock” and was 73 when he retired from acting after filming his last action movie role “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” Roger Moore was 58 when he retired from playing James Bond. 77 is getting up there in years for an action star.
It now sounds like Spielberg will hand over the whip to a new director, one with a lot of recent success in Hollywood.
According to Hollywood industry rags, stepping into the director’s chair will be likely be James Mangold. Coming off the critical success of “Ford v Ferrari” and the $619M earning swan song of the Wolverine franchise, 2017’s “Logan,” Mangold will be tasked with wrapping up the Indiana Jones franchise as well.
That said, Spielberg won’t be far away as he’ll remain a producer on the project and will be just a phone call away if needed when he’s not on set already.
As we recently reported, Harrison Ford mentioned that he would be putting on the fedora one more time while doing his promo work for “The Call of The Wild.” The project has been on again, off again for a few years, but it sounds like it might finally be coming together.
The next question is will the movie have to be pushed back from its penciled in 2021 release date? Given that it’s almost March in 2020 and there’s a still possible director change before any footage can be filmed, I’d say there’s a strong likelihood of yes.