Indiana Jones

[Ditchy McAbandonpants]

Ray Winstone is a big, burly British character actor, notable for his thick London accent and gruff, aggressive manner. He's pretty famous in the UK for a lot of good TV work, as well as some gritty but acclaimed British movie work (Nil By Mouth, Sexy Beast). He's been in quite a few Hollywood movies of late, though - The Departed, King Arthur, Cold Mountain, and amusingly as the voice of Mr Beaver in The Chronicles of Narnia. He's a good actor. In other casting news, Shia LaBeouf was just specualation that has yet to be confirmed, but Cate Blanchett is definitely in - another solid, talented performer.

Nevertheless, I'm still not really too sure what to make of this project. All the right people are in place, the cast, as discussed, is looking promising, and David Koepp (Spider-Man, Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds) is one of the best blockbuster writers out there, but I can't get over the fact that I just don't think that "The Adventures of Indiana Jones As An Old Man" is a very interesting concept. The series was conceived as a throwback to 30s adventure serials, with a rugged, charismatic adventurer battling bad guys in globetrotting derring-do hijinks, and there's a really timeless appeal about the simplicity of that idea. So far, they've been very successful with exploring and adding depth to their characters without interfering with the purity of that concept - making him an old man (with a son, even?) feels to me like they're stepping over the line, trying to add too much and read too much into a character who thrived on his simplicity, just like The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles did by casting Indy as this Forrest Gump-esque figure who seemed to have been present for most of the key events in early 20th Century world history. Of course, with Spielberg,Ford and Koepp on board I don't expect Indy 4 will be anything like as ham-fisted as Young Indy, but I still can't shake my reservations...

I hope that made sense. Obviously, this might all change as soon as the first trailer comes out (around Thanksgiving, they said); I'm perfectly happy to be proven wrong. Come on, guys - you've got to get this right!