Russell Walks to Illustrate Indy Promos

According to billingsgazette.net, fans will soon see a lot of Indiana Jones promotional artwork coming from Russell Walks, an artist who Star Wars fans may recognize from the Star Wars Celebration Art Shows and the Topps Galaxy trading card series. For Indy, it looks like Walks will be illustrating for Dr. Pepper, Kellogg’s, and others.

His work for the film includes a life-size cardboard standee of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones – yes, the one featuring an expression with “slight undertones of happiness.” Using promotional shots provided by LucasFilm and poses from members of his fan base, Walks created the piece after a little bit of struggle, mostly with those slight undertones.

He did 10 or 15 sketches until he was finally satisfied with the expression. From there he did a value drawing, with a full range of tonal values in black and white. Walks usually prefers to hand paint his artwork, but because of the tight deadlines on the “Indiana Jones” project, he did most of the color in Adobe Photoshop, then added brush strokes and “the twinkle in (Ford’s) eye.”

Check out the full story here, and learn more about the artist in starwars.com’s official artist profile.

George Lucas Q&A at Vanity Fair

The latest issue of Vanity Fair has a cover feature devoted to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with photography by Annie Leibovitz and interviews with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford. Of interest to Star Wars fans, of course, is the Lucas interview, which touches on the saga several times. Here’s an excerpt:

People who are over 40 love [Episodes] IV, V, and VI and hate I, II, and III. Younger people like I, II, and III and don’t like IV, V, and VI, or they like I, II, and III better and think IV, V, and VI are kind of boring and slow. And of course the older people say, “Oh, I, II, and III—it’s too jittery, too fast, too complicated, it’s too digital,” or whatever they want to say. But definitely one generation has grabbed hold of one of them, and the other generation has grabbed hold of the next one. One of the key characters that helped us realize what was going on was Jar Jar Binks, because the kids that are under 10 years old, he’s one of their favorite characters. For people over 40, they cannot stand him—it’s a hate thing. You know, they’ve always been for 12-year-olds, and that’s never changed. People don’t want to think of it that way. They want to think those films are for grown-ups. Even though they were 10 years old when they saw it, it’s still very important to them, so, for them, it’s a grown-up movie, as opposed to a kids’ movie. The pre–Jar Jar Binks was 3PO. Everybody hated 3PO. I mean, it was like they couldn’t stand him. It really had to do with his character. They don’t like his character, and they don’t like Jar Jar Binks—but they’re not designed to be likeable characters.

For the complete Lucas Q&A, read it online here. The Vanity Fair issue is on newsstands now.

Indy Teaser Poster Now Online

Indianajones.com, the official Indiana Jones website, has posted the teaser poster for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Indy rides again on May 22. For more updates as we count down to the big day, keep checking Indianajones.com.

You can also buy the teaser poster here.

Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?

According to BoingBoing.net: “The fabled Ark of the Covenant may not be in some nondescript crate in a massive US government warehouse but rather in the small Ethiopian town of Aksum where it is guarded by a virgin monk who can never leave the chapel where it sits. And nobody else can see it either. Smithsonian magazine sent Paul Raffaele to investigate.”

Indiana Jones on Myspace

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hits theaters May 22, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait to buddy up to Dr. Jones. Now for you social networking kids, Indiana Jones is officially on Myspace. So be sure to friend him now before Short Round makes it to his Top 10 Friends List.

Check out the official Indiana Jones profile on Myspace here.

Indiana Jones: That’s a Wrap!

Principal photography has ended on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and director Stephen Spielberg raises a glass to cast and crew in a toast. Take a look at the latest video clip that pays homage to the wraps of all the Indy movies in the VIDEO section of the newly redesigned IndianaJones.com.

Indy Theft Recalls Star Wars Incident in ‘77

Unless you’re living in a Chachapoyan cave you’ve probably heard that a bunch of production materials — photos, computers, etc. — from the new Indy movie were stolen recently. While this story seems to be wrapping up with the apparent apprehension of a suspect, it does recall a similar incident that occurred back in 1977 before Star Wars was released.

During Easter weekend (April 9-10) in 1977, someone broke into publicist Charles Lippincott’s Star Wars Corp. office on the Universal Studios lot and allegedly stole hundreds of Star Wars transparencies and framed reproductions of Ralph McQuarrie’s concept artwork for the movie. On that same weekend, there was a break-in at Industrial Light & Magic’s Van Nuys studio where at least one model was stolen (reports vary on the actual number taken).

Unlike the recent Indy incident, the Star Wars merchandise was never fully-recovered, although some transparencies did turn up at a convention later that year. Like Indy, the FBI got involved, but no resolution was ever reported – giving this mystery a persistent allure among fans in-the-know.

Found: Ark of the Covenant…please advise

(photo by Nicole Love)

Indiana Jones might not know exactly where the government stored the crate containing the Ark of the Covenant, but Smithsonian employee Rick Watkins sure found it — with a few dire consequences. So he filed a trouble report. Wow, someone is gonna get fired.

According to the “Trouble Report from the GUSSSSB
(Government of the United States Secret Smithsonian Storage Building)”:

Basic Description of Problem: Found crate with the Ark of the Covenant in it. Now everyone’s dead.

Further Details: I just started here like a week ago, so I’m not sure if this is unusual or anything. I know Earl had been toying around with a shrink-ray he found like three months ago, and that seemed pretty bizarre at the time, but this goes way beyond that. I was sent to retrieve the original plans for the cotton gin for some Smithsonian event, but I accidentally opened this crate that had this weird chest in it. There were, like, these two golden angels with their wings touching on top of it and it was real heavy. I had the night-shift manager, Dave, help me unload the damn thing, which wasn’t even in the official registry. After we did some research on Google, we figured it was the Ark of the Covenant, or, like, the thing that holds the remains of the Ten Commandments, which Moses smashed after he got all pissed about something. I peeked in the thing and saw what looked like a storm cloud or something inside of it, so I put the top back on and said I was going on my lunch break. I just wanted to get the hell away from that thing and hoped Dave would put it away. But when I came back 45 minutes later, Dave’s face was all melted off and everyone in the warehouse had giant gaping holes through their chests.

Read the entire report here:
“Trouble Report from the GUSSSSB
(Government of the United States Secret Smithsonian Storage Building)”

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SOURCE: McSweeneys.net

Lucas Hails Maverick Filmmakers, Teases Indy 4

TV Guide chats with filmmaker George Lucas about Fog City Mavericks, a documentary (premiering on STARZ, Monday, Sept. 24, at 9 pm/ET) — as well as upcoming TV shows and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

TV Guide: So, Fog City Mavericks — a wonderful couple of hours. It was great fun to watch.
I’m a firm believer in regional cinema, cinema that’s not made by people who live in Hollywood but who live in [places] like Austin or New York City or Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco. There are several little film communities that exist outside the main center, Hollywood, and who take their ideas from different places and do different kinds of things and have more of a creative say in what they do. This film is about San Francisco. I hope, at some point, somebody makes one about New York and Austin and all of the other places.

Were you disappointed about Sean Connery not coming out of retirement to play Indy’s father?
No, in the end, it turned out better. In the beginning, he was just in a little bit of it, and I think with the strength of Sean Connery, people would’ve wanted him to go all the way through the whole thing, and the story really didn’t work that way. And so I think there would’ve been some disappointment that [his character] dropped out partway through the movie. By having somebody else fill that role, you lose him without any regret, so to speak, even though we got a great actor to play the part. And I mean, he’s not his father, so it’s much easier….

You mean [the other actor] is not playing Indy’s father?
That’s right. It’s just a completely different character, so you’re not invested in him in any way. The fact that that character, after the first part of the movie, isn’t needed doesn’t become a problem. Whereas I think with the scene we had, where [Indy] says goodbye to his dad, everybody was, “Wait a minute! Isn’t he coming back?” So in the end, I think it turned out for the best. Sean just retired and he wants to stay retired, and I understand that. [Laughs] I think he just said, “Look, I’ve done it, I’ve done it.” He was very tempted, you know, and we talked for a long time. But in the end, he just said, “Eh, I’m playing golf.”

Read Part 1 of the interview here:
George Lucas Hails Maverick Filmmakers, Teases Indy 4

Indy’s Adventure Has a Name

This in from the wire: Indy’s fourth cinematic adventure has a name. Be one of the first to snag an official item bearing the new Indy title — Head on over to StarWarsShop now for the shirt, and while you’re there, check out their collection of other Indy items!

New Indiana Jones Adventure to be Titled ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (Sept. 9, 2007) – The title of the new Indiana Jones adventure, now in production under the direction of Steven Spielberg, is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it was revealed today by actor Shia LaBeouf.

LaBeouf, who stars in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone and John Hurt, announced the title during today’s MTV Video Music Awards, which were broadcast live from Las Vegas.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a Lucasfilm Ltd. production and is being distributed by Paramount Pictures. It will be released in the U.S. and simultaneously in most territories worldwide on Thursday, May 22, 2008. Frank Marshall returns as producer, with Kathleen Kennedy joining George Lucas as executive producer.

Breaking news about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull can be found at http://www.indianajones.com.