Like the “Star Wars” prequels or hate em, we can all pretty much agree that one sticking point was the writing. And the story lines. And the acting. Basically all the things George Lucas was responsible for.

Taking that into account, read the story below about how Frank Darabont worked his keester off to make a faithful, fun and exciting fourth installment of Indiana Jones (one that Spielberg loved) only to have George Lucas give it a “meh, I don’t think so.” You better be seated with a cool alcoholic beverage when you read the article below:

GEORGE LUCAS’S INFINITE WISDOM HAS KILLED INDY 4

If you wanna blame anyone for the tardiness of the fourth “Indiana Jones” film – a film many predict may never happen, if only because its been off and on more times than a kettle – you can probably take aim at George Lucas.

According to Screenwriter Frank Darabont (“The Green Mile”), the fourth film was ready to go two years ago – until Lucas decided he didn’t like his script. Considering Steven Spielberg thought the script was the best Jaunt Indy had had since ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, it sounds like Uncle George needs his head read.

“That was terrifically frustrating”, Darabont said in an exclusive interview with CHUD. “I worked for over a year on that; I worked very close with Steven Spielberg. He was ecstatic with the result and was ready to shoot it two years ago. He was very, very happy with the script and said it was the best draft of anything since Raiders of the Lost Ark. That’s really high praise and gave me a real sense of accomplishment, especially when you love the material you’re working on as much as I love the Indiana Jones films.”

Lucas then came to Darabont and stuck a stake through his script.

“Lucas read it and said, ‘Yeah, I don’t think so, I don’t like it.’ And then he resets it to zero when Spielberg is ready to shoot it that coming year, [which] is a real kick to the nuts. You can only waste so much time and so many years of your life on experiences like that, you can only get so emotionally invested and have the rug pulled out from under you before you say enough of that.”

The proof’s in “The Phantom Menace”, I believe. Throw away the key.

articles courtesy of Film Threat & Moviehole