ROTTEN TOMATOES: Spielberg Talks Indy 4 and Tintin

Spielberg Talks Indy 4 and Tintin

Slashfilm shares the director's dispatch from the set.

by Jeff Giles | October 10, 2007

It seems a pretty safe bet that, on nine out of ten film fans' wish lists, "meeting with Steven Spielberg on the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" would be somewhere near the top. As it turns out, this isn't an impossible dream -- all you need to do is help Spielberg catch a thief.

Spielberg, in a show of gratitude to the online film press for helping track down the person responsible for the recent theft of some Indy 4-related stuff, invited a number of writers out to the set for a 20-minute meeting on Tuesday. Slashfilm's Peter Sciretta was one of the anointed few, and naturally, he's shared some details of what went down.

As you might expect, not a great deal of information changed hands during the meeting -- it was less than half an hour long, after all -- but the writers were able to glean a few morsels of information, primarily relating to Indy 4 and the upcoming Tintin. With regards to the latter, Slashfilm reports:

Spielberg confirmed that Tintin will be shot on stage using motion capture over a 30-day shoot. One of the films will be shot by Steven, the other by Jackson, and the third by...and this is the shocker: Spielberg said they are on the lookout for a director for the third film, but they are considering filming the movie together. That's right -- Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson directing side by side on the epic conclusion to the Tintin trilogy. This is something that has never been clearly stated in the trades.

Perhaps the most interesting piece of Indy information is the news that it's being shot on film, despite what seem to have been repeated efforts by George Lucas to convince Spielberg to make it a digital production. From Slashfilm:

Steven gushed about how a film frame is alive with movement and film grain and that digital video is "too perfect." Lucas tried to convince Steven that they could add the film grain to the digital image, which Spielberg found totally amusing because doesn't that defeat the whole purpose? And wouldn't it just be easier to shoot the whole thing on film.

For more about the great Spielberg-blogger summit of '07, click on the link below!

Source: Slashfilm

Related Items

Celeb:	Peter Jackson
	Steven Spielberg
	George Lucas

(1-13 of 13 posts) | Reply

Elixor writes:
on Oct 10 2007 05:58 AM

Lucas needs to stick to being an idea man and leave the writing and directing to other people. He's a great creative mind, but he doesn't execute his ideas well. Spielberg is a little overrated, but knows what he's doing. With the combination of the two, I think that this movie will turn out well, despite the high expectations.

(Reply to this)

Elixor writes:
on Oct 10 2007 06:10 AM

Lucas should realize that one of the problems with his newer Star Wars movies (which I still enjoy more than � of the crap out there), is that all his digital environments were just too clean and sterile. Even all the added little animated effects and creatures added to bring detail and depth to the scenes seemed to be like adding desanitized rubber balls to a clean room. The first three movies (4, 5, 6) had much more grit and life-like detail to them.

The point I'm making is good for Spielberg not letting Lucas sanitize and sterilize this film. Digital is the future, but stick with what has worked for the previous films.

(Reply to this)

witherwings writes:
on Oct 10 2007 06:56 AM

Good point, Elixor. That WAS subconsciously one of the reasons I liked the old trilogy better, the grit.

I like how Spielberg found Lucas "totally amusing." Ha.

(Reply to this)

KubrickIsG-d writes:
on Oct 10 2007 07:20 AM

As much as I disliked most of the new Star Wars films, I thought the Digital prints were appropiate. The original Star Wars film were better with more dirty, grainy film because they took place after the fall of the Republic, when the Empire was falling apart. The Prequals took place during the glory days, when everything in the galaxy seemed clean and "sterile"

But for an Indian Jones movie, Spielberg is definitly right- film is the way to go. The movies always took place in dry, desolate landscapes (often in times of war) that would be innapropiate to film on the new digital cameras.

(Reply to this)

arendr writes:
on Oct 10 2007 08:32 AM

I think there's a lot of over-reaction about digital here. Yes, it does look slightly different. And in a way, I'm glad that they chose to shoot film on this production since it will fit in with the look of the previous 3.

But Lucas and Spielberg really do embody the two sides of the debate here. I went to school for photography a few years ago just as digital was starting to boom and some professors were stuck in the old film mindset and some were all digital. Now I am in the business and wish everyone shot digital. I still like film. But digital can, in some ways, be far better than film and eventually will be.

And adding film grain digitally is a technique I have used and it does a pretty good job.

(Reply to this)

renodc writes:
on Oct 10 2007 08:44 AM

Spielberg and Peter Jackson are combining to make a Tintin trilogy?

(Reply to this)

therereturn writes:
on Oct 10 2007 10:02 AM

I understand each side of the film/digital argument. I was trained on film, now shoot on digital. Believe me, I love the features I get our of the digital cameras, and it's like you can color time your prints immediately, something that takes much longer with film. But the one thing that film has going for it is that it's tangible. You can put your hands on it. You have to load the mag with film inside the tent. Just that feeling is enough to warrant shooting some projects on film, because I think if you want a movie to feel authentic sometimes you need to make the production as authentic as possible, without adding grain after the fact.

(Reply to this)

Myriada writes:
on Oct 10 2007 10:42 AM

Yes, I imagine that George Lucas would say that. But I love Steven's reaction. Brilliant. :D That made my day!

(Reply to this)

Dr. Evol writes:
on Oct 10 2007 12:48 PM

http://www.aintitcool.com/talkback_display/34376?q=node/34376

"...Other topics brought up included his working relationship with George Lucas and if Spielberg was pressured to shoot INDY 4 digitally. Spielberg said that the way he works with George is he lets George talk for an hour and then says, %u201CNo.%u201D

He said that with a laugh. He clearly had a lot of love for Lucas, calling him his brother and partner."

That made me laugh, lots of great stuff in that article.

Can�t wait to see it! I still hope Gimy would just surrender for this movie :-D

(Reply to this)

sagebuffalo writes:
on Oct 10 2007 02:37 PM

Excuse me Elixor, Steven Spielberg is not overrated. that Title belongs to Quentin Tarantino and a nod to Peter Jackson

(Reply to this)

arendr writes:
on Oct 10 2007 02:56 PM

I've said it before and I'll say it again: they will base the Tintin animation off of Shia Lebouf. Dude looks exactly like Tintin.

(Reply to this)

OAKTREELIVE writes:
on Oct 10 2007 04:44 PM

Thank you sagebuffallo

(Reply to this)

jacog writes:
on Oct 11 2007 02:40 AM

arendr: Haha... he does... just needs to bleach his hair and get a goofy curl on top of his head.

I am going to assume the movie will be more... uhm... "politically correct" than some of the comics were. Don't get me wrong, I love the comics and grew up on them, but Herge didn't seem to think twice about race stereotyping.

(Reply to this)

RottenTomatoes.com