3. Disney Now Has Full Control Over Indiana Jones Franchise
When Disney made the shocking news of their purchase of Lucasfilm (for the small small price of $4 billion) public earlier this year, along with their plans to immediately start production on more Star Wars films, the internet practically imploded with excitement. Production on Episode VII soon began, and is now aiming for a December 2015 release date under geek-favorite director J.J. Abrams, and the Mouse House has announced that not only is another trilogy on the way, but that we'll be getting spinoff films as well (effectively bringing one Star Wars film a year for the foreseeable future). Considering how exciting that news was, you can forgive audiences for forgetting about another franchise Disney now had the rights to: Indiana Jones. Though it was certainly noted that the world's most famous archaeologist would also be heading to Disney, no real word has been heard on what the future may hold for the franchise. Paramount still had partial rights to the property, having handled distribution on the previous four films, and despite Harrison Ford hinting that a fifth may be on the way, the studios remained silent. Earlier this week,
THR reported that Disney and Paramount have come to an agreement, giving Disney full control of the future of the franchise, while leaving Paramount with a slice of the earnings of "any future films that are produced and released." This immediately sparked excitement that another Indy film may already be in the works, which was quickly calmed by Disney Chairman Alan Horn. When speaking to
Variety early Friday, Horn stated that aside from gaining control of the property, they "haven't done anything" with the property. "We don't have a story. We need a story." Considering how busy Disney will be with establishing the Star Wars universe over the next couple years, and the fact that the galaxy far, far away seems to be their first priority, I wouldn't hold my breath for a new Indy film anytime soon. After all, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was stuck in development for decades, and after the tremendous thud that was left with that installment, figuring out how to move forward will be tricky.