He just celebrated his 65th birthday, but Harrison Ford will apparently still be doing his own stunts in the now-filming Indiana Jones IV — arthritis be damned!
So say a few producers of the highly anticipated sequel, filming now in Hawaii. Ford’s last turn as the dashing adventurer-professor was in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — eighteen years ago — but thanks to meds and plenty of ice, fans may look forward to seeing the sexagenarian hustling like a lithe 47-year-old.
As co-executive producer Kathleen Kennedy told the AP, ”He’s doing them, he just has a few more ice packs and a few more massages.’
”And a lot of Celebrex,” producer Frank Marshall added.
Add this to Marshall’s previous assertions that Indy IV would not rely on computer generated special effects, and we might expect a return to the sensibilities of old-school action flicks.
Production started last month, yielding a few set snapshots of Ford and co-star Shia LaBeouf (in 1950s biker garb) motorcycling around the Yale campus. With shooting taking place in Hilo for three weeks, the Hawaiian locale is reportedly filling in for a South America setting. Word is the production is filming under the name of “Untitled Genre Project,” a la rival blockbuster production The Dark Knight — which wins the fake production title contest as “Rory’s First Kiss.”
In related news, the folks over at IESB share that LaBeouf’s Indy IV contract with Paramount includes not one, not two, but four total films! Their source, whose information is “solid as a rock,” also says that Ford is also on board for three additional flicks.
So let’s do some math. Raiders of the Lost Ark hit in 1981. Temple of Doom came in 1984. The (first) trilogy ended a few years later in 1989 with the errantly titled Last Crusade. Now we have the fourth flick slated for release next May. That’s four Indiana Joneses in almost three decades. And they want Professor Jones to do three more?
Can the man who was Han Solo, Jack Ryan, and the baddest U.S. President to ever board Air Force One take a licking and keep on ticking through his twilight years?
Sources: AP, IGN Movies, IESB
