INDIANA JONES IV TITLE!!

It has been announced...and be sure to inhale deeply before you say it aloud.

Not exactly the "Pharaoh's Crown", huh JettL93?

For the non-believers (that have Flash!), check out the announcement on the official site or on Ain't It Cool.

Unlike some of the immediate reaction by raving fanboys/girls, I don't have any real distaste for the title. Fanboys/girls are apt tp have sudden, violent reactions, so nobody should be surprised. Least of all Lucas, who has experienced this phenomenon every two years since 1998.

The title has that pulpy, serial feel to it, which makes it fit in fine with "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Temple of Doom", and "Last Crusade". Personally, I almost wonder if it wouldn't have been appropriate just to call this film "Indiana Jones" and leave it at that. But using my previous arguement, that wouldn't fit in as nicely with the other three, would it?

Taking an Indy Break

In case you're wondering (and I have to imagine all four poeple who have seen this blog, at least two "accidentally", must be rolling around on your backs kicking and screaming about not having a new Indy IV post here) why I've not put up anything about all the recent Indy IV spoiler mudslinging going on lately, I'm just kind of in "Indy overload". There's more than enough of it out there for anybody who wants to keep up on it, but for the uninitiated, here are some links:

http://tinyurl.com/2orukj

http://tinyurl.com/35a4kg


In the meantime, I've been enjoying one of my favorite YouTube guilty pleasures, DRSMOOV's Transformer parodies. Guaranteed hands down to make any G1 fans laugh.

I think what I enjoy the most about "Shockwave's Burden" is the hilariously pathetic side DRSMOOV has shown us of Cybertron's brute-by-the-book "Guardian". It's really plays up some foibles that one might have suspected were always there, but I don't remember ever really seeing in the tv shows. Meanwhile, the dialogue DRSMOOV has given some of the characters just tops off the clever situations he's put the characters in. If you don't laugh at any of Shockwave's "Oh shit. What now?" or "What does this jerk want?" comments, you maybe be even less human than a transforming alien robot.

As for the Rude Awakening of Optimus Prime, besides hearing the iconic Autobot leader say words that would not have been fit for Sunbow, Prime's uber-human reactions to the remaining less-than-favorite Autobots seems to mirror much of my own (and undoubtedly other G1 fans') feelings towards Blur, Wheelie, Bumblebee's makeover, etc. when we first experienced these wonderful changes to the G1 Transformers.

To quote DRSMOOV's Prime: "Of all the Autobots to survive...fuck me." Yes, Prime. We all thought the same thing.

Possible Indy IV titles?? And Other Indy Info...

Well, the mysterious "JettL93" has been at it again on the AintItCool.com talkbacks. In the last day or two he/she has divulged:
**HIGHLIGHT TEXT FOR SPOILERS**

• Is the final script a rehash of older scripts? "besides a few key action sequences that where lifted (because) they were just to cool to ignore, the script is entirly different from the earlier drafts. and most of the leaked info was false or fan fic, including city of the gods, that title was never in the running, lucas has held onto it for possible use in a videogame."


• When can we expect a trailer? (One) teaser in the november before, a trailer in feb or march and a third trailer a month or so before the film is relesed...expect paramount to launch a huge online campaign with the official site (similar to what the dark night did with "i believe in harvet dent too")


• What movie will the trailer be attached to? (contains Title SPOILER) "Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf when it hit theatres this november...the teaser will not show a lot but will probabaly run in the range of a 1:45 to 2 mins, and you will see shots of the characters and certain action, the title "indiana jones and the Pharoah's crown" will also be revealed." Lucas has hinted that he would like to do 3 trailers, gradually showing more and more of the plot.


• And what about that title? "crown of the pharoh could possibly be the title instead of the pharoh's crown, george also had dynasty of the pharoahs as one of his suggested titles... if its not pharoah's crown, it will be a titlle (sic) that is very similar to it."


• What's the plot going to be? "The basic plot outline is (and I’m paraphrasing) the pharaoh’s crown was a crown that contained a large crystal (shaped like a skull) it held the power of the gods. Thousands of years ago a Egyptian tyrant stole the crown and tried to use its power to rule the world, the gods angry at this, unleashed a huge earthquake during which the crystal was separated from the crown and both were thought destroyed. However it turns out the crystal part of the crown was actually found 50 years ago (around 1910) by none other then Abner Ravenwood and has been stored by the Americans in the "raiders warehouse". Of course when the Russians discover the crown part they learn that the American’s have the crystal skull, they attempt to steal it and affix it to the crown to use the power to end the cold war and take over the world. The Americans are aware somebody has discovered the crown, since the crystal has been acting strangely, and causing weird things to be happening over area 51 (which the media has blamed on alien invasions) the American’s wanting the crown’s power to themselves decide to steal the crown from the Russians. However when Abner Ravenwood (john hurt) learns of this he is forced to come out of “hiding” and track down Indy (using shia) and convince him to find both pieces before the Americans and Russians do and destroy them both."

**END SPOILERS**
Now, be sure to take all the above with a high-blood pressure inducing amount of salt. "Jett" seems genuine enough, but I'm just cycnical enough to believe there's always someone out there willing to create an elaborate hoax with a mild-mannered demeanor.

Or, perhaps, this is an intentional "leak" by the Indy IV production to start building positive buzz early. This kind of internet "marketing" and PR has become increasingly popular and has really started to make a blip on the radar with some companies.

"Jett" says "more stuff will start to leak, i just have the advantage of being very close to the producer and able to get my hands on almost any info i want", which makes him/her even more intriguing.

Will we ever know who "Jett" really is?

Is this the boy who's got all the Indy info? (somehow, I doubt it)