Indiana Jones 4 Really Going To Get Made For 2008, Honest

There's a lot to be said for the appeal of Indiana Jones; it's so strong people want to see Indiana Jones 4 even though it'll basically be about a man putting his hip out and trying to reach his emergency call button with a bullwhip for two hours.

But after approximately ten billion false-starts, Indiana Jones 4 is finally ready to go – and it'll start filming this year for release in 2008. However, not much is known about Indiana Jones 4 at all so far. For instance, nobody seems to know the plot of the movie, whether or not Sean Connery will return as the father of Indiana Jones, or which of the three key Indiana Jones bigwigs will get the upper hand during production. For instance, will the movie be shot digitally, as producer George Lucas would like, or will Steven Spielberg want to shoot the movie traditionally on film, or will Harrison Ford get involved and foul Indiana Jones 4 up like every film he's been in for the last 14 years?

It's all the rage for old actors to return to their greatest roles in times of dire need at the moment. Sylvester Stallone made Rocky Balboa, Sharon Stone made Basic Instinct 2 and Bruce Willis is making Die Hard 4, even though nobody at any point has ever expressed a wish in seeing any of these films. It's a good job that The Da Vinci Code at least made some money, or else we get the feeling that Tom Hanks would have jumped on the bandwagon and made Philadelphia 2: Litigious AIDS Zombies Want Blood.

But Indiana Jones is different. People still love Indiana Jones. No matter what George Lucas, Steven Spielberg or Harrison Ford do for the rest of their lives, they'll always be behind Indiana Jones' shadow. And even though they've all moved on to greater things, like retiring from movies forever or making dull-looking films about gravity-wave strengths and their temporal signatures as observed on the Earth or, um, Firewall – Indiana Jones 4 has never been too far from the surface. 

The saga of Indiana Jones 4 has crawled on since 1989, when Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade was made. But in the last couple of years, Indiana Jones 4 has looked more and more likely to get made, with George Lucas signing on, a script being approved and Harrison Ford doing his best to convince everyone that he isn't too old to outrun perfectly spherical boulders these days. But now Indiana Jones 4 has a release date and everything – May 2008 – as The Scotsman reports:

Producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg confirmed details of the project Monday after Lucas tipped off the media to Indiana Jones' imminent return as he prepared to serve as grand marshal of the Rose Parade in Pasadena. After years spent in script development, a fourth instalment of the hit franchise is set to begin production in June in locations around the world and in the United States. It will mark Spielberg's next directorial outing. "George, Harrison and I are all very excited," Spielberg said. "We feel that the script was well worth the wait. We hope it delivers everything you'd expect from our history with Indiana Jones."

One of the biggest headaches now facing the Indiana Jones team will be convincing famous woman-punching fan Sean Connery to reprise his role as the father of Indiana Jones. Connery or no Connery, though, we have our fingers crossed that Ke Huy Quan returns to Indiana Jones 4 as Short Round. Because, frankly, if Indiana Jones 4 doesn't feature a 37-year-old man in shorts and a baseball cap excitedly shouting "Hey Dr Jones, no time for lumbar disc herniation, we've got company!" then it's a film we don't want to watch

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Ford To Return For Fourth Indiana Jones – Scotsman