1. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had considered a fourth Indiana Jones movie for several years, they'd come up with some possible titles including 'Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men' and 'Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Giant Ants'. However, although we saw some flesh eating ants in Indy 4 it seems unlikely that treatments were ever written for either of those titles, they were just ones the duo liked the sound of.
2. Frank Darabont presented a script in 2004, based on a story by George Lucas which was significantly different to what would become Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Lucas had initially wanted to include Indy's brother (with Kevin Costner's name being mentioned for the part), but Darabont didn't feature him anywhere in his proposed script. After reading and rejecting Darabont's script, it seems Lucas agreed and the idea of Indy's brother was shelved.
3. The hunt for a script and screenwriter continued, with M Night Shyamalan (oh God, Lord no!) and Tom Stoppard both asked to write a draft of the screenplay. Eventually David Koepp presented the script that finally went into production. At this time various names were considered before settling on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, amongst them were The City of Gods, The Destroyer of Worlds, The Fourth Corner of the Earth, The Lost City of Gold and The Quest for the Covenant. Koepp later said he favoured 'Indiana Jones and the Son of Indiana Jones' - not so catchy! Eventually Lucas and Spielberg settled on 'Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull'. Almost at the last minute, Lucas added the 'Kingdom of the' section.
4. The Crystal Skulls actually exist. 12 of them are kept in various museums and private collections across the world, although they have recently been dismissed as fakes. Indy 4 is based on the legend that the ancient Maya possessed 13 crystal skulls, which must be lined up or piled in a pyramid on or before 21st December 2012, the last day of the Mayan calendar, otherwise the globe will fly off its axis. Mayans still worship them and there are real-life skull hunters. I have just checked my watch - we made it past 21st December 2012 in one piece, phew!
5. The finished script included a small cameo for Sean Connery to return as Henry Jones Sr, Indiana’s father. But Connery turned it down, he said he was finding retirement too enjoyable.
6. During the chase were Indy is trying to escape the Russians, a jeep hits a big wooden crate allowing you to briefly see its contents. It contains the lost Ark, stored there at the end of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark!
7. Keeping up the tradition of adding a Star Wars reference or two into the Indiana Jones movies. The Akator throne room has C-3PO and R2-D2 etched into one of the yellow titles (and incidentally E.T. etched into another), plus Marion Ravenwood gets to say the classic Star Wars line "I've got a bad feeling about this".
8. Back to those ants I mentioned earlier. According to George Lucas the concept of giant, flesh-eating ants was originally included in an abandoned script of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Both Lucas and Spielberg really liked the idea and so they were added to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull almost in a scene that plays out almost identically to how it would've in 1989.
9. I think at some point in time we've all wanted to punch Shia LaBeouf, amiright? Well the lucky girl who got to do just that during the dinner scene in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was Sasha Spielberg, daughter of Steven Spielberg and 'Temple of Doom's' Willie Scott, Kate Capshaw.
10. It's not uncommon for all the cast and crew on a big budget Hollywood movie to sign confidentiality agreements, and Indy 4 was no exception. One extra, Tyler Nelson, violated the agreement by revealing details about his scenes to a Canadian magazine. Steven Spielberg immediately took legal action, the Superior Court agreed Nelson had violated the agreement. Another extra who was playing a Russian soldier leaked key plot elements to an Oklahoma newspaper. Spielberg is said to have had him digitally removed from the film as punishment. Surprisingly George Lucas didn't do any of his 'tinkering' and insert Jar Jar Binks in there instead!
Previously
10 things you might not know about Raiders Of The Lost Ark
10 things you might not know about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
10 things you might not know about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Follow Geek Dave on Twitte
