Keeping Up With The Joneses

Looks like Indiana Jones is making a comeback in 2008:

Nineteen years after chasing down the Holy Grail in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," Harrison Ford will return to the big screen in the character of the globe-trotting archeologist in May 2008.

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 installment of the famously successful franchise is set to begin production in June in locations around the world and in the U.S.

"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."

I hope so too! It also looks like they're going to try to get Connery into the cast again:

Although a spokesman for Spielberg said Monday that no casting has begun, Lucas and Ford have said that they would like to include Sean Connery, who played Indiana Jones' father, Professor Henry Jones, in "The Last Crusade." "We are writing him in whether he wants to do it or not," Lucas told "Access Hollywood" when Connery was honored in June with the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award.

It also is not known whether the project will be shot digitally, like Lucas' recent "Star Wars" movies, or on film, the medium Spielberg prefers.

I'm hoping Spielberg gets his way. I was extremely disappointed with Star Wars Episode I and somewhat so with Episode II. I hope this isn't a repeat of that.

I have to give credit to Lucas for stretching these series across decades. Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies will have spanned ~ 85% of my life by the time this one comes out.

"Raiders of the Lost Ark," the first film in the series, was released in 1981, followed by "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" in 1984 and "Last Crusade" in 1989. The three movies have earned 14 Academy Award nominations, seven Oscars and grossed more than $1.182 billion worldwide.

In other news, it looks like a whole slew of new movies are also lined up for next year:

A elease date was not announced, but the past two films in the series opened shortly before the Memorial Day weekend. Currently, the May 2008 lineup includes Paramount's "Iron Man," from Marvel Enterprises; Buena Vista's "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" from Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media; and Warner Bros. Pictures' "Speed Racer," from Warners, Silver Pictures and Village Roadshow.

All of them sound great and harken back to books, comics, and cartoons I watched or read when I was a kid. I am particularly looking forward to a new Narnia movie. I never expected to experience this kind of second childhood!