Oscar-nominated producer Frank Marshall has recently spoken with both Coming Soon and Empire about the projects he has on the horizon. The Indiana Jones, Bourne and Sixth Sense producer has been in the business for over 30 years and is still going strong today, continually adding to a (mostly) solid resume.
The biggest area of interest on Marshall’s to-do list is the next Indiana Jones installment (which Shia LaBeouf recently said Steven Spielberg had “cracked the story,” for); in speaking with Empire about Indiana Jones 5, Marshall didn’t go so far as to say the movie has officially been greenlit, but says that the project could get to the concept/script development stage soon:
“It’s really about the script… Once we see that, we’ll see. We’re not going to wait another 20 years. We’d all love to make another one. I’m anxious to hear the idea!.. We [all] had a great time making the last one and, as Harrison [Ford] said, we need to make this one soon. We’re not getting any younger. [But] until there’s a script, nothing’s definite. I haven’t heard the idea.”
Other than Indy 5, Marshall has plenty on his plate for the next couple of years. M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender is currently filming, so he’s busy handling that, but at the same time he has another big franchise project on the horizon: a fourth Jason Bourne movie. Marshall says he would like to get shooting going on Bourne 4 next year, but there’s a lot that needs to be put into place before that can happen:
“We’d like to shoot [Bourne 4] next year… It’s trying to get everybody’s schedules in the right place and getting the script right. We’ve done pretty well with these scripts that are pretty loosely put together, but I’d like the script to be really solid this time before we go forward. We’re spending a lot of time on this story.”
Jason Bourne himself, Matt Damon, was once considered to possibly play Lance Armstrong in the recently announced biopic, but Damon’s age is the factor that probably won’t deliver him the role. Said Marshall: “The book really only takes Lance up to the first tour, so he’s only 21, and as much as Matt looks young, I’m not sure that he’s going to be able to do it.”
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The NeverEnding Story remake was announced earlier this year, with Marshall’s name attached as producer (along with producing partner Kathleen Kennedy). Marshall has now updated the status of that project:
“We love the book and we’ve always thought there was an opportunity (because) there were a lot of elements in the book that weren’t in the movie. It’s another one where we’re still working on the rights and it’s a huge thing to get it. Once we get it, we’ll bring on a writer, but that’s kind of off in the distance. But it’s a great story.”
Other projects Marshall spoke about was the upcoming HBO Films’ The Special Relationship, starring Michael Sheen and Dennis Quaid as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton respectively; a proposed TV mini-series based on the Stephen King-Peter Straub novel, Talisman; a film based on a New York article about an art historian-turned-football coach who died of cancer called The Last of the Metrozoids; and a film about an all-immigrant soccer team called Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town.
Marshall also talked about the much anticipated Jurassic Park IV, and said that he doesn’t see the recent critical and financial failure of Land of the Lost hindering the fourth movie – he says they currently don’t have a story for it yet.
For me, quite obviously the big two projects of interest are the fifth Indiana Jones and the fourth Bourne movie. I’m still interested in Marshall’s other projects – particularly Jurassic Park IV and The Special Relationship – but seeing more of the adventures of Indy and the city-hopping of Jason Bourne is what I want most.
If and when they make an Indy 5, I really hope they can do a better job than they did with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. At the end of the day I still enjoyed myself with that movie, but it was not up to scratch with the first three, and certainly not as good as the almost two-decade wait demanded. As Empire points out, Harrison Ford will be celebrating his 67th birthday next month, so if they’re going ahead with the fifth Indy installment with Ford returning in the lead role, they really need to hurry it up.
At first I wasn’t entirely on-board with a fourth Bourne movie, simply because the third was such a perfect rounding off of the character’s story arc. But as time has marched on and the doors have slowly been opened on development of the project, I find myself really anticipating it. I’m not exactly sure where they can go with the character at this point, but if they get the same people on-board again (Damon and Supremacy/Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass in particular) I’m sure they can make it just as good as the others.
What do you think about Indiana Jones 5 gearing up? Which of Frank Marshall’s other projects are you most interested in?
Sources: ComingSoon and Empire
