Ever since it was announced that the Indiana Jones film franchise was going to continue, the 5th movie in the series has been greatly anticipated. For that reason, there have been a lot of rumors and headlines about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Years before the excitement surrounding the fifth film started to ramp up, there was a lot of anticipation for the movie that proceeded it. Unfortunately, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has a lot of detractors and even Shia LaBeouf has blamed himself for the movie not working.
Since so many people believe that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull went awry, it is interesting to look at how the film could have been different. A perfect example of that is the original plan was for the movie to mainly feature practical effects. If they stuck to that plan, things easily could have turned out better.
As it turns out, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull also could have been different if M. Night Shyamalan was allowed to script the movie as almost happened. With that in mind, it begs an obvious question, why wasn't Shyamalan involved in the film?
How M. Night Shyamalan Almost Wrote Indiana Jones 4
At this point in M. Night Shyamalan's career, the famous writer and director has a pretty mixed reputation. Most recently, Shyamalan has made several movies that performed very well at the box office including The Visit, Split, and Old. Of course, that is to say nothing about the classic movies that Shyamalan also helmed.
That said, there is no denying that Shyamalan has made some movies that were very poorly received. The most obvious examples of Shyamalan's worst-received movies include Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth.
Looking back at Shyamalan's career as a whole, it is very clear that he has a lot to be very proud of. After all, Shyamalan has made several films that moviegoers adore, and it is amazing that he has found enough success to make his vision for so many films come true.
That said, it is fascinating to look back at a time when Shyamalan's reputation was purer since everyone saw him as the golden boy. During that time in Shyamalan's career, after the release of The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan was offered the opportunity of a lifetime.
Following the mammoth success that The Sixth Sense enjoyed, Shyamalan was approached about writing the script for a fourth film in the Indiana Jones franchise.
In 2021, a writer for Collider named Steve Weintraub got the chance to interview Shyamalan while the writer and director was promoting his movie Old. During that interview, Weintraub took the opportunity to ask Shyamalan about his short-lived involvement in the Indiana Jones franchise.
Based on what Shyamalan said in 2021, he had a very different take on the Indiana Jones franchise and while things didn't work out, he was overjoyed to get to pitch his idea to Steven Spielberg.
"Oh, my God. I mean, it was fantastic. Obviously, Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite movie of all time, and so this was a dream, to be asked as a kid to go see a movie in a movie theater and then later to be asked by that person to write one of those in the future."
"I could faint at that moment. It was amazing. I do have my notebooks; I still have those with all my ideas for that movie." Shyamalan continued, "I did have a take. I talked to everybody involved and it was so nascent at that time, that movie.
"Everyone hadn't gotten into a room yet. They were bouncing ideas off of me. So everyone had different ideas of what to do." Shyamalan continued, "When you say that, I have in my head, it's a green notebook, and I had this idea. It was a darker idea."
Later in that same Collider interview, Shyamalan said that he thought his idea for Indiana Jones 4 through enough that he knew what the MacGuffin for the film would have been.
Given that Shyamalan's career was on fire when he got to pitch his idea for an Indiana Jones movie, it is somewhat surprising that things didn't work out. With that in mind, fans have been left wondering why Shyamalan never got to see his vision for an Indiana Jones movie through.
As it turns out, Shyamalan's Collider interview wasn't the first time he has spoken about his Indiana Jones involvement. Back in 2002, Shyamalan was interviewed by SciFi.com and during the resulting conversation, he revealed his take on why things didn't work out at that time.
"I was asked, but it didn't work out ... with everybody [George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford]. It was a tricky, tricky thing to get four of us together at the same time on the same page. ... It was just a tricky time. I didn't think it was the right thing for me to do."
"I mean it was, that's the movie that above everything I think has affected me." Shyamalan continued, "Raiders [of the Lost Ark] was kind of, like, hey, fulfillment of a childhood fantasy to kind of say, "God, I'll do that one," and ... in a way, ... an amazing circle would have come. But it didn't work out. ... I sat with each of them. Separately."
Who Wrote Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull?
Once it became clear that M. Night Shyamalan wasn't meant to have a role in writing the fourth Indiana Jones movie, everyone involved in the film moved on to work with other writers. In the end, George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson worked on crafting the story for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
On top of his work on the Indiana Jones franchise, Nathanson also scripted movies like Rush Hour 2, Rush Hour 3, Catch Me If You Can, and 2019's The Lion King.
The person who actually wrote the script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is David Koepp. Before working on that film, Koepp also worked on the scripts for Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Koepp's other most notable credits include working on the scripts for Mission: Impossible, Panic Room, and Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie.
