When it was first announced that Steven Spielberg wouldn’t be directing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, many were left questioning why the franchise needed to carry on at all.
After all, a massive part of the property’s legendary status was down to having one of the best to ever do it behind the camera, ensuring that replacement James Mangold was under immense pressure from the very start. Unfortunately, it may have recently crossed the Fresh threshold at long last, but Harrison Ford’s fifth and final outing is still the worst-reviewed of the quintet on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mangold wasn’t just going to sign on for the sake of helming an Indiana Jones movie, though, and he revealed to IndieWire that one of the reasons why it took so long to come together behind the scenes prior to the start of shooting was that the filmmaker wasn’t happy with the earliest versions of the script.
“There were some good ideas in it. But the biggest reason to say ‘no’ was the date. I would be jumping on a moving train. The script doesn’t show me that there’s a reason to make this movie. I had to screw my head on to the idea that I was essentially a pinch hitter for Babe Ruth. I had to understand my job was to move the batters, the men on base, and to play the game as well as I could, but not to try to rethink the whole thing. I didn’t feel like I had to play out some sort of rejection of his aesthetic. I’m a profound admirer.”
With Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny finally coming to theaters this weekend, audiences will be able to find out for themselves whether or not the screenplay is up to scratch. The early projections are underwhelming, unfortunately, but the title hero is one of the most iconic characters in history for a reason, so there’s every chance people will show up in numbers.