‘Finding the right script’ held up production of the third
Indiana Jones sequel for years.
Ford, Lucas, and Speilberg had to agree on a screenplay.
For instance, Speilberg’s favorite script was by Frank Darabont,
calling it the best since Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Lucas
for whatever reason stopped that movie’s production from
gearing up.
Lucas had demurred on several scripts that both Ford and
Speilberg approved. Speilberg said “there was a point when I
thought that George and I would never agree on a story.”
Lucas’s main contribution was the plot element of ‘crystal skulls.’
Ford didn’t like Lucas’s ‘crystal skulls’ plot device, but it’s still
in the movie in theaters now, from a screenplay by David
Koepp (Spider-man, Mission: Impossible, War of the Worlds,)
based on a story by both Lucas and Jeff Nathanson…
who wrote ‘Rush Hour’ 2 and 3, and co-wrote
‘Speed 2: Cruise Control.’ Crystal Skull story draft co-writer
Nathanson “is currently developing a Milli Vanilli biopic for
Universal Pictures.”
He also wrote “Catch Me if you Can” and “The Terminal.”

Deadbolt.com reviewed the writing and authenticity
of several Indiana Jones sequel scripts.
Two of the best overall were from Jeb Stuart and
Frank Darabont.
Jeb Stuart, who wrote Die Hard and the Fugitive, had
parts of his ‘INDIANA JONES AND THE SAUCER MEN FROM MARS’
reused by Koepp… even the part about
surviving an atomic bomb in a refrigerator.
Stuart and others are not credited as contributing
‘Crystal Skull’ screenwriters.
see::http://www.thedeadbolt. com/features/indy4scripts2_feature.php
Stuart’s script had trilogy characters return for a wedding,
but Crystal Skull only gives us Karen Allen’s winning performance.
Connery saw the Henry Jones Sr. parts of the script and declined,
Rhys-Davies wanted too much pay. (Denholm Elliot died of
an illness in 1992.)

Frank Darabont wrote ‘The Shawshank Redemption’,
‘The Green Mile’, and several episodes of the
‘Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.’
Darabont’s script has so far been unreleased. It is discussed at::
http://www.thedeadbolt.com/features/indy4scripts3_feature.php
You can also google Speilberg’s comments about Darabont’s script.

True::
Lucas wanted the first sequel to ‘Raiders’ to take place in a
haunted Scottish castle.

Lucas on ‘Crystal Skull’… ” we weren’t going to have F-14’s
flying under freeways, and we were going to do it very
realistically with real stunts and with a real story about
real people.”
“Obviously, when you get new technology, like you get
sound or you get color, or digital effects, y’know,
they get misused. That’s human nature…”
Speilberg on ‘Crystal Skull’… “there’s not inspiration when
a cast and a director walk onto a blue screen stage where
everything’s blue. Very, very difficult to understand
what’s going on…”

Moviegoers are overwhelmingly ‘thumbs-up’ on “Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, but it could
have been even better.