Emotional Rollercoaster: Disney Mulls Rebooting Indiana Jones… With Chris Pratt

Please. pic.twitter.com/IgvEb4U2aU

— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) August 7, 2014

According to Deadline, Disney is continuing its hegemonic control over all genre media properties by considering rebooting the Indiana Jones franchise with Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt in the lead role.

Writing for the site, Mike Fleming says:

Now, Disney has just started to turn its attention to reviving the Indiana Jones franchise after buying the rights from Paramount in 2013. I’m cautioned that while things are very early, I hear the studio has set its sights on Chris Pratt as the swashbuckling archaeologist they hope to build the new franchise around, the role made famous by Harrison Ford in Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Now, I’m not gonna poop all over Carolyn’s vision board. I also find the above photoshop job to be very compelling, both as a fan of the franchise and a person with a libido. But man was I ever burned bad by Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. It’s true that the current movie market is very much into pulp sensibilities and the genres that we have derived from those sorts of stories. But what pulp adventure has, that the current movie market seems to in large part to not want to touch with a ten foot pole, is a sense of genuine excitement about the absurdity and bombast of its own genre.

Part of the giant splash of Guardians of the Galaxy (and Pacific Rim) was the fact that it was an adventure movie about friendship that acknowledged not only that the mainstay themes of animated kids films are relevant and emotionally resonant to adults, but that genre film doesn’t need to justify its existence by subtextually examining government overreach into personal privacy, wealth inequality, or PTSD. It can, and it can do it well, but it also stands as a worthy endeavor on its own. I mean, David Goyer’s in charge of the whole DC Cinematic Universe, and he honestly doesn’t even seem to like superheroes that much.

I guess what I am trying to say is that while Indiana Jones by its very nature and genre origins is a setting ready for expansion and additions, if it somebody manages to pull off a sequel or reboot that actually feels like the same franchise in this day and age, it’ll be an unusual triumph for Hollywood, not the current business as usual.

But yes, I’d love to see Chris Pratt in the traditional fedora and leather purse, I mean, look at him. And then they should do a crossover with Hellboy.

(via Deadline)

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