Disney Makes Distribution Deal For Lucasfilm Franchise Indiana Jones

When Disney acquired Lucasfilm last year, the property on most peoples’ minds was Star Wars. But Indiana Jones was also part and parcel of that deal, a few things just needed to be worked out first. And now they have. And now we have to discuss a possible new Indiana Jones film.

While Disney earned production rights when they bought Lucasfilm, Paramount Pictures had held onto the distribution rights for the Indiana Jones films. Here’s what the new deal means according to Variety:

Under the arrangement, Disney gains distribution and marketing rights to future films, in addition to retaining the ownership rights it secured when it acquired Lucasfilm.

Paramount will continue to be responsible for distribution of the first four films in the franchise and will receive a financial participation on any future films that are produced and released.

I think it’s pretty clear now, Disney will get to work on another Indiana Jones film. They could have done so before, of course, but that would have meant Paramount had control over any DVD or other distribution of the new film(s).

We’ve been tentatively hearing Indiana Jones 5 is still happening for a while now. Harrison Ford seems to be down, as long as he can take it easy. He said it’s perfectly plausible for Indy to do another film where “he doesn’t necessarily have to kick as much ass.”  While many fans were offended by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it did make $786,636,033 worldwide, so Disney has a rather compelling reason to continue.

Though at this point we have no idea how they’ll proceed. Graeme McMillan of The Hollywood Reporter mentioned the dreaded reboot option in a recent opinion piece:

I’d be surprised if that’s not been considered by this point, if only for the prospect of allowing stories to be told with a young(ish) Indy and some Nazi bad guys again. Bring Nathan Fillion in as a new Indiana, with Stephen Fry as a replacement for Denholm Elliott‘s Marcus Brody, and start the whole thing over again. But even that seems “wrong,” somehow — a move too cynical for original movies’ spirit, in some strange, inexplicable way. It spoils the purity of intent, if that’s the correct term for a series of movies that were close to pastiche to begin with.

Of course that’s never stopped Hollywood before. What do you think about the whole thing?

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Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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