One of the annoying things about the final two Indiana Jones movies was that the franchise missed its chance to have more stories while Harrison Ford was still in his prime. Instead, there were 19 years between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, followed by another 15 years until Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. However, Dial of Destiny is offering fans one last chance to spend time with young Indiana Jones during the film’s extended opening sequence.
During a new interview with Total Film, Mangold credited Ford for being unusually spry for his age (he was 79 when the movie was filmed). But the rest of the credit for young Indy goes to the special effects that created a convincing illusion.
“I just shot [Ford], and he just pretended that he was 35,” said Mangold. “But the technology involved is a whole other thing… We had hundreds of hours of footage of him in close-ups, in mediums, in [wide shots], in every kind of lighting, night and day. I could shoot Harrison on a Monday as, you know, a 79-year-old playing a 35- year-old, and I could see dailies by Wednesday with his head already replaced.”
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“It was an incredible technology, and, in many ways, I just didn’t think about it,” continued Mangold. “I just focused on shooting what’s [approximately] a 25-minute opening extravaganza that was my chance to just let it rip. The goal was to give the audience a full-bodied taste of what they missed so much. Because then when the movie lands in 1969, they’re going to have to make an adjustment to what it is now, which is different from what it was.”
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will hit theaters on June 30.
Are you excited to see young Indiana Jones in the opening sequence of Dial of Destiny? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: The Complete Making of Indiana Jones: The Definitive Story Behind All Four Films
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