Seen in Central Park

Indy should move a lot faster. This boulder can follow him around corners!

source: http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/56181990997/seen-in-central-park

Finally, fortune and glory!

Some small town, Austria, 1992
Browsing the book shelf in the local paper store I discovered something I had to have: The German edition of the first Young Indiana Jones novel: Fluch der Mumie. I not only treasured the book, I also started a quest to collect all the books of the set. Easier said than done, though. Despite public knowledge the internet did already exist at that time (and I had access to it at work) but it was a year before the invention of the web browser and the WWW - a long time before the dawn of internet shopping. So I went to the paper shop every other week and thoroughly checked the shelf for new arrivals. Whenever I found a new Young Indy book, my adventurous treasure hunt was successful and I carried home my new possession.

Vienna, Austria, 1994
The impending doom of the far too early end of the TV-series threw a dark shadow on my quest. I had collected six of the novels so far but suddenly no further Young Indy books appeared on the book shelf of my home town. I had moved to Vienna by then and started to look in book stores all over the city without success. Afraid of shelf warmers the book stores ignored Indy's early adventures completely. Maybe I could have ordered the other books at that time but lacking any further information I did not know how many books there are. Without success I kept hoping I would find a new one the next time I was looking.

Vienna, Austria, 2000
By the end of the millennium it became clear to me: There was a set of 12 books - and I only had six of them. It was the darkest hour. But not all was lost: I had a new friend, the internet with its endless wonders.

Vienna, Austria, 2013
Finally, after more than two decades I have completed the collection. In the end it was a friendly search queue that I had set up years ago that saved my day. I got an email that a book store put up a used copy of the last book I needed for sale. I admit, that's a bit of an anti-climax but every quest must have an end. So, I proudly present the 12 German Young Indiana Jones novels:

Die Abenteuere der jungen Indiana Jones - The German Young Indy novels are a set of 12 hardcover books with nice glossy protection sleeves.

Happy BDay Indy!

Happy 114th Birthday Indy!

Benedict Cumberbatch fanasizes about Harrison Ford

Who would not lack words upon meeting Harrison Ford. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness) found some words but not the ones he was looking for...

Benedict Cumberbatch on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

BC: I had a fine moment with Harrison Ford at the beginning of this year ...
JF: Han Solo?
BC: Yeah.
JF: The coolest guy on earth!
BC: Completely and then topping that with Raiders of the Lost Ark as well. You know and I met the guy and I was so "OMG this is such a pleasure, I used to fantasize about you ..."

Bonus point for him for bringing up Raiders of the Lost Ark! He has to be an Indy fan.

Harrison Ford is fuckin' over it!

Looks like Harrison Ford answered Ian McKellen via t-shirt:

Hilarious.

London is calling

We did spend Valentines Day in one of my favorite places on this planet: London. Traveling around the globe is probably the best way for an average person to relive Dr. Jones' life style (just think of the dotted line on the map next time you are on an airplane). Anyway, I was doing what I like to do whenever I travel: Trying to find Indy in all the (wrong) places.

This time I actually was trying to look in the right place: Wested Leather Co., the company that made the original Raiders jacket. I got my own trusted Raiders jacket from the shop owner Peter Botwright in 2001. I am wearing it for 12 years now, it is an amazing piece. So I got the idea to get a new Last Crusade jacket as well. And maybe some fitting trousers, a shirt and the belt. Brilliant idea until we noticed that the Wested Leather Co. has been relocated to Kent. So much for not looking it up properly before going to England. Brilliant fail. Well, at least I can order my new jacket online.

But luck was on my side in the end: Taking a wrong turn while walking through London did lead us to an X that marks a spot. We did stumble over The Cinema Store, a nice little cinema memorabilia shop that happens to feature a well known face in their logo: "The Archaeologist". An excellent choice for a cinema store.

An "honest trailer" for Indy 4

A group of people named screenjunkies is making "honest trailers" for youtube. Such an "honest trailer" is a film trailer with a voice over telling honest things about the film. This is hilariously funny for really bad teen blockbusters (the Twilight honest trailer is the only thing you ever need to see from that particular franchise).

They pick the films for those honest trailer by public demand and this weeks new trailer is the honest trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Here is their announcement: Get Ready for George Lucas to ruin another legendary franchise as we join Indiana Jones on his quest to find aliens. Yeah, you read that right, aliens.

Now a little warning: I think this trailer ended up a bit to harsh and offensive. Kind of like most parodies about Indy 4 do (the Indy 4 Southpark treatment comes into my mind). Please make up your own mind about this trailer, it does not display my personal opinion.

Disney and Indy 5

It's been a couple of weeks since Lucas' deal with Disney. After the flood of pictures of Darth Vader with mouse ears washed away half of the internet, we finally see some comments on a future Indy movie surfacing. A nice writeup with references to all current "official" comments (like producer Frank Marshall's thoughts) can be found here: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/11/01/disney-lucasfilm-deal-indiana-jones/ - stuff to think about.

Empire's Indiana Jones Week

Well, the editors of the British Empire movie magazine really like Indiana Jones (and keep proofing it again and again). This time they have created their ultimate online tribute with exclusive features and interviews. Check it out while it is online:

Disney buys Lucas Film

It's a bit hard to believe at first but the Disney company just bought Lucas Film for $ 4.05 billion.

The most interesting bit of information from the press release: They already plan to do another Star Wars Trilogy (episode 7 to 9) starting 2015. Now this sound just wrong after decades of quotes from George Lucas that those episodes will never happen.

I will pose for $ 4 billion, sure. Can I have my check now, please.

For Star Wars this is the biggest disturbance in the force since Greedo shot first (c'mon he did not) -  but an even bigger question that popped up in my mind instantly: What does all this mean for the Indiana Jones franchise? Will this possibly lead into a new area of Indy films? New Disney (park) Indy rides or goods? Maybe another step onto the small screen (the quality of current tv productions is pretty good)? In this very moment we see the dawn of a new age: Everything is possible.

Indy's future is now in a mouse's hand.

Indy, smurfs & Doctor Who!

All in this years Halloween episode of The Big Bang Theory (season 6, episode 5)!

Raj Koothrappali comes up with a decent Halloween costume: “I was thinking of dressing up like Indiana Jones’ mocha skinned love child, Indian Jones”

So I grabbed this Idol of Fertility and I ran from a giant boulder right into your arms, Papa Smurf! Oh, Hello Smurfette...

Happy Halloween!

late thought: I was writing about Indy and smurfs before. I smell a conspiracy!

Finding Indy in all the wrong places ...

... again. Whenever you think you have see it all, you will get a weird email to proof you wrong. I would have never believed in the existence of something like an Indiana Jones Burlesque before I got a press release from the Gorilla Tango Theatre:

Surprisingly, this advert does neither show boobs nor a temple.

"What's That Shorty? The Indiana Jones Burlesque at GTT has been around for a whole year? Yes, you heard right, Dr. Jones - TEMPLE OF BOOBS: AN INDIANA JONES BURLESQUE celebrates its one year anniversary this Friday, October 26th! Come be a part of the funniest, silliest burlesque parody never directed by Steven Spielberg - Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory."

Thanks for the laugh and congratulations for your successful show ladies!

A Hymn to Raiders!

Unexpected Indy finding of the day: In the video to Ultravox's 1982 song "Hymn", the lead singer Midge Ure get his own Raiders moment. The best of the 80ties together: new wave synthpop and Indy ;-)

Relic Worlds

Always wondered what an Indiana Jones/SciFi crossover would look like? Wonder no longer! I was contacted by a creative writer about his project Relic Worlds - The Adventures of Lancester James.

Here is a brief introduction into the world of this 24th century adventurer:
Lancaster James is traveling the galaxy in search of lost alien civilizations.  He explores ancient ruins on distant planets to find long lost artifacts that give him clues to some of the greatest mysteries of the universe.

There is lots to find in the world setting of the Relic Worlds, including regular pulp fiction style Short Stories. If you are interested in SciFi and Indy, take a look.

Health and Safety, Dr. Jones!

Time flies by and I have not posted about Indy for a while. Time to get back with this brilliant video I found this morning in my mail:

Comedian Tom McDonnell has written and sings this little song and I have to say: Well done sir! Same to the team who did the hilarious video. Amazing how similar the place and the folks are to the office I spend half of my life in ;-)

Star Wars/Indiana Jones timeline

How about the idea of linking Star Wars to Indiana Jones? The comic "Into the Great Unknown" that links the two sagas together is old news, so what's new? Some Star Wars fans seems to have picked up the idea lately and started to create an Star Wars timeline between the galaxy far, far away and our little planet.


From Star Wars to Indiana Jones - the all-in-one timeline:
http://io9.com/5890342/a-chart-that-explains-how-long-ago-star-wars-actually-took-place

What they have done is quite simple: The comic features a Millennium Falcon crashing on earth that is then found 126 years later by Indiana Jones and Short Round. Using this fact as well as that Indy finds the Falcon after the Atlantis story and an estimation of Short Rounds age, a timeline has been created that puts the Battle of Yavin (first Death Star) to the year 1804 (earth time).

The key panels from "Into the Great Unknown" the Star Wars / Indiana Jones timeline is based upon.

Nice idea, isn't it. If only the authors would have looked a bit more into the Indy universe. Short Round "looks a bit older" and because of that they choose the year 1939 as the anchor date when the Falcon was found. Short Round is born in 1926, making him 13 in 1939. He looks older in the comic and there is no reason why the story could not have happened years later.

But in the end this is just a mind game. In the canon core part of the Star Wars universe Han and Chewbacca never vanish and "Into the Great Unknown" is just a little entertaining one-shot comic.

Indiana Jones got psyched!

Indy got psyched - and this time not by our favorite Russian psych-"You are a hard man to read Dr. Jones."-Spalko! The latest episode of the private detective but fake-psychic tv-series "Psych" (season 6 episode 10) was titeled "Indiana Shawn and the Temple of the Kinda Crappy, Rusty Old Dagger".

Now the title is already a blunt giveaway to expect an Indy themed hour of goofy Psych fun - and that's what you get. To get into the mood there is John Rhys-Davis as the curator who wants some stole art pieces back, Shawn and Gus going on treasure hunt, of course traveling by map, Shawn dressing up as a very serious Indy, mad whip action and lots of Indiana Jones movie quotes ("Throw me the whip!").

John Rhys-Davies, Shawn (James Roday) dressed in Indy gear and trying to use a whip

For Indy fans and Psych fans this is a must-see and a fun episode to watch but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in the whole package. This could have been executed better and pretty please: If you let some character use movie quotes, you shall never ever have another character talk about the movie source that just got quoted. Spelling it out for those who do not get a reference is killing the whole idea.

The Cairo Swordsman shoots first...

...not! Indy will finally be available in high definition on Blu-ray later in 2012. A trailer for the set of four films + bonus material is available now.

Thankfully the trailer does include the Cairo Swordman scene from Raiders as we all remember it. After the Greedo-shoots-first disaster in Star Wars, I like the reassurement.

Harrison Ford plays Uncharted 3

Is there be a better way to promote the upcoming third Uncharted game for the PS3 than to let Indiana Jones himself play the adventure game? I guess not. The hard working marketing department from Naughty Dog, the game company responsible for the award winning Uncharted game series, pulled of the marketing hat-trick and got Harrison Ford for their Japanese Uncharted commercial.

The 30 second Uncharted 3 commercial with Harrison Ford

There is even a Making Off and additional footage from behind the scenes available. This extra material is really fun because you can see Harrison play the real game and just react to the amazing action he sees. His reactions remind me a lot of myself when I got Uncharted 2 last year and how I was blown away by the intensity of how this games kicks in right from the start. Now my wish for Xmas is: Let someone responsible from Lucasfilm Games see this to make them finally understand Uncharted + Indy = win.

The Making of the Uncharted 3 commercial

Behind the scenes: Harrison Ford playing Uncharted 3 (you see lots of in game scenes!)

M&M Jones

I am still amazed when I find some new Indy merchandise that I have never heard of and that I have never imagined. My latest discovery in the Indyverse: M&M's go well with Indiana Jones.

Time for a tea or a coffee? There's an M&M Indiana Jones mug available with a quite nice comic design of Red as Indy.

M&M's Indiana Jones mug with Red Jones

Or how about the 1:24 diecast version of an M&M's/Indiana Jones styled Nascar?

1:24 diecast M&M's/Indiana Jones Nascar

1:24 diecast M&M's/Indiana Jones Nascar box

If adventure needs a snack, M&M's might be a good idea.