Steven Spielberg's reach is far inside Hollywood. He's the most popular filmmaker ever, and his movies inspired lots of filmmakers to start their careers. One of the most prominent is M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan has built a career working in a similar vein as Spielberg, focusing on genre movies that take the audience on a ride. Given all that overlap, it's a wonder these two filmmakers haven't worked together.
Well, in a recent interview with Collider, Shyamalan talked about how he wanted to work on the Indiana Jones franchise. It was before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out, and Shyamalan actually sat down with Spielberg to pitch.
He had "a darker idea" for where the franchise should go, though it never progressed beyond early discussions.
Credit: Paramount Pictures
According to the interview, Shyamalan never really fleshed out his pitch for the producers, and maybe that's a good thing. I'd love to see what kind of dark explorer movie he could do outside of the burden of carrying the franchise, though it would have been cool to see what he could have added to the character.
The next Indiana Jones installment comes from James Mangold and is currently shooting now, with the movie planned for release on July 29, 2022. Harrison Ford is reprising his role as the adventurer alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, and Thomas Kretschmann.
Would you have been excited to see Shyamalan's version of this movie? Let us know in the comments.
