Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he is somewhere in the Peruvian jungle in 1936, running a booby-trapped gauntlet (complete with an over-sized rolling boulder) to fetch a solid-gold idol. He loses this artifact to his chief rival, a French archeologist named Belloq (Paul Freeman), who then prepares to kill our hero. In the first of many serial-like escapes, Indy eludes Belloq by hopping into a convenient plane. So, then: is Indiana Jones afraid of anything? Yes, snakes. The next time we see Jones, he’s a soft-spoken, bespectacled professor. He is then summoned from his ivy-covered environs by Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) to find the long-lost Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis, it seems, are already searching for the Ark, which the mystical-minded Hitler hopes to use to make his stormtroopers invincible. But to find the Ark, Indy must first secure a medallion kept under the protection of Indy’s old friend Abner Ravenwood, whose daughter, Marion (Karen Allen), evidently has a history with Jones. Whatever their personal differences, Indy and Marion become partners in one action-packed adventure after another, ranging from wandering the snake pits of the Well of Souls to surviving the pyrotechnic unearthing of the sacred Ark. A joint project of Hollywood prodigies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, with a script co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and Philip Kaufman, among others, Raiders of the Lost Ark is not so much a movie as a 115-minute thrill ride. Costing 22 million dollars (nearly three times the original estimate), Raiders of the Lost Ark reaped 200 million dollars during its first run. It was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1985) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as a short-lived TV-series prequel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The first image from Ben Stiller’s latest project ‘Tropic Thunder’ has been released. The first shot can be viewed here .You’ll see a recognisable Stiller geared up but don’t assume this is an army movie. Like his last directorial effort ‘Zoolander’, this one focuses on another group from the entertainment world, cousins to Zoolander’s models, it’s the actor. The film follows a group “of self-indulgent stars cast in the modern equivalent of Apocalypse Now.” However, the director (Steve Coogan) and writer (Nick Nolte) get fed up with them and ship them off to the jungle to fend for themselves.
If you’ve clicked on the image you’ll have recognised Stiller by now and you may have even figured out who the beef-cake peroxide solider is in the background (no it’s not James Marsters, it’s Jack Black). Chances are you won’t guess who is in the middle. It’s our very own Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr. Downey plays an Oscar-winning actor who is cast in a role that was originally written for a black man. Instead of some re-writing, the actor decides to dye his skin.
The film has an expected release of August, 2008 with plans for a trailer to be released on the web March 17.