An Indiana Jones movie without Steven Spielberg sounds like an odd thing, doesn’t it? Some people have feared that the upcoming Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny – directed not by Spielberg but by James Mangold – will be like going to see the Sugababes after Mutya left, or the weird later seasons of The West Wing when Aaron Sorkin wasn’t around anymore. Indy and Spielberg; Spielberg and Indy. They’re tied together, like an estranged father and son in a Nazi castle they’ve accidentally set on fire. There is, however, one person who’s not fearing that at all: Steven Spielberg. Speaking at a Time magazine event to celebrate the magazine’s centenary, Spielberg revealed that he’d just seen Dial Of Destiny in the company of its director, and loved what its new custodian had done with it.
Speaking out about seeing the film, he was full of praise. “I just had that experience two nights ago. Bob Iger had a screening for a lot of the Disney executives and I came to the screening along with James Mangold, the director. Everybody loved the movie,” he says. “It’s really, really a good Indiana Jones film. I’m really proud of what Jim has done with it.” It sounds like the Logan director has done a top job of picking up one of the most iconic film series of all time. “When the lights came up, I just stood up and turned to the group and said, ‘Damn! I thought I was the only one who knew how to make one of these’,” says Spielberg.
Aww. Details of exactly what it was that made it really, really good (and what exactly a Dial Of Destiny is) are closely guarded, but we know that Harrison Ford intends this to be his final outing as the whip-cracking archaeologist. He’ll be joined by Indy newcomers Phoebe Waller-Bridge as his goddaughter Helena, Mads Mikkelsen as rocket scientist and obligatory Nazi Jürgen Voller and Antonio Banderas as boat captain and old buddy Renaldo. John Rhys-Davies will be back as his good mate Sallah too. We’ll know more when Indy swings back into action on 30 June.