Speaking about his time working on the 5th Indiana Jones film, screenwriter David Koepp chatted about why he decided to step back after working on another tough journey bringing together an Indy script.
“I tried a couple different versions with Steven and they all had some good stuff about them and they all had some stuff that didn’t work, which happens,” he says. “But it was just very hard to have everybody come together and have all the elements — Steven, Harrison (Ford), the script and Disney — come together at once. And it didn’t.”
And Koepp touched on why now was the right time to step away.
“When James Mangold came in and Steven stepped out, that was a pretty logical breaking point,” Koepp says. “It’s a gracious time to step out the door because I think the last thing a new director wants is the old director’s writer. I mean, that’s a drag. The last thing you need is some guy sitting around with his arms folded saying, ‘Well, the way Steven would have done it is…’ I had one nice friendly conversation with him and then I’m sure he wanted to be able to move on anyway. Everybody was pretty polite, I thought.”
It was interesting that Koepp mentioned Disney, with Paramount also having some ownership over the Indiana Jones series. One to watch.
