Stepping into Spielberg's shoes, James Mangold takes Indiana Jones on one last adventure
CTV
When the lights came up after a screening on the Walt Disney lot of 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,' Steven Spielberg was incredulous. 'Damn!' he said. 'I thought I was the only one who knew how to make one of these!'
When the lights came up after a screening on the Walt Disney lot of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," Steven Spielberg was incredulous.
"Damn!" he said. "I thought I was the only one who knew how to make one of these!"
"Dial of Destiny," which premiered Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival, is the first Indiana Jones film without Spielberg behind the camera. After years of development, Spielberg and Lucasfilm decided to pass the reigns to James Mangold, the "Ford vs. Ferrari" filmmaker, who was 18 years old when he saw "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in a Hudson Valley theatre on opening day in 1981.
"When I got over my initial hesitation of just: holy s--- this is a big challenge to step into these very big shoes that Steven Spielberg is leaving, the opportunity, on a very selfish level, to collaborate and learn and have the tools and the resources to play on this level was hard to resist," Mangold said.
Mangold was being tasked with not only restoring the lustre of one of the most beloved film series after a disappointing fourth film in 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull," but giving Harrison Ford a poignant send-off in his last performance as the character.
While no one is saying "Dial of Destiny" matches "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the consensus in Cannes was that it betters "Crystal Skull" by a wide margin. Mangold certainly has Ford's endorsement.
"He more than filled the shoes," Ford told reporters. "He made, for me, a beautiful movie."
