The Making of Indy: Part 1

Earlier in the summer, as I reported in this post, Little Calvin and I watched the 4th Indiana Jones film. As the credits finished rolling, he looked at me with a smile on his face and said "Dad.. we HAVE to make our own Indiana Jones movie this summer!!!" I pondered this comment for a second and then replied "Yeah.. I think you are right.. that could be fun." And thus, regardless of what Lucasfilm and Speilberg decide to do with the franchise, we are making our own Indiana Jones 5.

Sure.. it might be difficult to explain why Indiana is suddenly 8 years old, why his nemesis, is 11, and where this fits in the whole story, but.. too bad. We are having fun with this and that's what counts for our little family.. ok.. boys.. project. (The girls just roll their eyes, thinking we've gone mad, and there may be some truth to that).

First things first, we need a script, and a MacGuffin (a word to describe the object that Indy seeks) and in this case we decided to return to the series roots with an object with scriptural origins that could (in a fictional sense) have supernatural powers and whose location is still unknown. I hit the scriptures to see what I could find. and eventually found the sword of Laban. Why? We know that it was used in Jerusalem in 600 B.C... We know that it traveled to this side of the world and ended up in South America. We know it was passed down from generation to generation as a symbol of righteousness. We know Mormon had it when he fought his battle before handing it off to Moroni. Now it gets fuzzy. Some reports claim that the sword stayed in the Hill Cumorah, as in the cave where Mormon kept all the records. Some say that Moroni carried it with him ultimately burying it with the plates in up-state New York (in a place ALSO called the Hill Cumorah). But reports differ... Meaning we have plenty of room to fictionally speculate where it could be located at the present time,, and what could happen if some evil, greedy individual were to happen to find it and attempt to remove it from it's current location.

So let's put this into "Indy Speak". Que the "Announcer Voice"

"History tells of a sword.. once used to behead a king.. then passed on to leaders throughout South American History as a symbol of goodness. Legend says the sword is buried deep in a hidden hill, surrounded by gold, claiming that only those who are deemed worthy may possess it, and harness its power"

Sounds pretty Indiana Jonesish if you ask me.. And so "Indiana Jones and the Sword of Cumorah" was born as you can see with the following "teaser posters" to announce the project:

Now to be fair, Little Calvin is very excited about our progress and asked me if I could give him the scoop on this one and our experiences as the cameras started to roll. So, for the full story (and far less wordy than me) and to see photos of our progress, you can visit his blog at http://www.tannersawesomeblog.blogspot.com