“Mike’s got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan. He speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom. He’ll blend in. Disappear. You’ll never see him again.”

The other night, Justine and I watched the fantastic Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (for the nerds amongst the crowd, it was actually Justine’s decision).

Fast forward to a day or two later, and I was browsing IMDB (I forget why) when one of the people-related entries I was viewing had a credit for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull“.

Huh?

Thinking it must have been a documentary, or video game, or cartoon series, or similar I clicked and viewed the entry. Nope, it’s a fully-fledged, brand-spanking-new Indiana Jones movie! Coming in May!

Since The Last Crusade came out in 1989 (yes, it was really that long ago), there have been numerous reports of a new Indy movie coming. One I remember reading in the mid 90s (possibly 1996 or 1997) was supposedly written by Jeffrey Boam, who wrote the screenplay for The Last Crusade. His script surrounded Indy’s “son” that he’d never met as well as Marion (from Raiders). The group ended up tracking down Noah’s Ark somewhere, I forget where.

A few years later and there were many reports of the movie being back in production resurfaced. A couple more after that and M. Night Shyamalan was attached and writing a script. Later, Frank Darabont — who wrote a number of Young Indiana Jones episodes — had written a supposedly fantastic script that was also rejected.

Given all these false starts, I ignored the latest report I heard on the radio a year or two ago. Obviously this one was finally the real deal.

Not much is known about the story, but apparently there is a “son” character and the actress who played Marion has returned so it seems they’ve used some bits and pieces from lots of scripts for the final version. Apparently the final version was heavily “influenced” by the Darabont script. It’s also set in the late 50s and has the Russians as the villians, instead of the Germans.

Given the title, it’s obviously related to those crystal skulls which supposedly have magical powers. A quick Google later and it seems that some people believe that when “the” 13 crystal skulls are brought together a new era is ushered in for man, or something equally as outlandish. I expect that is the most likely scenario for the film. Obviously with some sort of madman in charge.

I can’t believe this movie has managed to keep itself hidden from me until now!

Day Forty-One
Paris
17 September 2007 23:16

A Metro to Chatelet train station, followed by 10 minutes of walking through te station (not an uncommon occurrence in the UK and Europe), followed by another 30 minute train ride this morning lead us to Marne-la-Vallèe station and to our destination, Disneyland.

We’d arrived about 20 minutes before the park was supposed to open, but it was already open and we were greeted by people playing music.

Expecting it to be as busy as everyone tells you, we had a list of the rides we wanted to do so set off into “Discoveryland”.  I deviated immediately from the itinerary by going on Space Mountain as there were no visible lines.  There was a line inside and so I wanted around 5 minutes.  After being “shot” out of a cannon, most of the coaster is inside in almost total darkness, save projections of space on the walls.  360° loops in pitch black are quite interesting.

The next destination was “Star Tours”, a Star Wars motion simulator which had a 10 minute wait.  Judging from the massive queues that were blocked off, it could have been worse.  Inside, there are 6 simulators but only one was running.  The ride is good for it’s type but that’s not saying a lot.

Justine’s all-time favourite ride, the “Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups” were next and so we went for a spin.  No lines there either.

Next was “It’s a Small World”, which is saccharine sweet and totally over the top.  The song sticks in your head though.  Justine wouldn’t drink the water.

Leaving “Fantasyland” and entering “Adventureland”, I went on the “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril” ride which is a mine car type ride with a small loop.  Still no lines.

Given that we anticipated long lines and had a very short list of “must haves”, and it was only 11:30, we decided to go and see a lot more rides.

“Adventure Isle” was nearby so we explored the pirate caves and jumped on the suspension bridge before riding “Pirates of the Caribbean” which was just like “It’s a Small World” but with more water and pirates.  And less cute.

Moving to “Frontierland”, we had our first encounter with the Fast Pass.  I grabbed a pass and while we waited had some food.  I had chili; Justine had chips.  The pass was for “Big Thunder Mountain” and was as fast as advertised.  In fact, I eliminated the 30 minute wait altogether and got on the first ride once I managed to get there.  Not a bad ride but not as thrilling as the other big two.

We rode the “Phantom Manor” and then the paddle steamer which is just on rails so not as authentic as advertised but still nice.  A parade popped up in the middle of the park so we watched it pass by before going to watch a 3D show, “Honey I Shrunk the Audience”.  A bit dated but the 3D effect is still good — adults and kids alike were ducking — and featured Rick Moranis and Eric Idle.

Another ride, this time on the steam train, took us around most of the park; we walked through a replica of Jules Verne’s Nautilus which was detailed but not exciting.

Next, we waited in line for 20 minutes to go on the “Buzz Lightyear” ride; it’s a seated ride where you shoot aliens.  Justine somehow beat me with a higher score.

The main parade started as it began to rain but we watched what we could through the huge crowd anyway.  The parade must have run for at least half an hour.

Last ride we bothered with was the “Snow White” one which was pretty tame.  We decided to ride the Indiana Jones (me) ride, the tea cups (us) and Space Mountain (me) again before we did a lot of shopping and watched the park’s closing show.

We left the park weighed down with souvenirs, wallets a lot lighter.  As all the nearby eateries were very pricey we sadly opted for an extremely busy McDonalds.  With tired feet we caught the two trains back home.

At work, to avoid forgetting things, I have started keeping a small notepad with me at all times. This notepad contains notes I make about things, “to do” stuff and anything else I might need to remember in the course of my work week.

There are two major benefits to this. The first is that I find I am forgetting to do a lot fewer things for people than I would normally. Also, when people ask me if I’ve done something, the notes have a date next to them so I can advise people when it’s been done (and I find that often, I end up waiting more for them to get back to me than them waiting for me ;).

The second benefit is that I don’t have to remember as much “work stuff” when I go home at night. This means that when I go home, I don’t have to think about work too much, helping me enjoy my time off more.

Now, to the reason for this post. I have started calling the notepad my “Grail Diary”. Obviously it doesn’t have any clues to the Holy Grail (perhaps it does, but I can’t see them) but it does contain “every clue he ever followed” as well as “every discovery he made” and it’s even “his whole [work] life”. Of course, “I wrote [things] down in my Diary so that I wouldn’t have to remember [them]”

I pilfered the quotes from the Last Crusade screenplay.