'Indiana Jones 5' is a yet untitled sequel to 2008's 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'. Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford reunite for the fifth installment in the series, with David Koepp returning to pen the new screenplay. News of Koepp's enlistment caused controversy among long-time fans of the series with some saying that his involvement will turn the new film into a disaster.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Koepp has been enlisted to pen the new screenplay for the fifth installment in the highly popular action-adventure franchise created by George Lucas. Koepp was the writer for the flop 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull', which starred franchise mainstay Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Shia LaBeouf as his fictional son Mutt Williams. The fourth film, released in May 2008, was a financial success but received mixed reviews from critics.
Fans of the long-running series criticized 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' and voiced out their concern over Koepp's return for the fifth film. According to Hit Fix, Twitter exploded with negative reactions over the news with some fans saying that they were dreading the upcoming sequel.
Users such as @StevenMSchmidt1 wrote, "Spielberg chose David Koepp who wrote the God-awful Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to write the new Indiana Jones movie. #HeChosePoorly". Another user, @ABieseAPP, wrote, "Crystal Skull screenwriter David Koepp announced as writer of #IndianaJones 5. Yeah, this is gonna be terrible."
Although the fourth film was nominated for Best Action Movie at the 2009 Critics' Choice Awards and Best Science Fiction Film at the Saturn Awards, it also won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. LaBeaouf himself also publicly criticized the film in previous interviews saying that "the movie could have been updated".
On a more optimistic note, Spielberg returns to helm the film and reunites with Ford who will continue to play the iconic titular character. No other details of the new plot have been announced at this time.
According to IGN, Spielberg has been collaborating with Koepp for several of his projects in the past including the original 1993 release of 'Jurassic Park', its 1997 sequel 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park' as well as the 2005 science-fiction disaster film 'War of the Worlds'. Despite Koepp's work in 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull', he is best known as the fifth most successful screenwriter in the history of cinema in terms of U.S. box office earnings.
'Indiana Jones 5' is a planned sequel to 2008's 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' starring Harrison Ford in the lead role. Steven Spielberg returns to direct the film with David Koepp penning the script. It is scheduled to be released on July 19, 2019 in the United States.
