As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact film and television productions around the world, the long-planned fifth Indiana Jones film continues to move forward with pre-production.
Due to the global health crisis, the release date for the film has been pushed back a full year -- to July 2022 -- and longtime producer Frank Marshall provided an update on pre-production. Marshall confirmed that James Mangold has indeed signed on to direct the project, with Steven Spielberg remaining closely attached as a producer. Marshall reflected on how the pandemic will likely affect the scripting and production as the project moves forward.
"The number one thing, obviously, is the safety of everybody -- the cast, the crew, and all of us. So, we’re looking at the guidelines that are coming, slowly, from the health experts and the studios and the different parts of the business, and we’re just trying to incorporate everything, so we can move forward and be safe," explained Marshall in an interview with Collider. "It’s going to obviously slow things down, so we’re trying to adjust. You won’t see a lot of big crowd scenes, for example, for a while. There won’t be any more craft service... It’s a moving target right now. There are a lot of people working on the solutions to be able to work and be safe."
Marshall elaborated that work on the new script had only just begun before the shutdown, and a new production date has yet to be announced for the film.
Directed by James Mangold and starring Harrison Ford, the currently untitled fifth Indiana Jones film is set to be released on July 29, 2022.