James Mangold Discusses 'Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny' In The Current Hollywood Climate

TV & Film

Jun 27

James Mangold has been talking about his experiences and thoughts directing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in the run-up to the film’s release. Although it was a great opportunity that Steven Spielberg showed such faith in him to pull it off, Mangold didn’t immediately say yes.

With the modern film industry chasing franchise potential, Mangold focuses on “making something that works from beginning to end – to curtain. Otherwise, I’m working on the world’s most expensive television show.” It has come to a point where Mangold feels the world is passing him by, with advancements and changes happening more rapidly than in the past.

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By taking on a new Indiana Jones, he wanted to respect the franchise rather than doing his own thing. But he does not want to be seen as a franchise filmmaker. Though he might accept projects that relate to other franchises, such as Logan, he has no interest in being a part of the larger picture.

In discussing Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character and what she means for the future of the franchise, Mangold is casually dismissive of that. “I’m not interested. I refuse. I just can’t do it.” There is so much that goes into being a franchise, that it clouds the art of telling a story. “The amount of lore and Easter eggs and fan service starts to become antithetical to any of this stuff at a certain point. It isn’t storytelling anymore. It’s large-scale advertising.”

Though he wants nothing to do with franchises, he has accepted them as being a part of the media landscape. Despite being attached to a DC project and a Star Wars one, he refuses to see his part in them as anything but single slates. “While I’m sure DC views Swamp Thing as a franchise, I would be viewing it as a very simple, clean, Gothic horror movie about this man/monster.”

A Frankenstein movie is something he had been toying with for years, so accepting the call for Swamp Thing was an easy choice. For Star Wars, he pitched something that had yet to be done within the galaxy far, far away. Even mingling with franchises as he now is, the one thing Mangold doesn’t want to do is be static in his field. “To me, sticking within one lane, I don’t know whether I’d keep learning.”

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