How Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny’s Director Aimed To Avoid A Crystal Skull Misstep

That’s an effective description of why several aspects of “Crystal Skull” just feel … off. Plus, that movie really suffers from Spielberg’s longtime cinematographer, Janusz Kamiński, taking over for the late Douglas Slocombe, who shot all three of the original films and brought such a tremendously stylish quality to the aesthetic of what an Indy movie inherently is. Kamiński is great in his own way, but it’s a tall order for anyone to try to mimic Slocombe’s wonderfully distinct visuals. 

We’ll soon find out how Mangold and his cinematographer, Phedon Papamichael, measure up in that regard, but in that io9 interview, Mangold spoke about his approach to “Dial of Destiny” and how he embraced the dissonance of Indiana Jones feeling like a man out of his own era:

“What I kind of envisioned when I came on was pretty simple. Which is that we give you a full-blast ‘Indiana Jones’ movie like you knew them in the first 25 minutes, right? Then, you fall off a cliff and you land in a kind of ’70s picture with a 70-year-old Indiana Jones in modern New York City with a series of clear human struggles and problems. But then, the movie slowly climbs its way back. This 70-year-old will end up living through his own Indiana Jones adventure again, but the movie earns its way there with this character kind of coming out of a bit of a slumber.”

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” arrives in theaters on June 30, 2023, but if you’re in Los Angeles, /Film is hosting an early screening of the film in ScreenX, so come join us, won’t you?