Scott Rose in Egypt

Konformist Korrespondent Scott Rose of ScottWorld.com, doing an awesome impersonation of Indiana Jones, brought back these pictures of his visit to Egypt. His cat Twiggy has a nice cameo...

'Raiders’: Damon Lindelof’s love letter to a ‘perfect movie’

Aug. 31, 2011 Damon Lindelof
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/08/31/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-damon-lindelof-indiana-jones-love-letter-free-screening-lost-star-trek-harrison-ford

I remember with great clarity the last time I peed my pants.

This was not, contrary to later reports, an “accident.” It was a decision I made of sound mind and body and one that I make no apologies for. Despite overwhelming opportunity to release my bladder the way most civilized people do (that would be into a toilet), I made a conscious choice to do otherwise. I offer only two points in my defense; The first is that I was 8 years old. The second, and much more relevant, is that I was in a movie theater watching “Raiders of the Lost Ark” for the very first time. And there was not a chance in hell I was missing a single second of that glorious movie.

Truth be told, I had initially resisted the idea of going to see “Raiders.” I was much more interested in seeing “Clash of the Titans,” which opened the same day and had a Pegasus in it. Ultimately, however, my dad argued that “Raiders” was the superior pick because it had Han Solo. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously — “But… Han Solo is frozen in carbonite.”

“This movie happened before that.” My dad responded.

“How could it happen before a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?” I reasoned.

“Because this was longer ago.”

“How much longer?”

My dad leaned down, quite serious, and whispered, “The 1930s.”

And thus, I was effectively duped into seeing what even now, three decades later, stands as one of the most perfect movies ever made.

And here’s the thing: Although it’s easy to reduce “Raiders” to a “popcorn” movie — a piece of escapist adventure with fantastic action — very rarely is it appreciated for its pure innovative genius. This is something people seemed to be well aware of back in 1981 (it was nominated for a best picture Oscar), but over time, the legacy of “Raiders” seems to neglect just how incredibly revolutionary it was as a film. Therefore, as a debt of gratitude (and for everything I’ve stolen from it in my own work), I feel it’s only fitting to write a long overdue love letter to one of my favorite films ever. So without further ado…

Dear “Raiders of the Lost Ark,”

You are awesome. God, you are awesome.

I have seen you, in your entirety, more than one hundred times. I know there are folks out there that have seen you more than that, but they don’t know you like I do.

I really know you. I know what music you listen to and where your scars are. I know that you like to be kissed where it doesn’t hurt. And I’m sorry if that seems a little “creepy,” but hey, you’re into snakes and melt people’s faces off, so we’re speaking the same language, are we not?

So what, exactly, is it that I love most about you, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”? Man … I don’t even know where to start. But let’s get past the obvious stuff that all your other admirers seem so dazzled by (the whip!!!) and talk about what truly makes you unique.

I could go on for pages about just the little things. Like the sound you make when Indy punches someone in the face. Or that Marion’s superpower is drinking. And don’t even get me started on the coat hanger. Where did that Nazi even get that thing? Did he special-order it? “I need somezing that vill terrify people when I take it out, but then give them a false zense of relief when I reveal it is simply somezing on vich to hang my coat.” Seriously. The best. But I know you’ve probably heard it all before and therefore, I’ll stick to the big stuff. First and foremost…

I love you because Indiana Jones is a nerd. Granted, a highly capable nerd who knows how to ride horses and fight real good, but still, at his core, Indy is an academic who’s motivated purely by his desire to find and retrieve really cool stuff so he can put it in a museum where other nerds can appreciate it. Also, he wears glasses and gets nervous when hot female students write the words “Love You” on their eyelids. Do you have any idea how much commitment is involved in writing “Love You” on your eyelids? It’s really hard! Not that I’ve ever done it.

Because I haven’t.

And while we’re on the subject of Dr. Jones, here’s another thing I love about him. He’s actually scared of stuff. This doesn’t seem like something that should be celebrated, but it’s actually quite rare for the hero of a movie to be scared of anything. Do you know what Green Lantern is afraid of? Fear. He is afraid of being afraid. Does that even make sense? Here’s what makes sense to be afraid of — Hissing Cobras and Gigantic Bald Nazis with mustaches trying to kill you. And it was perfectly OK for me to be scared of them because Indy was too.

You know what else is wonderful about you? That over and over and over again, Indiana Jones has failure rubbed in his face, yet he refuses to give up. He gets the Golden Idol…. But it’s snatched away by a Frenchman. Indy finds the Well of Souls and recovers the Ark. It too gets taken away from him. Same Frenchman! Now Indy gets back the Ark and … oh no, Nazi submarine! They take the Ark and Marion… but Indy gets the drop on them with a bazooka! And yet, he can’t bring himself to destroy the Ark, so Indy is captured.

By the Frenchman.

Yeah, I know his name is Belloq. And I’m pretty convinced that he is another reason I love you so much. Because quality French bad guys are hard to come by and Belloq is la crème du la crop.

And so, we now arrive at your ending. This, more than anything else, is why my love for you is an undying one. Because we all know how movies like you are supposed to end. The hero fights off a bunch of evildoers, saves the girl, gets the thingamabob away from the bad guys before they can do any harm with it and then say something kinda cool before he rides off into the sunset.

But this, sweet Raiders, is not what you did.

Your big climax is not affected by Indiana Jones at all. He’s tied to a pole with Marion the whole time, completely helpless as Belloq and his Nazi pals open the Ark. And while most heroes would perform some incredible act of selfless bravery, what does Indy do? He shouts at Marion to not even look at whatever is coming out of the very thing he has coveted for your entire duration. And you know what?

I listened to him.

For the first 20 or so times I watched you, I shut my eyes tightly as I heard the Nazis scream for what seemed like five minutes. And when they finally stopped, I slowly peeked out to find Indy doing exactly the same thing.

In that moment, we were one. Terrified. Awestruck. And most of all, relieved that it was finally over.

Now I fully appreciate that Indy was rightly pissed that the Ark was ultimately taken away by the same shady Intelligence dudes who hired him in the first place (“Top people” indeed. Hrrrmumph!). but if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been treated to your final crowning achievement. I would never have seen the Ark, now packed unceremoniously in a simple crate, being wheeled down an impossibly long aisle in the largest warehouse ever. And for reasons I am far too lovestruck to fully articulate, let me leave it at this –

In a world where movies and TV shows often end in ways that are sometimes unsatisfying bordering on outrage-inducing (yeah, yeah, I know), your ending, darling Raiders, is absolutely, exquisitely perfect.

And that is how I shall always remember you. Locked away safely in the warehouse that is my heart … fully aware that it’s highly possible that you will burn a hole through my chest or at the very least, make the rats inside me run around in uncomfortable backward circles.

I love you.

Always have. Always will. And I am deeply grateful for the countless hours we have spent together. I will treasure them more than you can ever know.

Your Biggest Fan,

Damon

P.S. Do you have a mailing address for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind’”? She left her T-shirt at my apartment.

Tom Selleck and Sean Young’s screen test for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’

06.09.2011
Tara McGinley
http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/tom_selleck_screen_test_for_raiders_of_the_lost_ark

Here’s a screen test shot back in 1980 of Tom Selleck and Sean Young performing “the bar scene” for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Apparently Tom Selleck was the first choice for the role of Indiana Jones, but CBS would not let him out of his Magnum PI contract to film the movie. And yeah, the audio is a bit out of sync.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSyHSgEbNng

Not too shabby. I think Tom Selleck would have made a convincing Indiana Jones. I’m not so sure Jones would sport a pornstache, though.

Erik Prince, You're No Indiana Jones

Jeremy Scahill
May 16, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/blog/160697/erik-prince-youre-no-indiana-jones

When Erik Prince, founder of the infamous mercenary company Blackwater, claimed in early 2010 he was leaving the soldier of fortune business, he said he'd decided to pursue a less dangerous and controversial line of work. “I’m going to teach high school,” he said, straight-faced, in an interview with Vanity Fair. “History and economics. I may even coach wrestling. Hey, Indiana Jones taught school, too.” It was an interesting comment. As fans of Indiana Jones will recall, the whip-wielding archaeologist was indeed a professor. But what he did on the side—traveling the globe in search of potentially history-altering artifacts—was his real passion. In one confrontation with his arch-nemesis, archaeologist René Emile Belloq, who is working for the Nazis, Jones threatens to blow up the Ark of the Covenant with an RPG. "You're going to give mercenaries a bad name," Belloq tells him.

Erik Prince did leave the US, but he isn't teaching high school and is certainly not out of the mercenary business. In fact, far from emerging as a neo-Indiana Jones, the antithesis of a mercenary, Prince is more like Belloq, offering his services to the highest bidder. Over the weekend, The New York Times revealed that Prince was leading an effort to build an army of mercenaries, 800 strong—including scores from Colombia—in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. They would be trained by US, European and South African Special Forces veterans. Prince's new company, Reflex Responses, also known as R2, was bankrolled to the tune of $529 million from "the oil-soaked sheikdom," according to the Times, adding that Prince was "hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi" Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Erik Prince is not mentioned by name in corporate documents outlining the deal, but is instead referred to as "Kingfish."

The contract between R2 and the UAE kicked in last June and is slated to run through May 2015. According to corporate documents on the private army Prince is building in the UAE, its potential roles include "crowd-control operations," defending oil pipelines from potential terrorist attacks and special operations missions inside and outside the UAE “to destroy enemy personnel and equipment.” Other sources said the Emiratis wanted to potentially use the force to quell potential rebellions in the country's massive labor camps that house the Filipinos, Pakistanis and other imported laborers that fuel the country's work force. Prince also has plans to build a massive training base, modeled after the 7,000 acre private military base Blackwater built in Moyock, North Carolina.

The US government is aware of the arrangement. “The gulf countries, and the UAE in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help,” one Obama administration official "who knew of the operation" told the Times. “They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence told The Nation she is launching an investigation into Prince's work in the UAE. "The man who brought us Blackwater, a company whose name has become synonymous with the worst of contractor abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been hired to put together a mercenary army that could be used to suppress a revolt or attack pro-democracy protesters," Schakowsky said. "I will be pursuing the question of whether Mr. Prince obtained the necessary licenses to conduct the training of foreign troops and whether his actions in UAE have broken any U.S. laws. Regardless, I do not believe private US citizens should be providing mercenary forces for foreign governments."

While much of the focus on R2's arrangement with the UAE has detailed its work within the Emirates, an official statement from General Juma Ali Khalaf Al Hamiri, of the UAE military, suggested that the services of R2 and other Western firms have helped the UAE "to make meaningful and significant contributions in theatres of operations such as Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and most recently Libya."

The Times reports that part of the UAE's motivation in getting into bed with Prince was the hope that his "troops could blunt the regional aggression of Iran," adding: "Some security consultants believe that Mr. Prince’s efforts to bolster the Emirates’ defenses against an Iranian threat might yield some benefits for the American government, which shares the U.A.E.’s concern about creeping Iranian influence in the region. 'As much as Erik Prince is a pariah in the United States, he may be just what the doctor ordered in the U.A.E.,' said an American security consultant with knowledge of R2’s work."

In a speech Prince delivered in late 2009, a copy of which was obtained by The Nation, Prince spoke of the need to confront Iranian influence in the Middle East, charging that Iran has a "master plan to stir up and organize a Shia revolt through the whole region." At the time, Prince proposed that armed private soldiers from companies like Blackwater be deployed in countries throughout the region to target Iranian influence. "The Iranians have a very sinister hand in these places," Prince said. "You're not going to solve it by putting a lot of uniformed soldiers in all these countries. It's way too politically sensitive. The private sector can operate there with a very, very small, very light footprint." In addition to concerns of political expediency, Prince suggested that using private contractors to conduct such operations would be cost-effective. "The overall defense budget is going to have to be cut and they're going to look for ways, they're going to have to have ways to become more efficient," he said.

Former employees of R2 "said that in recruiting the Colombians and others from halfway around the world, Mr. Prince’s subordinates were following his strict rule: hire no Muslims," according to the Times. "Muslim soldiers, Mr. Prince warned, could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims." One of the Colombians who worked for Prince in the UAE told the Times, “We were practically an army for the Emirates,” adding: “They wanted people who had a lot of experience in countries with conflicts, like Colombia.”

This particular choice is interesting given the past treatment of Colombians by Prince's companies. In 2006, thirty-five former Colombian troops on contract in Iraq with Blackwater claimed that the firm had defrauded them and was paying them just $34 a day for a job that earned exponentially more for their US and European counterparts. The Colombians said they were originally promised $4000 a month but learned of their greatly reduced pay only after arriving in Iraq. When they protested and demanded to leave Baghdad, Blackwater officials reportedly “threatened to remove us from the base and leave us in the street in Baghdad, where one is vulnerable to being killed, or, at best, kidnapped.” Eventually the Colombians were repatriated. In 2007, one of the Colombian recruiters who had hired the men for Blackwater, was gunned down in Bogotá. This time around, the Colombians were reportedly paid about $150 a day and were recruited by a Caribbean-based company called Thor Global Enterprises. The Colombians were issued visas by the UAE's military intelligence branch, allowing them to breeze through customs without being questioned.

An American who runs another security company in the UAE told The Nation that news of Prince's company is "a fricking PR disaster" for the UAE, adding that it will mean "some of the other Sheikhs will want answers about what a private Christian army was intended for." Prince's name has also surfaced in connection with another mercenary company, Saracen, in Somalia. The United Nations has suggested that the company violated a UN arms embargo.

Among the other Americans working closely with Prince on building the private army in the UAE is a former FBI Agent named Ricky "CT" Chambers. He recently ran Blackwater's training program in Afghanistan that was registered under the shell company name of Paravant. That arrangement remains the subject of multiple Congressional and federal investigations in the US and two former Paravant operatives were convicted in March of the manslaughter of two Afghan civilians. Chambers is being paid about $300,000 a year, while US contractors, with experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, are being offered pay packages worth up to $200,000 a year to work for Prince in the UAE.

When Prince moved to the UAE last summer, he said he chose Abu Dhabi because of its "great proximity to potential opportunities across the entire Middle East, and great logistics," adding that it has "a friendly business climate, low to no taxes, free trade and no out of control trial lawyers or labor unions. It's pro-business and opportunity."

The timing of Prince's move was auspicious to say the least. It came just month after five of Prince's top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince's longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy, and Prince's former legal counsel, Andrew Howell. The UAE does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. "If Prince were not living in the US, it would be far more complicated for US prosecutors to commence an action against him," said Scott Horton, a Columbia University Law lecturer and international law expert who has long tracked Blackwater. "There is a long history of people thwarting prosecutors simply by living overseas." The UAE, Horton told me when I first learned Prince was moving to the UAE last summer, is "definitely a jurisdiction where Prince could count on it not being simple for the US to pursue him legally." The UAE is made up of seven states, the most powerful among them being Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Since 9/11, they have emerged as hubs for the US war industry. "Global service providers" account for some three-quarters of Dubai's GDP, while oil represents only 3 percent. "They have established themselves as the premiere location in the Middle East for offshore banking and professional services," said Horton, who has legal experience in the UAE. "If you have connections to the royal families, then the law doesn't really apply to you."

Konformist Book Club: Pink Boots and a Machete

She's been called the female Indiana Jones and Steve Irwin and a real-life Lara Croft. That's enough to sell us on her, and her book Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey From NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer. Foreword by Jane Goodall.

Hardcover List Price: $26.00
Amazon Price: $15.29
Kindle Edition: $13.76

Hardcover: http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Boots-Machete-Cheerleader-Geographic/dp/1426207212/thekonformist

Kindle URL: http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Boots-Machete-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B004FGMDDC/thekonformist

Harrison Ford ready for fifth ‘Indiana Jones’

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32841449/ns/entertainment-celebrities/

Harrison Ford ready for fifth ‘Indiana Jones’
Actor says story is already taking form and he’d be happy to take part again
Mon., Sept . 14, 2009

Dust off the fedora and clear out the snakes — Indiana Jones is ready to ride again.

Harrison Ford, 67, says he's already ready for the globe-trotting archaeologist's next adventure, only a year after one of history's most successful film franchises was revived — and that the next chapter is already well on its way.

"The story for the new 'Indiana Jones' is in the process of taking form," Ford told France's Le Figaro. "Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and myself are agreed on what the fifth adventure will concern, and George is actively at work. If the script is good, I'll be very happy to put the costume on again."

The screen legend was on hand to accept a career honor at the Deauville Film Festival, with partner Calista Flockhart on his arm.

In June, while promoting "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," Shia LaBouef — who plays Indiana Jones' son, Mutt — told the BBC, "Steven's just said that he's cracked the story."

Domestic duties

But until it's again time to fight Nazis and Stalinists and overcome the supernatural, Ford says he's happy to be a simple househusband.

"I do the dishes. And I make dinner," he said. "In the mornings, I get my 8-year-old son Liam ready for school, and then I pass my time flying around in my planes. You see, I'm just like anybody else. My children are between 8 and 42, and I'm also a grandfather."

Though he's got "Indy" in the works and two films ("Morning Glory" and "The Crowley Project") set for release next year, Ford says there's one stereotypical actor's ambition he's happy to leave alone.

"[Directing]'s too hard, too long, and it doesn't pay enough!" he joked. "To be a good filmmaker is the hardest job in the world. I'm not patient enough. And I don't want to be the boss."

'Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings'

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/2009/06/08/2009-06-08_indiana_jones_whips_into_action.html

Monday, June 8th 2009
Video Game Review
'Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings'
Indiana Jones whips into action with top-notch 'Staff of Kings'
By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The man in the hat is back... again... and like the old days he's battling Nazis in a race to find a fabled religious artifact.

It's not the fifth film that fans may hope for - or depending on how you felt about the last movie, dreading. Instead, it's the latest video game starring the famous archeologist, "Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings."

This new adventure features a fully functional Indiana Jones in his first third-person adventure since 2003's "Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb." And while this outing is not available on the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, it does give Wii users a unique chance to crack their whip and punch out henchmen.

Set in 1939 (that's a year after "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," for those Indy fans keeping a timeline on his adventures), the game spans the globe, from the jungles of South America to the snowy peaks of Tibet, as Dr. Jones searches for the Staff of Moses. Players battle the aforementioned Nazis, as well as an array of hired guns. But who you fight is not nearly as entertaining as how you fight them.

Developers really added some clever touches to the game's fight sequences, allowing you to take down bad guys with well delivered punches, or anything that might be laying around.

Grab a pool ball and send it flying across the room to take down a henchman, or perhaps snatch a wrench and crack it over the head of an opponent. You can also grab hold of a Nazi stooge and slam his head into a table, or even a fish tank (sending water everywhere, giving you a chance to grab a fish and toss it at an approaching bully).

You also get opportunities to pull out Indiana's trusty revolver and blast baddies with that trademark gunshot sound only found in Indiana Jones films.

Of course, we can't forget the whip action. This trusty tool can be used to trip up a villain, or pull a bookshelf down over him. You can also use it to swing over gaps and climb steep walls.

In addition to the main game, the Wii version of "Staff of Kings" is highlighted by a challenging co-op mode that has Indy battle Nazis alongside his father, in an adventure that is completely independent from the main game. You need to work together to solve puzzles, drive tanks and fly a fighter as you race to recover rare South American artifacts.

Old-school gamers will also get a chance to relive an old Indy adventure, "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis," a PC game from 1992. When you take a gander at the low grade, VGA graphics, you will no doubt appreciate just how far video games have come in the last 17 years.

This is not to say that all is perfect with this game. "Staff of Kings" is hampered by disjointed storytelling. Although some could argue it's tale is more true to the roots of Indiana Jones than 2008's feature film, the lack of effective cut scenes and a far from fluid narrative proved a bit disappointing.

But the game strives to make up for it with its clever, and often challenging game play. "Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings" celebrates Indy with every obstacle, and puts you in the leather jacket and fedora like never before.

Archaeology's top 10 finds

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/12/12/1713325.aspx

Archaeology's top 10 finds
12-12-8

Archaeology magazine's top 10 finds of 2008 include Maya paint and ancient poop. And there are bonus finds as well, including a monumental discovery that the discoverers have been trying to keep under wraps.

Most of these revelations haven't gotten the kind of hype that we saw this year for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

"But as much as crystal skulls were the year's most prominent 'artifacts,' we're more likely to remember 2008 as the Year of the Earliest North American Coprolites (ancient human feces), or perhaps the Year of the Imperial Roman Marble Heads," Archaeology's editors wrote.

Read on for a rundown of the real-life discoveries that would make Indiana Jones jump on the next plane - plus the bonus discoveries and a sampling of other best-of-2008 lists in science and technology.

Archaeology's top 10 for 2008:

Mark Rose, Archaeology's online editor, is reluctant to call this list the "best of the year," but these are the reports from the past year that the magazine's editors regarded as relating to the most important discoveries:

The secret of Maya Blue: Scientists analyzed bits of the sacred blue pigment the Maya used during human sacrifices and other ceremonies - and concluded that it was made through the ritual burning of a mix of ingredients, including indigo, minerals and copal incense.

Masked mummy of Peru: An intact 1,700-year-old mummy, bearing a wooden mask with seashell eyes, was discovered in a burial mound beneath a busy Lima neighborhood. Archaeologists suspect the remains were those of a master weaver from Peru's Wari culture, based on the knitting needles and balls of yarn that were buried along with the mummy.

The stone with soul: Researchers found a 2,800-year-old funerary monument in southeastern Turkey that provided a fresh perspective on ancient religious beliefs. A 13-line inscription was chiseled into the basalt stone, in which a high official refers to food offerings that were made "for my soul that is in this stele." This proves that the Iron Age culture believed the soul was separate from the body and could inhabit a monument.

Brown gold from Oregon: About that ancient poop ... the 14,300-year-old preserved feces found in eastern Oregon's cave provided the best evidence yet that humans had colonized the Americas that long ago. Researchers even extracted DNA from the coprolites - which could help clear up longstanding mysteries about the identity of the first Americans.

Oldest oil paintings: Researchers discovered the world's oldest-known paintings in a maze of caves in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley - yes, the same place where the Taliban blew up two giant statues of Buddha in 2001. (You'll find more about Bamiyan below.)

The first European? An excavation in a cave in northern Spain turned up a chunk of a Homo erectus jawbone that has been dated back to 1.3 million years ago. That suggests that the ancestors of modern humans made their way into Europe about 500,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The earliest shoes: An analysis of 42,000-year-old human toe bones from a dig in China provided evidence that the person, known as Tianyuan 1, wore some form of footwear.

Pristine Portuguese shipwreck: Geologists working on an underwater diamond-mining project off the coast of Namibia turned up something more scientifically valuable: a 16th-century cargo ship that was buried on the seafloor, safe from underwater treasure hunters. The find netted almost 50 pounds of gold coins, plus navigational instruments, elephant tusks and other treasures.

The colossal heads of the Roman Empire: Archaeologists are uncovering the monumental marble heads of Roman emperors at a dig in central Turkey, where a first-century metropolis once flourished. Last year, Hadrian's head was found at the site of Sagalassos' Roman baths. This year, the researchers recovered fragments of statues depicting Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Elder (wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius).

The origins of whaling: A 20-inch-long walrus tusk, found at an archaeological site on Russia's Chukotka Peninsula, bears the carvings of a seal, a bear and a boatful of people hunting a whale from a boat. The tusk dates back about 3,000 years, which would make the carving "the earliest evidence for whaling," said Daniel Odess, curator of archaeology at the University of Alaska Museum.

The bonus round:

Archaeology magazine's online editor, Mark Rose, told me that the list doesn't include several important discoveries that just didn't fit the year-in-review pattern (or came to light too late to make the top-10 list). One of the most important finds is a 60-foot-long (19-meter) reclining Buddha statue that was reportedly discovered at Afghanistan's Bamiyan site.

This discovery wouldn't measure up to the fabled 1,000-foot-long (300-meter-long) "sleeping Buddha" at Bamiyan, which was described by a 7th-century Chinese monk but has never been found. Nevertheless, there's "big, big news" out there about a monument that somehow survived the Taliban, Rose said.

The problem is that the head of the archaeological project is trying to keep the discovery under wraps, Rose said. "It ties into a funding organization that is well aware of the marketing value of this kind of thing, as well as the entertainment value," he said. (For what it's worth, the team is funded by National Geographic and the French Foreign Ministry.)

We'll probably hear more about the surviving Bamiyan Buddha next year. But in the meantime, Rose said, "To effectively censor is not really conscionable."

Here are two more of the bonus selections that will be posted to Archaeology's Web site next week:

Disappearing glaciers = reappearing artifacts: Climate change has caused glaciers around the world to recede. During a warm spell in the Swiss Alps, the ice shrank back from the Schnidejoch Pass, revealing shoes, leggings, arrowheads and other artifacts. Some of those artifacts have now been dated back to 4500 B.C., which would make them older than the famous Alpine iceman Oetzi. Rose said the find could shed light not only on ancient cultures, but also on "the ebb and flow of climate."

Stone Age figurines from Russia: Archaeologists excavating a site near Moscow have found figurines and carvings dating back to the Stone Age - somewhere around 10,000 to 40,000 years ago. The artifacts include two female-looking figurines, a mammoth rib inscribed with pictures of what appear to be mammoths, and a mysterious cone-shaped object.

Archaeology's Web site also offers year-end reviews focusing on endangered treasures and the rise of virtual archaeology.

LEGO Indiana Jones Video Game

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/13067-lego-indiana-jones-video-game-free-game-download

LEGO Indiana Jones Video Game
Free Game Download

Courtesy of LucasartsWith the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull rocking theaters with the return of the world's favorite archaeologist-turned-adventurer, Lucasarts wants to give you a dose of his old-skool adventures. A LEGO dose that is. The LEGO Indiana Jones The Original Adventures game takes the first three Indy movies, wraps 'em up into a ball and throws them right at your funny bone. They let you play as the fedora-wearin' dude himself, his friends and even his enemies, through tons of hilarious adventure that will keep reminding you of the award-winning LEGO Star Wars games.

'Indiana Jones' unearths $126M in box office gold

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jb68x_tOGx8QHjI0Cr6C-Vy79OGgD90SSR3G2

'Indiana Jones' unearths $126M in box office gold
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
5-25-8

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Indiana Jones unearthed box office gold at domestic theaters with a performance that puts it on track to become the second biggest Memorial Day movie opening ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The fourth installment of the whip-cracking professor's exploits, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," grossed an estimated $101 million from Friday to Sunday, plus $25 million from its opening Thursday, distributor Paramount Pictures said. The company expects it to earn another $25 million on Monday.

That would put it behind only "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," which had a Friday-through-Monday total of $139.8 million, in the pantheon of Memorial Day weekend blockbusters.

Including Thursday's receipts, "Indiana Jones" was expected to collect $151 million over five days, slightly behind "Pirates," which took in $153 million with a partial Thursday included.

"'Indiana Jones' did incredibly well for a film that comes 19 years after the previous installment," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of tracking firm Media By Numbers LLC.

The adventure flick received a lackluster reception from critics at the Cannes Film Festival, but audiences thought otherwise.

Box office estimates grew from $25 million on its opening Thursday through $37 million on Saturday, suggesting strong word of mouth, Dergarabedian said.

"This is the definition of a summer movie from two of the architects of the summer movie season — George Lucas and Steven Spielberg," he said. "These guys have it down to a science and audiences want to go along for that ride."

The first three Indy movies took in $1.2 billion worldwide.

Lightsabre wins the battle of movie weapons

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1576154/Lightsabre-wins-the-battle-of-movie-weapons.html

Lightsabre wins the battle of movie weapons
By Sophie Borland
18/04/2008

It may look like a humble fluorescent kitchen light, but according to a new survey it is the best weapon ever featured in a film.

The lightsabre, wielded by the Jedi knight Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, fought off stiff competition to win the title from other favourites including Robin Hood’s bow and arrow and the deadly bowler hat thrown at James Bond.

In second place came the 0.44 Magnum handgun from the film Dirty Harry while third was Indiana Jones’ 10ft-long bullwhip.

The survey of 2,000 film lovers, commissioned by 20th Century Fox, placed the samurai sword used in the film Kill Bill as fourth and the chainsaw from the 1974 horror the Texas Chainsaw Massacre fifth.

Since it first appeared in the first Star Wars film in 1977, the lightsabre has become one of the most famous props in film history.

According to the plot of the hugely popular science fiction films, it can only be handled by those strong enough to master its power and it is mainly used by the Jedi knights.

When activated, a beam of highly focussed energy emitting a distinctive hum is unleashed, which is so strong it can cut through most objects.

When it is deactivated, however, the lightsaber appears as a 12in long metallic handle.

Toy versions of the weapon consistently feature among the best-selling Christmas presents for children.

Top 10 Favourite Movie Weapons

1. Lightsabre (Star Wars)

2. .44 Magnum (Dirty Harry)

3. Bullwhip (Indiana Jones)

4. Samurai sword (Kill Bill)

5. Chainsaw (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

6. Golden Gun (James Bond - The Man With The Golden Gun)

7. Bow and arrow (Robin Hood)

8. Machine gun (Scarface)

9. The Death Star (Star Wars)

10. Bowler hat (James Bond - Goldfinger)

Sci Fi Tracks ‘Crystal Skulls’ Mystery

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6557339.html

Sci Fi Tracks ‘Crystal Skulls’ Mystery
NBC News Holts Leads Expedition Special, Preceding ‘Indiana Jones’ Stunt
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News
5/5/2008

Looking to draft on the buzz of the upcoming Indiana Jones theatrical, Sci Fi Channel will air the first three installments of the action franchise, as well as an investigative special on May 18.

Sci Fi will bow the Mystery of the Crystal Skulls, hosted by NBC News Lester Holt, May 18 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) The special gives viewers an insider’s look at the real treasure of Indiana Jones’ newest adventure. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens in theaters May 22.

Mystery of the Crystal Skulls explores the true history of the legendary relics, exhuming the myths, legends and controversies surrounding them. Among the questions addressed: Could the skulls be ancient Mayan prophecies of doom, relics from the Lost City of Atlantis, or store a vast knowledge of a highly advanced extraterrestrial civilization?

Holt follows in the footsteps of British explorer and adventurer Frederick Mitchell-Hedges, an inspiration for the fictional Indiana Jones character, whose daughter discovered the first ancient crystal skull in the 1920s in the Mayan ruin of Lubaantun.

Following clues that Homann obtained from Mitchell-Hedges’ daughter and local Mayans, they search for another missing skull while surviving bat-ridden caves and alligator-infested rivers. Along the way, they come across amazing discoveries including a hidden Mayan temple that could house more treasures.

The special will be preceded by the first three “Indy” films: Raiders of the Lost Ark airs May 17 at 4 p.m. and May 18 at 1 p.m,; Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom runs May 17 at 6:30 p.m. and encore May 18 at 3:30 p.m.; and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is slated for May 17 at 9 p.m. and May 18 at 6 p.m.

Indiana Jones and the Savior of a Lost Art

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/movies/moviesspecial/04raff.html

May 4, 2008
Summer Movies
Indiana Jones and the Savior of a Lost Art
By TERRENCE RAFFERTY

“THIS is a recreational activity for me” is surely among the last things you’d expect to hear from the director of a huge, costly, dauntingly complex summer action movie as it nears completion, with its release date just a few weeks away.

But that is what Steven Spielberg said not long ago, speaking by phone from a dub stage where he was supervising the sound mixing of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (opening May 22), the first new installment in 19 years of the crowd-pleasing adventure-movie franchise that began in 1981 with “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” “In 1989,” Mr. Spielberg said, referring to the year “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” came out, “I thought the curtain was lowering on the series, which is why I had all the characters literally ride off into the sunset at the end. But ever since then the most common question I get asked, all over the world, is, ‘When are you going to make another Indiana Jones?’ ”

It’s a fair guess that theater operators and executives at Paramount Pictures have asked that question at least as frequently as the ticket-buying public has, and perhaps with a shade more urgency: the three Indy pictures — “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984) was the one in the middle — have raked in well over a billion dollars worldwide from their theatrical releases alone. The anticipation, on the part of both the fans and the suits, falls somewhere between keen and breathless. And for most filmmakers that level of expectation might appear in their clammier dreams as a giant boulder bearing down on them and picking up speed.

“I’m having a great time,” Mr. Spielberg said. And, unlikely though this may seem, you can’t help believing him; he certainly sounds excited, and the secret of the Indiana Jones movies’ success has always been their free-spirited inventiveness, a what-the-hell quality that can’t (or shouldn’t) be faked, even on a gigantic budget.

Weirdly, authenticity — not faking it — is very much on his mind when he makes one of these unabashedly preposterous movies, whose hero (still played by Harrison Ford) is a two-fisted, bullwhip-wielding academic archaeologist zipping around the globe in search of rare mystical artifacts and in the process running afoul of Nazis, creepy human-sacrifice cults and other exemplars of unambiguous, unadulterated evil.

Even by the extremely flexible standards of high-adventure pulp, the Indy pictures are a pretty stern test of the audience’s willingness to suspend disbelief. (At times you feel as if it were hanging, as the hero periodically does, over a mass of writhing, fang-baring snakes, or a river full of famished crocodiles.) The authenticity Mr. Spielberg is concerned with here is something other than the historical realism of, say, “Schindler’s List” or “Munich”; what he wanted to talk about was the physical integrity of the action, of which there is, in an Indiana Jones movie, plenty.

The tone and style of the films derive from the movie serials of the 1930s and ’40s, which Mr. Spielberg, growing up in the ’50s, used to see on Saturday mornings at a revival theater in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“They made a great impression on me, both because of how exciting they were and because of how cheesy they were,” he said. “I’d kind of be involved in the stories and be ridiculing them at the same time. One week they’d give us a cliffhanger with the good guy going off the cliff, the car crashing on the rocks below and blowing up, and then the next week he’s fine. They forgot to show us the cut of the guy jumping out of the car? That we weren’t going to do in the Indiana Jones series.”

In fact, Mr. Spielberg said, he tries to cut as little as possible in these movies’ action sequences, because “every time the camera changes dynamic angles, you feel there’s something wrong, that there’s some cheating going on.” So his goal is “to do the shots the way Chaplin or Keaton would, everything happening before the eyes of the audience, without a cut.”

Warming to the subject, he went on: “The idea is, there’s no illusion; what you see is what you get. My movies have never been frenetically cut, the way a lot of action is done today. That’s not a put-down; some of that quick cutting, like in ‘The Bourne Ultimatum,’ is fantastic, just takes my breath away. But to get the comedy I want in the Indy films, you have to be old-fashioned. I’ve studied a lot of the old movies that made me laugh, and you’ve got to stage things in full shots and let the audience be the editor. It’s like every shot is a circus act.”

And in 1981, in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” that approach was so old-fashioned it looked new. (It’s difficult to remember now just how stodgy and joyless the action genre had become; even the James Bond movies, reliably sprightly in the ’60s, turned into slow-footed, campy behemoths in the ’70s with entries like “Moonraker.”)

In the 27 years since, practically every action filmmaker has tried to drink from the grail of Indiana Jones, to tap into the movie’s quasi-mystical kinetic (and commercial) power: the pace had to be blindingly fast; the stunts insanely elaborate, the villainy extra-villainous; the hero’s attitude blithe, insouciant, almost sociopathically cool. Mr. Spielberg and George Lucas — who produces the movies and who dreamed up the basic idea of the series — have a lot to answer for.

The sad truth is that the enormous influence of the Indiana Jones films has been a distinctly mixed blessing. Action movies are, over all, a good deal snappier than they were 30 years ago, but they also tend to be a good deal less intelligible. They skimp on the exposition and go straight for sensation, as if cutting to the chase were not a metaphor but literally the cardinal rule of filmmaking. And that’s true not only of the most egregious Indiana Jones knockoffs — the “Mummy,” “National Treasure” and “Lara Croft” movies spring, unwelcomely, to mind — but of nearly every studio picture that features more action than, say, “My Dinner With André.” It’s no accident that movies of this sort, ubiquitous in summertime, are so often blurbed as “thrill rides”: they can be that exhausting, and that pointless.

Pointlessness is, however, in the eye of the beholder. When asked what kind of films he enjoyed most as a boy, Mr. Spielberg replied, simply, “Anything with a lot of movement,” and quite a few of us would say the same. Swift, thrilling motion is the hook that pulls young imaginations into movies, and although your taste might get a tad more refined over the years, vivid, intricate, ingeniously choreographed action can still give you that Saturday-matinee charge of pleasure.

The perilously long and complicated opening sequence of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” for example — in which a song-and-dance number (“Anything Goes,” sung in Mandarin) turns into a wild slapstick action scene involving a diamond, a poisoned drink and an elusive vial of antidote, and ends with Indy and his companions jumping out of a plane in a rubber raft — delivers that sort of giddy, mildly deranging stimulation. The staging and the cutting have the “can you top this?” audacity of a silent comedy, and the timing is slyly impeccable: it’s about the length of a Keaton two-reeler.

It hardly matters that the “Anything Goes” set piece was originally planned for “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The big action scenes in the Indiana Jones movies are almost risibly inorganic to the narratives that contain them. This kind of randomness is risky — not to be tried at home, or by any filmmaker less prodigiously gifted than Mr. Spielberg. You need a rigorous imagination for visual comedy to make movies as exhilaratingly ridiculous as these.

“John Williams and I have a word we use when we have something we think the audience will love,” Mr. Spielberg said, referring to the composer who has scored all the Indiana Jones movies. “Maybe it’ll be a little over the top, and we ask each other, ‘Are we being too shameless?’ In a way I think we’ve both grown kind of proud of being shameless.”

When the jokes are good, as they frequently are in the Indy pictures, there’s every reason for pride. These goofy movies tell you as much about Steven Spielberg as his more serious work does. Movies truly are a form of recreation for him, and he’s the kind of artist who reveals himself fully in the intensity of his play. In the Indiana Jones movies he revives the spirit of silent comedy in the adventures of an intellectual with a bullwhip. And that’s a feat that, whether you think it’s worth doing or not, at least deserves high marks for degree of difficulty. If only everybody else in Hollywood hadn’t tried to imitate him, he’d have nothing to be ashamed of at all.

Mint Crisp M&Ms and Wildly Cherry M&Ms

http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/bonus_taste_test_mint_crisp_m

Bonus Taste Test: Mint Crisp M&Ms and Wildly Cherry M&Ms
by Josh Modell
April 24th, 2008

Due to popular demand and the fact that we love trying weird foods and candies, The A.V. Club will now regularly feature "Taste Tests." Feel free to suggest disgusting and/or delicious new edibles for future installments: E-mail us at tastetest@theonion.com.

Mint Crisp M&Ms and Wildly Cherry M&Ms

Like so many other candy makers, the people behind M&Ms have been fucking with the formula lately. They think you're like an old married couple, and that you require special gels, oils, and tastes to keep things interesting. Are they right? I can't answer that. We already told you about orange and "razzberry" M&Ms, which delighted some and bored others. In the last couple of months, though, a couple more flavors have been introduced in an effort to woo you away from your standard milk chocolate or peanut M&Ms. Thus Wildly Cherry and the brand-spanking-new Mint Crisp, the latter of which is tied to the new Indiana Jones movie. (I can't wait for the big reveal, when Indy says, "The crystal skull isn't made of crystal! It's made of mint!" And then he pops a couple of M&Ms into his mouth.) They may sound familiar—there have been mint M&Ms in the past, as well as crispy M&Ms—but this appears to be a new beast. The Wildly Cherry flavor seems a bit more flash-in-the-pan, the sexy new partner you quickly realize you aren't that into.

Taste: Good news on both fronts, at least for the most part. The Mint Crisp ones are both crispy and minty—they have a crunchy, puffy center after you get past the layer of chocolate, and the mint itself is very strong. (And minty!) The shapes vary pretty wildly, some bigger than others and some strangely lumpy. And many have Indiana Jones-themed pictures on them, like a temple, Indy's hat, etc. But everyone here agrees that they taste like Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, which is a very, very good thing. (Especially for Genevieve. The Girl Scouts had to put a restraining order on her; see below.) The mint taste lasts a long time, too—a good thing in this instance.

The Cherry flavor, on the other hand, got mixed reactions. There obviously wasn't any attempt to make them taste like actual cherries, so they taste something like those cheap, sugary cough drops mixed with chocolate. I actually found them extremely tasty, but I was in the minority. (I tend to favor fruit-and-chocolate combinations, though.) They're a little too artificial to be sustainable in the candy marketplace, but they're a tasty lark. The Mint Crisp ones—even though they claim limited-edition status—could last.

Office reactions:

Wildly Cherry:

•"They're okay. The cherry taste is fairly mild. They mostly just taste like M&Ms with a cough-syrup aftertaste."

•"These taste like cherry Tootsie Roll pops."

•"It's a really fake cherry taste that isn't good, but isn't terrible. I don't think M&M's have gotten the alternate-flavor thing right yet, judging by the mehness of orange, raspberry, and now this."

Mint Crisp:

•"They taste like Junior Mints with a candy shell and a Styrofoam center. They're way better than the cherry ones, but the crunchy center is kind of a mood-killer for me. It's so obviously filler taking up space that could have been spent on further minty deliciousness."

•"This is making up for the fact that I couldn't find any Girl Scouts to steal Thin Mints from this year."

•"Mint plus chocolate is always a winner, and the crunch in the middle is a bonus."

•"They're good. The only weird thing is that I'm not sure where the candy shell ends and the chocolate mint filling begins."

•"By far my favorite of the alternately flavored M&M's."

•"I have no idea why these are lumpy. Are those supposed to be from mint chunklets?"

•"The skull on mine is too scary."

• "The mintiness is really sharp and bold. But it makes me so thirsty."

Where to get them: We got the mint at Walgreen's, and the cherry at Target.

'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' due Aug. 15

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-clone13feb13,0,6476102.story

'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' due Aug. 15
The computer-animated film will act as a feature-length preview for George Lucas' new cable television series.
By Geoff Boucher
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 13, 2008

First "Indiana Jones," and now "Star Wars" -- this summer is turning out to be the season of George Lucas.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars," a new stylized, computer-animated feature film, will open Aug. 15 in theaters and set the stage for a tie-in television series with the same name and mode of artwork that will begin airing as a 30-minute weekly series in the fall on the Cartoon Network and TNT.

The film and series will center on the wartime tales of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi and feature Padme Amidala, Mace Windu, Count Dooku and the other characters introduced in the second trilogy of live-action "Star Wars" films that began in 1999.

For casual fans trying to keep track of the timeline, this film and series would take place after the events of the 2002 movie "Attack of the Clones" and right before those in the grimmer 2005 installment "Revenge of the Sith," which shows Anakin succumbing to the dark side of the Force and donning the black cape of Darth Vader.

"I felt like there were a lot more 'Star Wars' stories left to tell," Lucas said in a Tuesday press release. "I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the art of the animation forward."

There already was a 2-D animated series called "Clone Wars" that centered on the conflict between the Jedis of the Republic and separatist groups and their battle droids, but this new film and series will be later in the continuity and have a dramatically different look that melds photo-realistic battle sequences (think of an enhanced, top-flight video game) and stylized characters that sometimes resemble marionettes.

Lucas has also said that he is working toward a live-action television series based in the "Star Wars" universe but that it would not feature the central characters of the iconic franchise, which has grossed $4.3 billion in theaters worldwide. "It's about minor characters," the filmmaker told The Times in October. "It has nothing to do with Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader or any of those people. It's completely different. But it's a good idea, and it's going to be a lot of fun to do."

The other famous franchise associated with Lucas is swinging back this year as well. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" arrives on Memorial Day and brings the feisty archaeologist of the title back to theaters for the first time since 1989. Lucas, who created the character, is executive producer and shares writing credits with David Koepp. Steven Spielberg returns as the franchise's director.

geoff.boucher@latimes.com

Indiana Jones Artwork

Kool Artwork from Raiders of the Lost Ark's Production Design

From IndianaJones.com:

'08 Movie Preview

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1579340/20080109/story.jhtml

Jan 10 2008 7:48 AM EST

'Indiana Jones,' 'Dark Knight' And More Flicks We Can't Wait To See: '08 Movie Preview
'Cloverfield,' 'Iron Man,' 'Wanted' also make our list.
By Shawn Adler

It is impossible to overstate the anticipation we feel for the blockbuster movies coming out in 2008. OK, that's not exactly true. We could say that we'd rather see "The Dark Knight" than peace in the Middle East. That would be an overstatement — but only a slight one!

So with all due exaggeration, embellishment and hyperbole, we present the 10 movies we're most looking forward to in the new year.

10. "Wanted" (June 27)
Unfulfilled SWM in dead-end job in search of position as top-level assassin. Must possess perfect aim and uncanny skill with any weapon. LDR with father OK. Desire for revenge in said father's death a huge plus. Wish to use violence purely for selfish and egocentric pleasures a must — fondness for S&M, D&D not deterrents. No experience necessary. Will train under two of industry's best: the Fox (Angelina Jolie) and Sloan (Morgan Freeman). Prefer TDH but willing to settle for Scottish and geeky (James McAvoy), provided applicant is willing to relocate. Will receive biquarterly reviews from Fates. No smokers.

9. "Cloverfield" (January 18)
Wanna learn all about "Cloverfield"? OK, but I have to ask: Do you know how to keep a secret? Yeah, so does J.J. Abrams. We've heard of making movies behind closed doors, but this is just plain ridiculous. Abrams' new project is so hush-hush it makes Area 51 look like Areas 1-50. In fact, there's not much we know about the flick beyond that it's a monster movie set in New York and that it centers on a group of five friends. Bring your Slusho! — everything is illuminated January 18.

8. "Hancock" (July 2)
Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's ... the Fresh Prince? The biggest movie star in the world, able to take down box-office records in a single blow, Will Smith returns to the July 4 weekend as a real-life Superman in "Hancock," the story of an abusive, alcoholic, would-be hero that everybody hates. Well, except for the wife of his PR rep, the man out to rehabilitate his image (Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman, respectively). She really doesn't hate him, if you catch our meaning. She really doesn't hate him, like, twice a day if they get the chance. But hey, saving the world means never having to say you're sorry. Might makes right when "Hancock" opens July 2.

7. "The Happening" (June 13)
How's this for a twist? Just two years after "Lady in the Water" made him persona non grata in Hollywood, M. Night Shyamalan basically went door-to-door peddling a new script and found his calling with ... a relationship picture? That's what star Mark Wahlberg called "The Happening," an R-rated story about the planet's last-ditch effort against humanity. The man who would be Hitchcock is back. How'd he do it? Spoiler alert: He was dead the whole time.

6. "Eagle Eye" (August 8)
Everybody wants to be James Bond. But who daydreams of being a James Bond villain? Superspy, meet your super ... student? Shia LaBeouf stars as a young kid mistaken for a terrorist and on the run with Michelle Monaghan in this flick from the mind of Steven Spielberg.

5. "Wall-E" (June 27)
It's R2-D2: The Movie, the story of a Waste Allocation Robot left alone on Earth for centuries to clean up mankind's garbage. It's mostly dialogue-free. It's a Pixar film from the director of "Finding Nemo." Need we say more?

4. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (November 26)
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that there are no second acts in American lives. He believed it so much that he wrote "Benjamin Button" in reverse. The story of a man who's born the moment he dies and who ages backward, Button seems like a dream come true: What if you knew then what you know now? Well, for starters, you'd have a lot of explaining to do to the woman you fall in love with (Cate Blanchett). Some say youth is wasted on the young. We say it's wasted on Brad Pitt, a 44-year-old who still looks like the biggest kid in the candy shop. Under the direction of David Fincher, Pitt enters second childhood (and then oblivion?) November 26.

3. "Iron Man" (May 2)
Movie stars and flashy cars and life with the top down: Billionaire playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) lives the high life. So what do you get for the man who has everything? How about a biometric, weaponized, indestructible suit of body armor that can shoot rockets? And, oh yeah, it can fly. Alongside Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, the greatest superhero yet to get the movie treatment finally makes his way to the big screen when "Iron Man" opens May 2. Sing it with me: "Now the time is here/ For Iron Man to spread fear." (Cue legendary, kick-ass guitar riff.)

2. "The Dark Knight" (July 18)
Why so serious? What would it take to put a smile on that face of yours? What if we told you that the sequel to the best-ever comic book movie looks even better, with the introduction of the Joker (Heath Ledger) and Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart) into Batman's rogues' gallery. Don't laugh: Ledger's Glasgow smile and sing-song voice make for a terrifying-yet-realistic psychopath, someone who just wants to watch the world burn. Batman (Christian Bale) and the Joker, Harvey Dent and Two-Face — they're two sides of the same coin: costumed freaks who use violence and fear as a means to an end. Heads or tails, we win July 18.

1. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (May 22)
Nineteen years after he last rode into the sunset, the man with the hat is back. Throw me the idol, I'll throw you the most anticipated movie of 2008: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Will there be aliens? A son? A second chance at love with Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen)? No rats, and definitely no snakes — X marks the spot May 22.

New Indiana Jones Picture

The latest Indiana Jones movie gets a title

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20070910/118947467900.html

The latest Indiana Jones movie gets a title
Monday September 10, 2007

The battle to name the new Indiana Jones film is over, and the winner is "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

Forget about "Indiana Jones and the City of Gods" or even "Indiana Jones and the Destroyer of Worlds," two of the potential names registered by producers Lucasfilm Ltd. The next movie featuring the two-fisted adventurer will be called "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

Actor Shia LaBeouf, who has been cast to play Jones' son in the film, blurted out the title on stage at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards -- only to have the news overshadowed by two former husbands of Pamela Anderson scuffling with each other and Britney Spears dancing barely clothed on stage.

But Lucasfilm, which is producing the fourth Harrison Ford-starring installment of the Indiana Jones series, was quick to confirm the new title on Monday.

The film is to be directed by Steven Spielberg and is slated for release in May 2008.

LaBeouf's revelation ends months of speculation as to what the new film will be called.