They may be the best of friends, but that doesn’t mean they won’t call each other out. Steven Spielberg was recently interviewed about a few different things by Empire among them JURASSIC PARK 4 (which he says has a better story than the other three) and INDY 5 (which Lucas is writing), but the most interesting exchange came when he was asked about criticism of INDY 4 and its central alien theme.
“I sympathise with people who didn’t like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin. George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin. I didn’t want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings. But I am loyal to my best friend. When he writes a story he believes in – even if I don’t believe in it – I’m going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it.”
What? That sounds like a terrible idea. You’re going to let your friend make your movie shit just because he’s your friend? I’m frankly surprised to hear him speak so openly about this, but perhaps he’s tired of getting the blame for INDY 4’s failings.
He did, however, admit that the famous “nuke the fridge” scene was his idea.
“Blame me. Don’t blame George. That was my silly idea. People stopped saying “jump the shark”. They now say, “nuked the fridge”. I’m proud of that. I’m glad I was able to bring that into popular culture.”
So, who was to blame for the CGI monkeys and prairie dogs?