With Steven Spielberg’s epic return to popcorn filmmaking right around the corner with “Ready Player One,” many people are excitedly looking ahead to his next film, the long-in-development “Indiana Jones 5.” At the 2018 Empire Awards, Spielberg received a special award and used that time to give a quick update on Indy’s next adventure.
“It’s always worth the trip when I get to work with this deep bench of talent coming out of the UK. The actors, and the crew, the chippies, the sparks, the drivers — everybody who has helped me make my movies here, and will continue helping me make my movies here when I come back in April 2019 to make the fifth ‘Indiana Jones’ movie right here,” said the legendary director.
It’s been fairly common knowledge that 2019 would mark the beginning of production of ‘Indy 5,’ but this is the first time we got confirmation from Spielberg, himself, about the start date. However, with recent reports that the director was looking to film another film, in addition to ‘Indy 5,’ in 2019, an April 2019 start date might throw that into question.
Large productions, like ‘Indy 5,’ take a lot more time to film than typical prestige films. For example, Spielberg’s last ‘Indy’ film, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” filmed for a total of five months. If that timeline were the case this time, and there’s no reason that it wouldn’t be, filming wouldn’t end until almost September.
That wouldn’t leave much time for Spielberg to prep and film what is believed to be his first post-‘Indy 5’ project, “West Side Story,” or the secret project that he recently had a table read for. Most likely, this second project might get pushed to 2020, and filming wouldn’t end until well into that year. So, the odds of Spielberg having two films released 2020 is looking slim.
That being said, if anyone can do it, Spielberg can. The filmmaker is known for his speed and efficiency. There’s no doubt he has a team of creators that assist him in making sure the Spielberg Machine pumps out winners as quickly as possible.