Mashable posted a video that discusses some of the trouble in getting Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull made. The headline claims Crystal Skull barely survived development hell, but according to the video it seems more like it just took a while for everyone to find a story they were happy with. Basically the script was in development in some capacity or another since immediately after the release of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, with a lot of revisions mostly hinging on how much the movie should look like a ’50s sci-fi flick and how much it should retain the classic adventure-serials vibe. A version of the script was completed just as Independence Day came out, cooling everyone’s interest in making an overtly extra-terrestrial-themed Indy movie.
But eventually all that got sorted out, allowing the uncompromised vision the viewing public was indifferent to, at best, to make it onto the big screen.
The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull has a mountain of problems. But one thing that it did do successfully was blend the atomic-age flying-saucer elements into the established Indiana Jones two-fisted archaeology framework. Cate Blanchett as a saber-wielding soviet commander is always welcome, and some of us—who would never admit it openly lest they face the ridicule of the whole of the internet—even thought the scene where Indy survived the nuclear blast in a refrigerator was kind of funny.