Where's Indy?

The word on the fourth Indiana Jones installment is that the man with the lopsided grin in the crumpled hat won't be arriving anytime soon.

Lara Croft may be the world's most popular archeologist at the moment, as she blasts her way across movie screens in her feature debut, but countless fans are anxiously awaiting the return of that other, more enduring archeologist: Indiana Jones. For months now, rumors about preparations for a sequel to the Indiana Jones trilogy have been circulating. While Harrison Ford is ready to take up his whip again 12 years after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, for producer George Lucas the deal is not yet complete. Production is being held back as negotiations continue with Paramount, which means filming certainly won't begin this year. The trio behind the Indiana Jones franchise is also quite busy elsewhere: Harrison Ford is filming the submarine drama K-19: The Widowmaker with director Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days), producer George Lucas is putting the finishing touches on Star Wars: Episode II and Steven Spielberg is directing Minority Report, his second film this year after A.I.. The script is as illusive as the rest of the team; unfortunately, rumors that M. Night Shyamalan («Unbreakable») was writing it proved to be unfounded.