Not long ago it seemed like any prospect of a 4th Indiana Jones movie had been boxed up and filed away in a warehouse somewhere, left to rot along with the long forgotten Ark of the Covenant. But, thankfully that is not so, and come next summer we'll be back in Indy's world again, and I, for one, am very excited.

At this point only news of shortround making a return appearance could top my already dangerous excitement levels, but then I found out that Spielberg and Lucas had filed for the copyright on 6 titles... whether these are all potential movie titles is not clear, as there are gonna be games too, but I reckon THE title is amongst them... and thus we should know from that what Indy will be chasing this time round.

Anyhoo, here's the titles we have to play with...

Indiana Jones and the City of Gods
Indiana Jones and the Destroyer of Worlds
Indiana Jones and the Fourth Corner of the Earth
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Indiana Jones and the Lost City of Gold
Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Covenant


I think these are all interesting, but a few stand out....

Fristly I think that Destroyer of Worlds is a little too fantasy even for Indiana Jones... it sounds more like a game title, and a crap one at that.

City of Gods and Lost City of Gold suggest that Indy is going after the fallen empire of Atlantis (this could be interesting, but how do you fit a civilisation into your satchel or the back of a truck?).

Fourth Corner of the Earth could, possibly, be about the quest for the hanging gardens of Babylon, or even the Garden of Eden, but problem with this title is that its a little too vague for a movie, and the scale of the the artifact is too grand. One of the greatest things about Indy's quests is that the object of his desire can move around in the hands of ana enemy etc. With the above possibilities you lose that, but, once again, he can't put either of these into his satchel or truck etc, and a place/location is very hard to stake a claim of.

The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, once again, is a little too far into the realm of fantasy, but then gain you could say that 'Temple of Doom' was too. But, if they're gonna bring Indy back for one last quest I would expect him to be going after a recognised artifact (in a movie with a decent title), and not a fictional one (with a .

So, that leaves just one title left.... Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Covenant. Obviously this would refer to the Ark (i.e. Raiders of the Lost Ark), a problem here could be that they are covering old ground, going after the same artifact.... again. However, I believe that this could just be the best way to wrap up one of the greatest action adventure franchises in movie history. Official Ideas for the plotting of such a quest have suggested that Indy will pursue the Ark with an eye to claiming it before the Russians can unleash its power for their own malevolent ends in the Cold War. I think it would be great for Indy to finally locate the Ark and get the 'fortune and glory' he has been seeking since the day he let the Cross of Coronado slip through his fingers back in his scout days.

As a passionate Indy fan it sounds intriguing to me (even without the Nazi bad guys), but it'll be a few months before we know much more.

Until then this is all just speculation, but somewhere in there is the truth.... perhaps?