Even before the ridiculousness that was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was in theaters, there was buzz on the blogosphere that an Indy 5 wasn’t out of the question. I think most of us assumed, of course, that Indy 4 would have to do well or be well-received in order for that to happen.

A source has informed pause.com that Indy 5 may in fact be in the works, but that it would be coming from Fox and not from Paramount. Hit the clicky thingie to read more…

Now, let’s just think back a couple of years, to when The Clone Wars was released by Warner Bros. and how everyone figured that Fox had passed on the movie because it was so bad (and the general concensus was, in fact, that Clone Wars was all sorts of not good).

Here we are then a year later and this info comes to us, making me all sorts of worried for a number of reasons.

In my opinion, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the greatest movies ever made. It was full of action, adventure, tension and it took itself seriously and pulled it off. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, while darker, was also a very good movie (if you ask me) although nowhere near the caliber of the first film.

Then came Indy 3, which I loathed. Despite the fact that I’m a big Sean Connery fan, I didn’t need the role of Indy’s father to be stunt-cast, and, to make matters worse, Marcus was now a bumbling clown and, oh yeah, the story was boring and lame.

So when we all heard that Indy 4 was being made to apologize for Indy 3, there was hope. Hope that was nuked like a fridge as soon as we saw the movie. I think Indy 4 was actually worse than Indy 3, and I didn’t think that was possible.

And now Indy 5 may be in the works, and from somebody other than Paramount, the studio that’s been releasing Indiana Jones movies for, what, 28 years?

There could be a couple reasons for this: First is that Paramount is now duly scared off from the last two Indy outings, for which nobody would blame them. The second reason, which is even scarier, is that Spielberg might not be directly involved, and he may have handed Indy 5 over pretty much lock, stock and barrel to George Lucas, who’s taken the film to Fox due to his long-time relationship with them. On the surface, this may seem like an iffy answer, especially given that Fox didn’t even want Clone Wars.

But still, there are many years and billions of dollars to consider in the Lucas / Fox relationship, so Lucas taking the film to Fox might not be that outlandish. Further, when you consider how bad Indy 4 was, and that Spielberg has said in the past that “those kinds of movies” aren’t really in him anymore, it’s not out of the question that he might just tell his pal George to run with it.

The new worry, then is that Lucas will make an Indy 5 that’s, and I shudder to think this, even worse than Indy 3 and Indy 4. Put together.

Your thoughts?