Indy, Batman, Narnia all return in 2008

updated 2:11 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2008

LOS ANGELES - Thanks to the long lead time for big-screen productions, the 2008 film schedule will unspool largely uninterrupted despite the writers strike.

With a solid range of prospects, the 2008 lineup offers plenty of intriguing questions.

Can Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones still throw a punch and a wisecrack? Is Harry Potter looking ahead to senior prom now that he’s in his next-to-last year at Hogwarts? Will Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto live long and prosper as the “Trek” world’s new Kirk and Spock?

And just what have perpetually lovelorn writer Carrie Bradshaw and her gal pals been up to since “Sex and the City” went off the air in 2004?

Sarah Jessica Parker, who reprises the role in New Line Cinema’s upcoming big-screen adaptation of “Sex and the City,” is not at liberty to say.

“I was given a pill by New Line, and it erased my short-term memory. They took away my script,” said Parker, who rejoins castmates Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon.

Coyness over plot points is an epidemic this time of year as stars and filmmakers look ahead to their big releases. In the age of Internet spoilers, everyone wants to keep as much as they can secret so fans don’t go into the theater already quoting the script.

‘The Dark Knight’ is no ‘standard-issue sequel’
Continuing the story of Bruce Wayne after “Batman Begins,” director Christopher Nolan bluntly said “you’ll need to see the movie” if you want to know what Christian Bale’s tragedy-torn superhero is up to.

Nolan does offer an answer to the obvious question: Why doesn’t the latest Batman movie have the word “Batman” in the title?

“In doing a continuation of the story, we didn’t want to give the impression that it’s just going to be the standard-issue sequel,” Nolan said of “The Dark Knight,” due out this summer from Warner Bros. “We wanted this to be the definitive take on who the Dark Knight is and what that represents and what the meaning of that appellation is.”

The sequel does make good on the tease at the end of “Batman Begins,” which set up Bale’s first encounter with his ultimate nemesis. Heath Ledger plays the Joker, and Nolan promised an utterly different take from Jack Nicholson’s in 1989’s “Batman.”

“The corrupted clown face is built into the icon of the Joker, but we gave a Francis Bacon spin to it. This corruption, this decay in the texture of the look itself. It’s grubby. You can almost imagine what he smells like,” Nolan said.

Does Shia LaBeouf play Indy’s son?
Fan imaginations have run wild over Paramount’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” the first film about Ford’s archaeologist-adventurer in 19 years.

Set in 1957, “Crystal Skull” pits Indy against the Soviets, whose number includes Cate Blanchett, Ford confirmed. Beyond that, Ford’s not leaking plot details, including whether new co-star Shia LaBeouf is Indy’s son or whether Ford shares any romantic moments with Blanchett.

“They remain true to their characters. There’s a certain tension between the two, but not a sexual energy,” Ford said cryptically of his and Blanchett’s characters.

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Ford also kept quiet on how Indy reunites with Karen Allen’s character.

“It’s great to have Karen back,” Ford said. “I can’t really tell you much, though. It’s a little too early to be saying much more than what’s already been said, and I don’t want to be the one to unwrap the Christmas present.”

While it remains a mystery if Ford gets to play LaBeouf’s dad in the new movie, Indy himself is not reunited with his own father. Ford was disappointed that Sean Connery, who played Henry Jones Sr. in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” decided not to reprise the role.

The 65-year-old Ford had a wisecrack worthy of Indy about that: “As I told Sean, I’m getting old enough to play my own father, so we don’t need him, anymore.”

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