The final hurdle preventing future Indiana Jones installments has been cleared.
According to Deadline, Walt Disney Studios and Paramount Pictures have come to an agreement regarding the distribution of future Indiana Jones movies.
The new deal that is put in place gives Disney marketing and distribution rights on any future installment in the franchise as well as ownership rights through LucasFilm. Paramount will continue to have distribution rights of the first four Indiana Jones films. Disney will also have to give Paramount a certain, but unannounced financial award on future installments.
This may sound like it didn’t really change anything, but it did. If Disney had wanted to make a new Indiana Jones film before this agreement was in place, they would have needed to obtain permission from Paramount. With no agreement, this would have needed to happen for each new installment, and it’s just simpler for both studios to not have to worry about that.
It was rumored not long ago that Harrison Ford demanded Disney and LucasFilm guarantee him that Indiana Jones 5 would be happening before he agreed to reprise his Han Solo role in Star Wars: Episode VII. Ford cares more about being Dr. Jones again, and if the rumor was true, he was using his pull to make sure it would happen.
The rumor said that he didn’t get the official confirmation he wanted, but they did guarantee him that an outline for the fifth movie in the series would be completed by the end of next year with the movie coming out no later than December 2016.