The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull took many forms before blowing up on the big screen
Mashable posted a video that discusses some of the trouble in getting Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull made. The headline claims Crystal Skull barely survived development hell, but according to the video it seems more like it just took a while for everyone to find a story they were happy with. Basically the script was in development in some capacity or another since immediately after the release of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, with a lot of revisions mostly hinging on how much the movie should look like a ’50s sci-fi flick and how much it should retain the classic adventure-serials vibe. A version of the script was completed just as Independence Day came out, cooling everyone’s interest in making an overtly extra-terrestrial-themed Indy movie.