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James Mangold takes Indiana Jones on one last adventure

AP PHOTO Director James Mangold poses for photographers upon arrival for the ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ party at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France on Thursday.

CANNES, France — When the lights came up after a screening on the Walt Disney lot of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” Steven Spielberg was incredulous.

“Damn!” he said. “I thought I was the only one who knew how to make one of these!”

“Dial of Destiny,” which premiered Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival, is the first Indiana Jones film without Spielberg behind the camera. After years of development, Spielberg and Lucasfilm decided to pass the reigns to James Mangold, the “Ford vs. Ferrari” filmmaker, who was 18 years old when he saw “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in a Hudson Valley theater on opening day in 1981.

“When I got over my initial hesitation of just: holy s— this is a big challenge to step into these very big shoes that Steven Spielberg is leaving, the opportunity, on a very selfish level, to collaborate and learn and have the tools and the resources to play on this level was hard to resist,” Mangold said.

Mangold was being tasked with not only restoring the luster of one of the most beloved film series after a disappointing fourth film in 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull,” but giving Harrison Ford a poignant send-off in his last performance as the character.

While no one is saying “Dial of Destiny” matches “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the consensus in Cannes was that it betters “Crystal Skull” by a wide margin. Mangold certainly has Ford’s endorsement.

“He more than filled the shoes,” Ford told reporters. “He made, for me, a beautiful movie.”

Before “Dial of Destiny” opens in theaters June 30, Mangold spoke about the challenges of capturing “Indiana Jones” tradition and carrying it forward. After a 1940s-set opening with a de-aged Ford, “Dial of Destiny” moves to the ’60s and finds an aged Jones weary and on the cusp of retirement. The space race has made him a relic of a bygone era.

And the notion of who Indiana — an Errol Flynn-like hero forged in the moral clarity of WWII — would be in a more complicated time, without the spryness of youth, factored heavily into Mangold’s thinking on “Dial of Destiny.” Remarks have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: How did you respond when this opportunity arose?

Mangold: When Harrison and Kathy (Kennedy) and Steven came to me about this — you’re talking about just heroes of my life. George Lucas. John Williams, too. The idea of being invited to not only play in an all-star game with that kind of team, but also take the mound and be the pitcher, is beyond. So you flash forward to this moment where I’m kind of stepping in to the director’s chair, and it’s a chance for me to both try and carry forward what I feel like I’ve been learning all my life from Steven’s work. And at the same time carrying my own voice, but wanting very much to work within the same kind of golden-age vernacular that he’s operating in. It’s pressure because you can’t be playing at a higher level with a headier crowd of luminaries around you. You either have to rise to the occasion or not.

AP: Were you surprised the job was even open? During the film’s long development, it was long assumed that Spielberg would direct.

Mangold: I don’t think directing an Indiana Jones film is a job. It is a lifetime commitment. There’s too many luminaries and too much involved. When they came to me they were very laser focused on me stepping in. The idea for me was that I wanted to write a script that I could get behind. I wanted to really retool the existing script pretty aggressively, almost entirely. But when they first came to me? It was a complete shock. I was numb. But I’m also not new at this. There’s a kid in me that’s tickled and flattered — the romantic in me. And then there’s the rational person who’s survived these movies up to this and knows how to make a picture like this.

AP: And so much of the what defines “Indiana Jones” is the ingenuity of the filmmaking: the clever reveals, the ingenious blocking.

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