Indiana Jones (franchise) Lucas, Spielberg, Frank Marshall, and Kathleen Kennedy met during the American Film Institute's tribute to Ford, and decided they wanted to enjoy the experience of making an Indiana Jones film again. Spielberg also found returning to the series a respite from his many dark films during this period. Spielberg and Lucas discussed the central idea of a B-movie involving aliens, and Lucas suggested using crystal skulls to ground the idea. Lucas found these artifacts as fascinating as the Ark, and had intended to feature them for a "Young Indiana Jones" episode before the show's cancellation. M. Night Shyamalan was hired
Indiana Jones (franchise) fact, rather than myth." MacGregor's favorite book was "The Seven Veils", which featured real-life explorer Percy Fawcett and the death of Indiana's wife, Deirdre Campbell. Martin Caidin wrote the next two novels in Bantam's series, "Indiana Jones and the Sky Pirates" and "Indiana Jones and the White Witch". These feature Gale Parker as Indiana's sidekick; they introduced afterwords to the series, regarding each novel's historical context. Caidin became ill, so Max McCoy took over in 1995 and wrote the final four novels: "Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone", "Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs", "Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth",