Harrison Ford

Steven Spielberg was greeted by a standing ovation Monday night at the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” 30th anniversary screening, hosted by Hero Complex at L.A. Live. The film’s star, Indiana Jones actor Harrison Ford, made a surprise appearance, interrupting Spielberg during the Q&A portion of the event, then joining him onstage. It’s the first time the pair have spoken about the film together in public, Spielberg said, and judging from the number of camera phones that suddenly appeared in the audience when Ford walked out, the fans were thrilled. Hero Complex will be posting its first clip from the event today. In the meantime, here’s a look at what some fans had to say on Twitter: Thanks to @LAHeroComplex for a great 30th anniversary 'Raiders' screening with Mr Spielberg and Mr Harrison Ford.—   (@edgarwright) September 13, 2011 Harrison […]

In honor of the 30th anniversary of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Hero Complex will be screening the film on Monday with an onstage Q&A with Steven Spielberg. Leading up to the event, we’ve been looking back at the landmark film and its influence on cinema and pop culture. Today, a trip down the toy aisle. As strange as it sounds, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” toys and merchandise were somewhat hard-to-find treasures when the film became a box-office sensation back in 1981. The usual scenario these days is to start launching movie tie-ins weeks or months before a film’s opening weekend, but it was a different landscape three decades ago when Indiana Jones became a box-office sensation. That’s not to say that the fedora hero was nowhere in sight — there were trading cards, a movie novelization, a collector’s magazine […]

In honor of the 30th anniversary of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Hero Complex has been looking back at the landmark film and its influence on cinema and pop culture. Today, a gem from the Los Angeles Times archives: “Raiders” obviously made an impression on these young fellows, decked out with hats, whips and jackets a la Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones in this photograph taken by Times staffer Mike Meadows in the days of “Thriller” and Ronald Reagan. The picture shows the group of young men waiting for the opening of the second film in the series, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” which was released May 23, 1984. They weren’t alone. More than 1,000 people lined up outside Mann’s Chinese for the “semi-annual Lucasfilm pilgrimage,” many dressed as “virtual Indiana clones,” the Times reported at the time. Other […]

In honor of the 30th anniversary of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Emmy-winning writer and producer Damon Lindelof, in a guest essay for Hero Complex, describes seeing the action-adventure film for the first time when he was 8 years old. Let’s just say the movie made an impact on Lindelof, whose credits include “Lost” and the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot. Read his essay below, and enjoy photos from the set of “Raiders” and the film itself in the gallery above. Be sure to click CAPTIONS ON. GUEST ESSAY I remember with great clarity the last time I peed my pants. This was not, contrary to later reports, an “accident.”  It was a decision I made of sound mind and body and one that I make no apologies for.  Despite overwhelming opportunity to release my bladder the way most civilized people do […]

To mark the 30th anniversary of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Hero Complex is hosting a free screening of the Indiana Jones classic – and a live onstage interview with Hollywood titan Steven Spielberg. The event with the three-time Oscar winner is Sept. 12 at the Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 in downtown Los Angeles. The screening of the newly restored and digitally projected film begins at 7 p.m., and the interview, moderated by Hero Complex lead writer Geoff Boucher, will follow the movie. The tickets are free and are now available through our sign-up website. To be eligible for ticket giveaways that will lead up to the screening — and to find out about other upcoming Hero Complex events – follow us on Twitter: @LATherocomplex. The 64-year-old Spielberg is approaching a new chapter of his career with two December releases, “War Horse” and “The Adventures of Tintin,” […]

We recently brought you a pretty cool feature about the energized scene of pop-culture poster art and one of the leading names in that scene, Mondo, will release a new series of limited-edition “Cowboys & Aliens” posters on Friday (keep an eye on Mondo’s Twitter account for details). The series was curated by “Cowboys” director Jon Favreau — he personally picked the artists from the Mondo roster — and the filmmaker is a big fan of the Mondo shop after working with them on the “Iron Man” franchise as well as the memorable Janee Meadows one-sheet for “Cowboys” that became a viral sensation in June. The series includes work by Daniel Danger, Tom Whalen and Florian Bertmer and we got some comments from each of them about their approach to creating singular images based on a new popcorn universe. (Click on the “Captions On” option in photo gallery to […]

It was quite the Hollywood posse — Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau, Ron Howard and Olivia Wilde? Comic-Con International has been bringing in movie stars for years now, but the San Diego pop-culture expo has never seen anything like the world premiere of “Cowboys & Aliens” on Saturday. Favreau, the director of the film and a true savant when it comes to fanboy culture and film promotion, championed the idea of making the premiere a Comic-Con tie-in. It was at Comic-Con that Favreau found his way to the project in the first place (as he explained to Hero Complex when we visited the film’s New Mexico set), and it was at Comic-Con that he introduced the movie to the world last year via a memorable preview panel. If the movie does well when it opens Friday, he might just round up the […]

You see the strangest things in the desert. Last year, for instance, if you followed a ridgeline in Abiquiu, N.M., you would have discovered a massive alien spaceship and, nearby, James Bond strumming a ukulele beneath a wispy tamarix tree. “Wait around,” he muttered, “and Indiana Jones might show up too.” The man with the four-string uke was actor Daniel Craig, who is best known as the British spy 007 but was on this particular day on location with “Cowboys & Aliens,” an audacious $180-million film that also stars “Raiders of the Lost Ark” hero Harrison Ford. Both actors have brought grim, granite stares to the project, which leads to a nagging question: Is this film as silly as its title or as fierce as its famous faces? “I’m not sure anyone knows what to make of this movie,” Craig […]

There were plenty of offers through the years, but Vic Armstrong, Hollywood’s most celebrated stuntman, had no interest in writing a blow-by-blow account of his career in mayhem. “Every time someone hears you’re a stuntman and you’re chatting away about what you’ve done over the years, they say, ‘Oh, you should write a book,’” he said. “And the moment they start talking about the book, they want to concentrate on all the crashes and broken bones.” To the 64-year-old Armstrong, being a stuntman isn’t about bad accidents; it’s about doing the job right. Armstrong says asking him about getting hurt is like asking professional race-car drivers how many times they’ve crashed. He’s more interested in recounting stories of achievement — and there are plenty of them, considering he has taken lumps for Indiana Jones, James Bond and Superman up on the […]

EXCLUSIVE It looks like “Cowboys & Aliens” will saddle up in San Diego. Filmmaker Jon Favreau had just walked off stage Sunday night after a sparkling  “Iron Man” reunion at the Hero Complex Film Festival, but his thoughts were already on a far-bigger spotlight moment this summer — Comic-Con International in San Diego. “The worldwide premiere of  ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ will be at Comic-Con,” the director said of his hard-edged sci-fi western that stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde and Sam Rockwell  “And not only are we going to premiere it there, we’re going to find a way to include as many of the fans as possible. I feel like they’ve come out for me, they’ve supported me.” The movie goes into wide release on July 29 with its tale of an alien invasion in six-shooter days of 1873 Arizona. To some […]