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Entertainment Weekly posted a wonderful interview with Shia LaBeouf about his turn opposite Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Shia LaBeouf has risen to become a certifiable It Boy in Hollywood. The 21-year-old former Disney Channel star (who scored hits last year with Disturbia and Transformers) is anchoring not just the next Transformers film, but possibly further Indy sequels as well – movies that could make him less a sidekick and more a full-blown adventurer in his own right. (Not that anybody’s doing anything but talking speculatively at this point.) EW.com caught up with LaBeouf to talk about working with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, the unique perils of cigarette smoking, dirty on-set pranks, and what it’s like playing a 1950s greaser…when you weren’t even born until 1986.

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In the Vanity Fair article about “Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” George Lucas and Steven Spielberg agreed that the critics would not like their movie.  It appears that they were correct; yet, the critics at Cannes are much kinder than Lucas and Spielberg imagined.  Take a look at the Hollywood Reporter’s review by Kirk Honeycott and Variety’s review by Todd MCCarthy.

Honeycott seems to dislike the movie more than McCarthy.  To me McCarthy clearly likes the film while offering praise to Karen Allen, which I think she deserves.

Read the reviews for yourself and please post your thoughts. 

I am sure, as I know you are, “Indiana Jones” is going to score big time next week at the box office.   

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While on tour promoting “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” Steven Spielberg told German magazine FOCUS, he plans to put his attention on a huge project about President Lincoln and the Civil War. Filming could start early next year.

However, Spielberg plans to shoot “Tintin” in early fall first. It looks like back-to-back projects.

Keep in mind that the director has another project in the wings as well. He been prepping the Aaron Sorkin-scripted “The Trial of the Chicago Seven,” but, according to Variety, that became sketchy after he could not get rewrites during the writer’s strike. Spielberg had enlisted Sacha Baron Cohen and talked to other high profile actors about starring in a drama about the trial of anti-Vietnam war protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. That film will have to wait.

The Lincoln project looks like a sure thing after “Tintin” and could be ready for an early 2009 shoot because of several variables: Spielberg has proved adept at shooting back-to-back films, which he did most memorably when he made “Jurassic Park” and the Oscar-winning “Schindler’s List” in 1993. Also, his Lincoln project — informed by the biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “The Uniter: The Genius of Abraham Lincoln” — has a strong script by “Angels in America” playwright Tony Kushner (who rewrote “Munich” for Spielberg).

Spielberg also has Liam Neeson –who played Oskar Schindler — ready to play Lincoln. Neeson agreed more than three years ago to play the role for Spielberg, and has been waiting for a start date.

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Variety’s article about Karen Allen’s return to “Indiana Jones” franchise by David S. Cohen is quite charming, warm and entertaining. It’s hard to believe that 19 years has gone by since the last “Indiana Jones” movie.  Karen Allen was in the first, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” creating a Tracy-Hepburn feel to the serial genre of Lucas and Spielberg.  At the time, no one was aware of the huge impact of the film, looking back, its quite magical.

With the May 22nd opening of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” I recommend reading this article to reflect on the formative years of “Indiana” and the new and more wise renewal of “Indiana” today.

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Steven Soderbergh’s two films Che bio and Clint Eastwood’s”The Changeling” look like crowd and judges favorites at 61st Cannes Film Festival, meaning the U.S. has a contention for the Palme d’Or.

Soderbergh’s involvement appears to be a last-minute decision.

According to Variety, for much of this week, there seemed genuine uncertainty as to whether he

As made know earlier this year, Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” world premiers at the Croisette, hopefully Sunday May 18. It suppose to be this fest’s must-attend, highest-glam event.

Variety, also, reports, out-of-competition, DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda,” an adventure, comedic chop-soc tooner, promises another Hollywood red-carpet cavalcade.

Also non-competing, as is Woody Allen’s custom, is the Spain-shot “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

Clint Eastwood’s “The Changeling,” a 1920s-set kidnap thriller, with Angelina Jolie.

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