At 80, Harrison Ford has taken down his whip and his old hat to return to service in the fifth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, The Dial of Destiny… A role that sticks with him forever, but that he almost never played, as he himself recalled in an interview for Deadline. “How did I get the job?” Tom Selleck had the main role, but he had also signed for a TV series and he was unable to break the contract, said Ford during a master class organized during the Taormina Film Festival. I was the second choice, but I’m very grateful to Tom. Thanks Tom, if you’re listening to me, thanks again…”

He then recounted how producer George Lucas, whom he had known from Star Wars, called him to tell him to read the Raiders of the Lost Ark script immediately, which will be shot by Steven Spielberg. “He said, ‘I want you to read it right now, in an hour.’ I sat down, read it for an hour, and he called me back and said, “Now I want you to go to Spielberg’s and talk to him,” the actor continued. So I went to Steven Spielberg, I had never met him before. And I guess about an hour later I got the job…”

When George Lucas got down to Indiana Jones at the end of the 1970s, just after the success of Star Wars, he already had the idea of ??entrusting the production to his friend Spielberg, who dreamed of making a film. James Bond action. It remains to find the right actor… We are considering Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Bill Murray and especially Tom Selleck, for whom Lucas’ wife has a soft spot. Macho, handsome, muscular, known to the public in the series Les Feux de l’amour and Funny Ladies, he was auditioned and hired in stride.

Except that Selleck has already signed for the detective series Magnum, which will become a huge success. The filming schedules are incompatible, the boss of CBS calls Lucas directly to tell him that the case is already closed, impossible to break the contract. The producer must quickly find a solution a few weeks before filming to avoid the shipwreck. That’s when Spielberg insisted on taking Harrison Ford, who starred in Star Wars. Lucas has been reluctant so far, fearing confusion with Star Wars hero Han Solo. But he has no choice, he has to go fast, hence his quick phone call to Ford to read the script right away.

We know the rest: the second choice will prove to be excellent, bringing to Indiana Jones a real depth, with its faults and its manias, far from a simple muscular hero chaining series of stunts… With a huge jackpot in the end since the four first installments made nearly two billion dollars at the box office. As for the fifth episode, just released, it has already garnered 140 million over a few days, suggesting a nice final result, despite Harrison Ford’s 80th birthday. Proof that good jams are always made in old jars…