'Indiana Jones and the Great Circle', Indiana Jones Nerd, Kevin Shirkuh

0:08Jawad MirHi, everyone. This is Jawad, your host of Kingdom of Dreams Podcast. On today's episode, my guest is Kevin Shirka. He's one of the biggest Indiana Jones fans around the world. I mean, there are several, but he's definitely up there, and he, is joining to talk about an Indiana Jones game called Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. We talk about that. We talk about his YouTube channel, Indiana Jones Nerd, and a few other things. Without further ado, here is my conversation with Kevin Shirka. What a big surprise in the background.

0:42Kevin ShirkaYeah, all my posters and stuff. Yeah. Love it. I don't have the biggest… ... Collection, so this is, my way of displaying it.

0:52Jawad MirThat's okay. I mean, you go to all these sites and then premieres and stuff, so it makes up for that.

0:58Kevin ShirkaYeah, I've been having fun.

1:00Jawad MirAwesome.

1:01Kevin ShirkaWell, I'm totally honored, to talk to you and to be, invited, on your podcast here because, you have kind of a... You're kind of a mythical figure for me, actually, because when I first became a fan, I was like, you know, scouring all the websites, and The Raven obviously was a place I went a lot. And I saw your name in the... As like the founder, but you never like posted there. So, yeah, this is, this is just really cool for me to, talk with you.

1:33Jawad MirOh, man. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. No, it's been, it's been amazing even following like especially in the last two years. Indiana Jones came out last year, right?

1:43Kevin ShirkaYeah, definitely.

1:43Jawad MirLike I spo… I spoke to Mitch after all. Like Mitch and I…

1:49Kevin ShirkaIndyCast

1:49Jawad Mir... Probably communicated like way back in the days. And also, what's his name? Ed from

1:57Kevin ShirkaOh, yeah

1:58Jawad Mir... From…

1:58Kevin ShirkaEd Dolister.

1:59Jawad MirYeah.

1:59Kevin ShirkaIndyCast guys. Yeah. They're awesome. Yeah.

2:02Jawad MirAnd then I saw your pictures and everything, and then we kind of chatted. But yeah, it's been... It's, it's so crazy that Indiana Jones have been a… has been around for so long.

2:15Kevin ShirkaYeah.

2:15Jawad MirBut in terms of like the people being connected, obviously that started after the internet became… ... You know, what it became…

2:22Kevin ShirkaYeah

2:22Jawad Mir... In the late '90s, and people are still connected. It's just amazing what movies do.

2:28Kevin ShirkaYeah, and especially like the way that it all kind of came back together 'cause for 14 years we didn't have any content, which is absolutely crazy to me.

2:39Jawad MirYeah.

2:39Kevin ShirkaAnd now when news of the new movie was coming out, yeah, I kicked off my channel and, you know, a lot of people were getting excited and that's, that's the point really that I started really connecting with, a lot of these guys who are like my good friends now. Even though I was part of The Raven from like 20 years ago but, you know, after Indy 4 I think some of the interest, fell off a little bit, but the last few years have been really fun. Yeah.

3:06Jawad MirYeah. Is The Raven still active, running, up and running?

3:09Kevin ShirkaIt is still active. Yeah, it has been... There have been some hiatuses but, as of like a year or two ago it's back. Yeah, so it's going strong.

3:20Jawad MirThat's really good to hear, man. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, buddy. I appreciate, Kevin, for joining on Kingdom of Dreams Podcast.

3:26Kevin ShirkaThank you. Yeah.

3:27Jawad MirWe're gonna talk about a video game that I actually just saw the trailer of, Indiana Jones and the s… don't tell me, Circle. Golden Circle? No.

3:39Kevin ShirkaClose. It is a G word.

3:44Jawad MirI should have known this. I just, I just read about it. I saw the trailer. Tell me.

3:49Kevin ShirkaIndiana Jones and the Great Circle.

3:52Jawad MirGreat Circle. Of course, the G word.

3:54Kevin ShirkaThat's what I think of.

3:56Jawad MirYeah, no, it's, it's, the only Indiana Jones game I ever played, which to date I can't find out which one it was, it was in the late '90s or early 2000. I remember playing it on my PC.

4:10Kevin ShirkaWas it Infernal Machine?

4:12Jawad MirI wouldn't know. I would just know visually, like I just remember…

4:16Kevin ShirkaOkay

4:16Jawad Mir... I just remember…

4:16Kevin ShirkaWas it kind of like 3D but it was like blocky?

4:20Jawad MirYeah.

4:20Kevin ShirkaYeah.

4:21Jawad MirYeah.

4:21Kevin ShirkaInfernal Machine.

4:22Jawad MirYeah. And

4:22Kevin ShirkaThat was kind of the first for me too actually I guess

4:24Jawad Mir... It was, it was pretty good because I used to play it like, you know, for different levels. I was a j… I was a big gamer at the time with Doom and…

4:31Kevin ShirkaOh, yeah. Yeah

4:32Jawad Mir... You know, yeah, and, Indiana Jones and NHL and all that, but that was the only game that I ever played and I just saw the trailer and I was like, "Wow, man." Like just technology has just... I mean, these facial like y… you know, like Harrison Ford's character…

4:47Kevin ShirkaYeah

4:47Jawad Mir... And all the char… They just look so close to being real and it's crazy, and it just brought back a lot of memories, especially when he's fighting with the whip because that's exactly what the Infernal Machine

4:57Kevin ShirkaYeah

4:58Jawad Mir... Was like.

4:59Kevin ShirkaYeah. Yeah, I mean, you raise a good point. I do think it looks really good. They studied like makeup turnaround footage from the '80s like of Harrison Ford to make sure they get the look right, and this guy, Troy Baker, who they hired to play Indy, does such a good job. Like you can't even tell that it's not Harrison Ford. Like to me it's totally believable, that it is Ford, you know?

5:25Jawad MirYeah, it, I'm glad you mentioned that because when you first hear his... I'm just talking specifically trailer, right?

5:31Kevin ShirkaYeah.

5:31Jawad MirWhen you first hear him talk like is... They didn't pay Harrison Por… Ford to do the voice for the film. There's no way. They don't have that budget. And then when you play really close attention, like really, maybe you can pick up here and there, but it's still... Even the way he laughs and the way he…

5:50Kevin ShirkaYeah.

5:50Jawad Mir... Sighs, everything sounds like Harrison Ford.

5:53Kevin ShirkaYeah. Yeah. It like... When they... The developer told us a story when they listened to the audio samples of this voice actor, Troy Baker, they thought it was the Harrison Ford audio samples. That like... That's how convincing it was that they…

6:10Jawad MirWow

6:11Kevin Shirka... Couldn't tell that it was somebody else. Yeah. And I think you can, yeah, you can tell, like you said, 'cause it's really convincing.

6:17Jawad MirThat's amazing. So you played the game a little bit. Talk about it.

6:21Kevin ShirkaI have played the game for, about two hours 15 minutes. I played, Marshall College, all of Marshall College, and a little bit at the Vatican, and at, Giza, Egypt, and I absolutely love it, honestly. I mean, Indiana Jones is obviously really important to me, so just the fact that we're getting a new game is enough, but I do think that it's really satisfying, and it has a lot of... Like, in a lot of ways, they tried to think about what would be a great Indiana Jones game, not just recycling what Tomb Raider or Uncharted did. But, you know, they went in first person perspective, totally different. It makes it much more immersive, makes the level design more immersive, and it borrows, like, immersive sim elements a little bit, like from Dishonored. I'm not sure if you ever played those games, but, like that's what this series is.

7:22Jawad MirSim I know about.

7:23Kevin ShirkaYeah.

7:23Jawad MirSim I know about. Dishonored I don't know anything about, no.

7:26Kevin ShirkaYeah. So, yeah, it borrows some of those elements. And it... There's just a lot of variety in the gameplay too. Like, you have these huge open areas, and you have, you know, obviously the fist fighting mechanics, but you have stealth, and you have platforming, and there's gonna be some big action set pieces, and great cinematics too. Honestly, they showed us... Well, I was one of the only people who got to it, but there was a really fun cinematic, at the end of the gameplay demo where it was, you know, Indy meeting the villain for the first time and... But the dynamic between the characters keeps going back and forth, and it was just really unpredictable, and funny, and suspenseful, and just like, you know, a perfectly made scene from an Indiana Jones movie. And it really convinced me that this is a, you know, worthy installment, that this is a great Indiana Jones experience.

8:34Kevin ShirkaYeah.

8:36Jawad MirAnd is this on... This is on Xbox, right? Am I correct?

8:38Kevin ShirkaYeah. I guess the one that I played was on PC, but you had the option of controller, so I did play with the Xbox controller.

8:46Jawad MirOkay.

8:47Kevin ShirkaYeah.

8:47Jawad MirAnd it's been... How long has it been since an Indiana Jones game…

8:52Kevin ShirkaWell…

8:52Jawad Mir... Has come out?

8:53Kevin ShirkaThe last one…

8:53Jawad MirIt's been a long…

8:54Kevin Shirka... Was technically in 2009, which was 15 years ago, but that actually... Even that doesn't really count because the LucasArts game was canceled, and they only released, like, these two sort of like ports, I guess maybe you would call it, by other companies that were just supposed to supplement it. Those were the only ones that were released, so they weren't even, like, satisfying, honestly. But, the last, like, real one, you have to go all the way back to 2003, so it's been more than 20 years. Emperor's Tomb. Yeah. Can you believe that?

9:30Jawad MirWow.

9:31Kevin ShirkaYeah.

9:31Jawad MirWhy, wh… You figure... Okay.

9:33Kevin ShirkaYeah.

9:33Jawad MirSo if you look at, if you look at Jurassic Park, right? First, second, and third came out, and then the Jurassic Park universe was kind of just gone. And then when Jurassic World started coming out, which was about 11, 12 years ago, since then there has been so much, not only just the movies, but there's that Netflix series, Chaos Theory, like for kids.

9:58Kevin ShirkaYeah.

9:58Jawad MirAnd then there's all these video games and toys, just to kind of keep people, that awareness, that brand awareness. And Indiana Jones is such a big brand, you figure they would release a game. I mean, with Star Wars they do, I'm pretty sure.

10:12Jawad MirThey would release a game every two, three, four years at least.

10:16Kevin ShirkaYeah.

10:17Jawad MirWhy do you think that is?

10:18Kevin ShirkaYeah. Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, because this franchise seems to really suffer from a lack of content that keeps the people, interested, that generates interest in the young kids. I mean, we had a few things, obviously, over the years, like Young Indy, the last two movies, that maybe, weren't quite what people were expecting. And so maybe, like, Lucasfilm might look at that and be like, "Oh, I guess people aren't interested in Indiana Jones anymore," so they really focused, like, on Star Wars. But yeah, I agree. I definitely think that there should have been an animated series by now because it's... It would be such a knockoff, such a obvious, success, a grand slam.

11:10Jawad Mir100%.

11:11Kevin ShirkaYou know? Yeah.

11:11Jawad MirYeah. I know the Young Indy came out, like, after Last Crusade, so it was in the early 90s…

11:16Kevin ShirkaYeah

11:16Jawad Mir... Mid-90s.

11:17Kevin ShirkaRight.

11:17Jawad MirAnd then I remember they were start, they started talking about the fourth film in the late 90s, and obviously because the script, it took nine years. I'll give them that. But living in the world that we're living in the last 10, 15 years with social media and all the technology, yeah, animated series, I mean, you can just gen… You can literally set up the next generation of Indiana Jones fans, even if they make another Indiana Jones movie without Harrison Ford. Like, you know, when we…

11:45Kevin ShirkaRight

11:46Jawad Mir... When we are, like, in our 80s and whatever, 90s, there, you can set up all that generation, the current generation…

11:52Kevin ShirkaYeah

11:52Jawad Mir... For that.

11:54Kevin ShirkaYeah, they're just sitting on this money. I don't know why they're, they're not doing it. Yeah, 'cause it's, it's really fun, and they've, they've allowed, like, other brands, like I said, Too… Tomb Raider, Uncharter, Tomb Raider and Uncharted, kind of come in and, you know, with younger kids becoming really synonymous with adventure, and some people, at a young age, like, don't even know I… Indiana Jones and what great movies these are. And… There are some good stories out there too, like obviously, Fate of Atlantis or Infernal Machine. They're both written by Hal Barwood. Like, you could easily adapt those as like a, you know, a little episode or something, and you know, people would, people would eat it up. People would love it, just 'cause those are great stories.

12:38Jawad MirYeah. I mean, now you're saying, you're talking about young kids. I saw this, and now I don't know if this was staged or not, but it was, looked pretty damn authentic. Somebody asked some kid, I'm guessing he was probably seven or eight years old, "Who's Darth Vader?" No clue.

12:55Kevin ShirkaOh, really?

12:56Jawad MirAnd I was like…

12:57Kevin ShirkaWow

12:57Jawad Mir... If Star Wars is such a big thing, because you have the force.net, then you have all these Star Wars shows and movies, and this... I mean, unless he is not into movies, that's another thing, or like, you know…

13:07Kevin ShirkaYeah

13:07Jawad Mir... The entertainment world, but still not knowing who Darth Vader is. I figure everybody who doesn't even watch Star Wars you know who Darth Vader is.

13:16Kevin ShirkaYeah, that's pretty surprising.

13:17Jawad Mir'Cause it was a… it was actually, it was actually when James Earl Jones passed away, like just a…

13:21Kevin ShirkaOh, right

13:21Jawad Mir... Few weeks ago. But going back to…

13:24Kevin ShirkaYou know, Darth Vader, fought Indiana Jones one time. Did you know that?

13:28Jawad MirNo.

13:28Kevin ShirkaYeah. It, so they have the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular in Florida.

13:35Jawad MirYeah

13:35Kevin Shirka... And one weekend, I think it was when they had Star Wars Celebration down there, and it was corresponding with, like, the last show of the Star Tours attraction, which was gonna be, like, changed into the new one at the time. So as a special, one-off, event, they had, the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, but with some Star Wars characters mixed in there. So instead of the big German mechanic, Indy fought, Vader with a lightsaber, and there's video of it, on YouTube actually. Yeah, you can, you can find it.

14:10Jawad MirWow, that's pretty cool. Was this before Disney acquired Lucas?

14:15Kevin ShirkaOoh. It may ha… ah, it was right in there. It may have been somewhere during 2012. I'm not sure exactly.

14:23Jawad MirYeah.

14:23Kevin ShirkaYeah.

14:23Jawad Mir'Cause I don't see Disney letting that happen. I don't know, I just don't see that happening. 'Cause the, Disney's very particular about branding and everything, but…

14:32Kevin ShirkaYeah, that's true

14:32Jawad Mir... But, going back, go back to the, going back to the game, like just… ... Maybe, I don't know. I'm not a gamer, so forgive me, but I have played games, probably not as much as a lot of other people have. Just run down some of the elements or some levels where you had trouble. Just anything that you can talk about the game.

14:50Kevin ShirkaSure. Well, like definitely one thing that jumps into my mind, i… in the years running up to this game, my thinking and my hope was, remember that part of Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Germans have this dig site at Tanis, and Indy is kind of secretly going around doing his own ex… excavation, just trying to not get caught, trying to find these artifacts, do all this stuff, and like, that's exactly what I want from an Indiana Jones game. And when we played the Giza level, the Egypt level, it was exactly that. It was a, this huge open world. It's set between, you know, the Great Pyramids and the edge of the, city there. The village you can go to. The Sphinx is there, and there's all these places you can go. There's all these little, like, hidden chambers that you find little one-off artifacts. There's like the main parts of the German, camp and dig site that, you know, you have to wear a disguise, and even then it might not be enough.

15:52Kevin ShirkaAnd yeah, just it was really immer… and like I said, there was a village as well, and you go and, like, you have to buy a lighter from the village in order to access parts of the chamber that you can't access without creating some fire. And, yeah, it was just... It's really immersive. It really felt like that spirit of Raiders of the Lost Ark, was alive, and was what we were playing, and that you were Indiana Jones. Because you see it through his perspective. You go, you pick up an artifact, and it's like right here. You go and you solve puzzles, and like, you look yourself at the wall. And like I said, like the level design is,.. Like, you go into the chambers and the caverns and it's like really narrow. Because you don't have to have like a third person camera, that the camera's way back here.

16:45Kevin ShirkaSo you don't have to have a wide space. So you can have this really narrow space. So it's really, thoughtful how the levels, were designed. And, as far as I know, there's gonna be seven, locations. So, obviously Marshall College. There is gonna be at least some parts in Peru, which, seems to be the recreation of the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is gonna be kind of interesting to see how that ties in. And I do have some theories about that. But then we get, we go to the Vatican, which is really cool, a place that Indy hasn't been before. And, like it works out really nicely, like historically too, because it's 1937, so it's right after Mussolini has, like, become friends with, the Germans, and it's also during this time when, Mussolini is really close with the, with the Pope.

17:49Kevin ShirkaSo Mussolini is actually in the game as far as we can tell.

17:53Jawad MirOh, really?

17:54Kevin ShirkaYeah. There's a, there's like a... We saw one video clip that it… it's him and it's, the main villain, the German villain, Voss, and it's like basically Mussolini has personally brought these guys in here to access the Vatican treasury room. And let's see. So yeah, just really well thought out in a lot of ways. And then we go to, we have one scene in the Himalayas, which is like a battleship has been transported by this artifact somehow to be on top of, like, the snowy mountains of the Himalayas. And we also have Shanghai and… Sukhothai, Thailand, and one, two…

18:36Jawad MirWow

18:37Kevin Shirka... Three, four, five, six, and that's it. Yeah., So pretty good. Pretty diverse locations, yeah.

18:43Jawad MirThat's pretty cool. I was,.. You know about Apple Vision Pro, right? The headset they have for…

18:48Kevin ShirkaOh, yeah. VR stuff?

18:49Jawad MirYeah.

18:50Kevin ShirkaYeah, okay.

18:50Jawad MirSo they... So someb… I, again, this is, like, on social media, some developer, made this app where if you're wearing it… ... And let's say you're walking through Times Square, right? And with the click of a button or whatever command, that entire place changes into a desert, but the struc…

19:13Jawad Mir... The layout and the structure remains the same. The people walking, they turn... Their outfits…

19:18Kevin ShirkaOh, that's cool

19:18Jawad Mir... Their outfits changes, and then it switches…

19:20Kevin ShirkaYeah

19:21Jawad Mir... To winter, and it switches to this and that. And I'm just thinking, you know, the way the games are going and the technology is going. And I was talking to David Smith, I think his name is. He is the CEO of this company called Plates Pros. They do, like, immersive visual effects for, like,.. They did it for Joker where all the scenes when Joker, when Joaquin Phoenix was in the bus, everything outside were shot way before, and they had to, like, using technology, they kind of made it look like that it was, you know, real place. The way I see things now, and I asked him about... Am, do, have you ever seen Star Trek: The Next Generation?

20:00Kevin ShirkaOh, yeah., Yeah, the VR…

20:03Jawad MirThe…

20:03Kevin Shirka... Or whatever

20:03Jawad Mir... The…

20:03Kevin ShirkaHolodeck. Yeah

20:04Jawad Mir... Holodeck. Imagine the future of movies and games being that, where you're actually…

20:12Kevin ShirkaYeah, that's pretty cool

20:12Jawad Mir... In that world. I don't know how…

20:14Kevin ShirkaYeah

20:14Jawad Mir... That's gonna be, but I just think that is probably the highest point you can get to, where every, all the fake world that we live in now becomes…

20:23Kevin ShirkaYeah

20:23Jawad Mir... Extremely real.

20:25Kevin ShirkaYeah.

20:25Jawad MirWouldn't it be cool that you'll be, like, with Indiana Jones or in, you know…

20:29Kevin ShirkaYeah

20:29Jawad Mir... In the actual environment as yourself?

20:32Kevin ShirkaTotally, yeah. Yeah, totally. A lot of people have said this game would look really good in VR, and it would, it would be perfect for it. Yeah. I would love that.

20:43Jawad MirDo you see that happening in the next 10 years, five years?

20:47Kevin ShirkaI... Yeah, I guess. It's possible. Yeah. I mean, I don't know a ton about stuff like that, but it seems like technology has, gone really good, especially when it comes to, like, entertainment stuff like that, and immersive things. Like, people really wants, want that sort of thing.

21:01Jawad MirYeah.

21:02Kevin ShirkaAnd, like, they have the volume obviously. You know about that, right? That Star Wars…

21:07Jawad MirYeah

21:07Kevin Shirka... Uses it. Yeah. I know that's not exactly the same thing, but, still pretty impressive. 'Cause, like, the camera, you know, the camera moves, but it still, like, looks authentic somehow, like they figure out how to do all that stuff. So yeah. Man, it's, it's pretty amazing what they come up with.

21:25Jawad MirIt is. It is.

21:26Kevin ShirkaLove to see it.

21:26Jawad MirTell me how you got into Indiana Jones. Like, what was…

21:29Kevin ShirkaSure. Yeah. I'd love to. My family and I, my mom, dad, my sister, we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and, Last Crusade, maybe Temple of Doom as well, when we were... When I was really young, when I was a kid. And then a few years later, like, I got into Star Wars, and I got into James Bond, and then one day I was at home, and, I was sick, and I was, you know, on the TV, and Last Crusade came up. And I was like, "Man, I forgot what a great movie this was." And obviously, Sean Connery is in it, who was James Bond, and Harrison Ford was in it…

22:13Kevin Shirka... Who was Han Solo. So it was like the best of, like, my two favorite franchises. And, yeah. And from there it just took off, and I, you know, I would rent the films all the time, and I would, get the comic books and all these different things. Play the games. And, honestly, I spent a lot of time on the Raven Forum, the l… the first, couple years there, up until, like, 2004, 2005 when I graduated high school. Like, I was on there a lot. And, you know, then you go and you do other stuff. And a few years ago, when The Force Awakens was coming out, I remember seeing people on YouTube who were, like, you know, talking about Star Wars, and I was like, "Man, I missed the bus because this would've been really cool for me." And then when I heard the news that, Mads Mikkelsen got cast in Indiana Jones 5, in, back in 2001, I was like, "There's not really anyone doing, like, a y… Indiana Jones channel, so, like, that would be perfect for me."

23:21Kevin ShirkaSo I jumped on it, and you know, sometimes more active than, other times. But, you know, for the most part I've tried to, you know, contribute content. Like, the thing kind of like we said, there's not a lot of content for Indiana Jones, so it's really important to me to just do whatever I can to generate any content, generate any interest, keep people talking about Indiana Jones, because I want there to be more content. Like, comic books in, is something in particular. Like, they haven't released a comic book for Indiana Jones in 15 years, which is absolutely crazy to me. Like, how could you not, do that?

24:03Jawad MirYeah.

24:03Kevin ShirkaMaybe they're not that popular to read, but yeah. I just try to generate interest, and hopefully something develops, you know.

24:11Jawad MirYou know, it's, it's interesting you mention that, like, how the interest level has kind of gone down, up and down. I was literally on... I don't know if you've ever heard of this website called The Daily Jaws.

24:26Kevin ShirkaSounds sort of familiar, but I don't know much about it, no.

24:30Jawad MirBeen around since the '90s. Right? When the raider.net and DreamWorks fan site and everything. And it's still Up and running today, and Jaws' 50th anniversary is coming up next year.

24:43Kevin ShirkaOh, yeah.

24:43Jawad MirAnd I w… and I'm thinking, how are they constantly, like, putting out stuff? And they are on almost daily basis, and they just are able to find things. They're able to find,.. They did this whole thing with the, you know, the Jaws, the last scene when the shark was approaching with the cylinder…

25:05Jawad Mir... In the mouth and Roy Scheider shoots it. They just… ... They did a whole experiment. Is that even possible?

25:12Kevin ShirkaWow.

25:12Jawad MirLike, so…

25:12Kevin ShirkaReally, that's very cool, actually.

25:13Jawad MirI know. So, all, what I'm saying is, like, there has to be a way. I know it requires a lot of time and dedication, and I get that, but if there's a collection of, like, you know, 10, 15 Indiana Jones fans, you guys can come up with something that keeps people engaged. Like…

25:32Kevin ShirkaYeah

25:32Jawad Mir... Just different things.

25:35Kevin ShirkaYeah, actually, recently, a lot of us has… have kind of banded together, and we made a new fan group called Indiana Jones International, and the idea is, yeah, kind of that. Like, we just wanna pr… be pr… all kind of promoting each other and promoting the brand and keep pe… keep people talking, about Indiana Jones, and we're, we're hoping to organize, like, some international events and things coming up. Like, maybe down the line, we might have, like, a Indiana Jones celebration type of thing, like a convention, so that would be, something. But that... And there's already... Like, there's regional groups right now. Like, we have one here, called California Jones. Like we just had a event that we went to Vasquez Rocks, which is the kind of famous, Star Trek filming location…

26:26Jawad Miryeah

26:27Kevin Shirka... Where he fights the Gorn. And we also had, my friend Eugene Shin, put together the Fortune and Glory Tour where we got to go to,.. We toured inside Lucasfilm headquarters, which was really cool, and different filming locations around San Francisco that had to do with Indy. So yeah, there's still a lot of interest. There's still a lot of people who want to create content and generate content and stuff like that. So it, even though it's like the Harrison Ford movies, I guess they're done, but people are still hungry for more and still wanna…

27:01Jawad MirYeah

27:02Kevin Shirka... Create more, so it's an exciting time still. Yeah.

27:05Jawad MirYeah. Are you in San Francisco?

27:07Kevin ShirkaNo, I'm in, Orange County. I'm in Southern California.

27:10Jawad MirOh, close to LA. You know, b… b… I'm in California… ... Maybe every other month or every month. Here, sometimes in LA…

27:17Kevin ShirkaOh, okay

27:17Jawad Mir... Sometimes San Francisco.

27:18Kevin ShirkaYou do film and stuff, yeah.

27:19Jawad MirYou know, just, yeah, j… just networking and sometimes meeting people… ... And depending on the project that I'm working on. But it's so... I've been in San Francisco so many times the last year and a half. If I had known, I mean, it just probably didn't register. Now it makes sense. They probably shot some of the scenes at Stanford, I'm guessing, right?

27:36Kevin ShirkaNo.

27:37Jawad MirNo?

27:37Kevin ShirkaThey did do one at, a Spanos Concert Hall, which is university of something.

27:44Jawad MirBerkeley?

27:45Kevin ShirkaNo, I can't remember what it's

27:47Jawad MirThat's fine I was just curious. But

27:50Kevin ShirkaYeah

27:50Jawad Mir... What did you think of the last film?

27:53Kevin ShirkaYeah, there were things that I liked and some things that I didn't like. Obviously, I liked, I really liked the opening scene. I know some people com… complained about the de-aging and the CGI and stuff like that, and those are valid, points. But to me, it was just nice to see, Indy fighting during World War I, to get that little short adventure. And I liked the ending was pretty fun, the, you know, the time travel stuff. And it had a few nice scenes here and there. It had, good performances, good acting from Harrison Ford. I do think some of, like, the, some of the tone of the movie, wasn't quite what I wanted. You know, like they made Indy kind of, you know, depressed and down on his luck, in order to give him a character arc. They killed off his son, which I personally thought was kind of in poor taste.

28:57Kevin ShirkaI mean, I understand that it kind of goes with that era of, like, Vietnam. But I think for a lot of us, it was like we go to these movies for escapes, and to go through that, a… a… like we go through, Indiana Jones 4 and it's like, oh, like, he has this, like, new thing that came into his life, and it's really great, and, you know, we were all, like, really happy about that, even though we have problems with that movie, too. But then he, we get to this one, it's like, oh, we killed him off. We killed off your son. And it just like, it hits really m… too hard for a movie that's supposed to be like you have popcorn and you go have fun, watch this movie, you know?

29:40Jawad MirYeah

29:40Kevin Shirka... So that's just my…

29:41Jawad MirI mean, I…

29:42Kevin Shirka... Opinion

29:42Jawad Mir... I loved the last act, the time travel. I thought that was…

29:47Kevin ShirkaYeah

29:47Jawad Mir... For me…

29:48Kevin ShirkaYeah

29:48Jawad Mir... The only best thing, and I was talking…

29:49Kevin ShirkaYeah

29:50Jawad Mir... To Mitch about this when la… when it came out last year. And I know you prefer escape. I would have probably seen a movie where the dealing with his loss of his son… ... And throwing in the time traveling throughout the film…

30:06Jawad Mir... Where he goes back to meet his son, trying to have another adventure and something, and then obviously letting go at the end. I think that…

30:13Kevin ShirkaThat would've been really good, actually. That would've had a purpose.

30:16Jawad MirThat would've…

30:16Kevin ShirkaYeah

30:16Jawad Mir... That would've been so cool, but I think there was just too many chefs in the, in the kitchen…

30:21Kevin ShirkaYeah

30:21Jawad Mir... On the production, and I think that's why probably Spielberg didn't direct. I have a very good… ... Feeling about that because…

30:28Kevin ShirkaOh, okay

30:29Jawad Mir... You know, why would he just all of a sudden drop the bomb that he's not directing? I mean, there's something must have happened, right? He probably didn't like the script or the idea or something. Who knows?

30:39Kevin ShirkaYeah, maybe.

30:39Jawad MirBut I, yeah, it had potential, but it just kind of…... Fell apart a lot of places. I wanted to like it, but speaking of de-aging, have you seen the Robert Zemeckis new film, Here?

30:51Kevin ShirkaNo. One of my friends, one of my Indiana Jones friends, Justin, was at the premiere of it.

30:58Jawad MirAt the…

30:58Kevin ShirkaSo I was pretty jealous of that

30:59Jawad Mir... AFI. Yeah.

31:00Kevin ShirkaYeah. That's where it was, yeah.

31:02Jawad MirYeah

31:02Kevin Shirka... And yeah, he said good things, and it looks, it looks cool, so I think that's definitely one I wanna check out. You saw it?

31:09Jawad MirI saw it last night. I didn't know anything about the reviews, I'm, because I'm talking to the DP tomorrow, Don Burgess.

31:16Kevin ShirkaOh, cool.

31:16Jawad MirAnd I was absolutely... I would say the first five to seven minutes it was kind of difficult to get a hold onto it because it's just, like, a static camera, right? Like, there's n… nothing, no movement. But boy, the emotions and everything. I don't know why. Then I saw the reviews. I'm like, "The audience is, like, 56, the critics 37." I don't know why.

31:39Kevin ShirkaRight.

31:39Jawad MirBecause it was a very powerful, moving film. I don't know why people didn't tap onto it, because I, either it was not marketed properly, but I highly recommend… ... You see it on the big screen. I know people think it's not a big screen movie, but I feel it is. It's really well done.

31:59Kevin ShirkaYeah. To me, it's like, it's kind of a gimmick, but it's a gimmick that's, like, worth looking at, 'cause i… it seems like such a great idea. Yeah.

32:07Jawad MirIt is, it is a gimmick, but until the story kicks off, which I think is about 10, 12 minutes, then you forget about the gimmick. Then the characters are so strong that you're completely... You get used to that frame. That's it. Like, that becomes your home and that, you feel like you don't... Like, and if that was to move then you'd be like, "Why is it moving?" That's, that's how much…

32:29Jawad Mir... Impact it had. I loved it. I absolutely loved it.

32:32Kevin ShirkaAh, man. Thank you for the recommendation. I can't wait to see it. I guess I'll have to watch it in the big screen then.

32:38Jawad MirYeah. But do it before it leaves theater, because it's not doing well at the box office.

32:42Kevin ShirkaOh. Oof.

32:42Jawad MirI think it made…

32:42Kevin ShirkaOkay, I better go see

32:43Jawad Mir... I think it made, like, five, 5 million, in the last…

32:47Kevin ShirkaOof

32:47Jawad Mir... Eight days or something.

32:49Kevin ShirkaOkay.

32:49Jawad MirBut yeah, anything else going on? What do you, what do you do when you're not Indiana Jones fan?

32:57Kevin ShirkaYeah, I do a little this and that. I do, like, some social media and stuff and, a little bit of, like, Lyft driving, just to... 'Cause you know, like, a lot of people are like, "Oh, you're a content creator so you probably make lots of money that way," but it's really not really the case. Like, sometimes you can spend, like, thousands and thousands of hours working on something and…

33:18Jawad MirOh, yeah

33:19Kevin Shirka... You get, like, a dollar a day or something like that, you know? Like, not really that much. Although, more recently I've been trying to be, kind of more consistent with content, putting out, like, little one-minute videos here and there. And, actually, like, now with all this stuff with the game coming out, there's, like, some more interest generating and actually, it looks like I'm probably gonna get a,.. Like, you know how, like, sometimes on YouTube videos they're like, "Oh, this video was sponsored by so and so," and they add, like, a little thing. Like, it's, it looks like I'm probably gonna get one of those with a place called Instant Gaming. They reached out to me, so, that's really exciting because I've never had that opportunity, before, so I'm really excited about that. Yeah.

34:04Jawad MirThat's awesome, man. And…

34:05Kevin ShirkaThanks

34:06Jawad Mir... What, a… a… have you ever done,.. I mean, I've seen gamers do it where they, like, do a split screen and you're doing, like, a commentary and this ga… game is playing. Like, have you ever thought about that?

34:17Kevin ShirkaI've done a little bit of that, like, on, like, live plays and stuff like that. Yeah, it didn't get, like, a ton of views generally, but it was still pretty fun and, like, I have my subscribers tune in and, chat with me. So yeah, we have fun with those.

34:34Jawad MirWhat is your channel called so people can tune in on it?

34:37Kevin ShirkaIndiana Jones Nerd. Yeah.

34:40Jawad MirThere you go.

34:40Kevin ShirkaI started it, like I said, in 2021, and, just been following the coverage of the making of that film. That was when it really took off. But I was also doing, like, fan edits of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, kind of adding some of the, like, the John Williams music to that to, liven those up a little bit. And those were fun. Those were really popular. And then sometimes, like, I made a documentary of the making of Indiana Jones 5. That was, that was one of my most popular videos.

35:16Kevin ShirkaSo I have a lot of variety in my content.

35:19Jawad MirYeah. I'm looking at it. You got, you got good following. ... And you got good views, so you're, you're not doing that bad as you say you are.

35:27Kevin ShirkaYeah.

35:27Jawad MirYou're doing fine, man. That's good.

35:29Kevin ShirkaYeah. Yeah, it's been fun.

35:31Jawad MirYeah. No, that's really good. You know, I feel that... Oh, well, let's, let's wrap it up with this way. Do you feel there's another Indiana Jones movie? Do you want to see another one without Harrison Ford, whether it's replacement of Harrison Ford or, I don't know, some remake or a lost son, or if so, what would that be?

36:02Kevin ShirkaYeah. Th… this is kind of a divisive issue I think for a lot of people, 'cause a lot of people are really like, you know, "You can't replace Harrison Ford. There's no replacing him." And that's definitely true, because he's, like, he's really a special actor, and what he did with this role is amazing. So while that is true, though, I love the character and the brand of Indiana Jones, and I think that it should be bigger than just one actor. So I would love to see, whether it's a spinoff or a prequel or whatever they wanna do. Like I said, I was a big James Bond fan, and people said the same thing about Sean Connery. And then, you know, it was a little rough at first, but then, like, Roger Moore and some of the o… some of these other guys came in and they showed that you can have a different interpretation and, it can still, you know, produce some really, fun movies.

37:03Jawad MirYeah, I…

37:03Kevin ShirkaAnd that's really what it's about. Yeah.

37:05Jawad MirI agree, and I think the, there was this, a lot of speculation before the fifth film came about out, I think it was Chris Pratt on one of the late night shows…

37:14Kevin ShirkaYeah

37:14Jawad Mir... Somebody asked him about Indiana Jones, and he didn't say yes or no, so I don't know if at that point… I think he is a perfect candidate…

37:23Kevin ShirkaYeah

37:24Jawad Mir... To play Indiana Jones.

37:24Kevin ShirkaI would be fine by that. Yeah.

37:26Jawad Mir'Cause he has that witty humor that Harrison… ... Ford does natural, right? Not the one that you acted out, and he has… ... The charisma and the personality and everything. I would lo… I would love to see that.

37:37Kevin ShirkaYeah. Yeah, I'd be okay with that. Yeah. I know peop… people have said, like, Bradley Cooper would be a good one, too. I'm sure there are a lot of options.

37:45Jawad MirYeah, that…

37:46Kevin ShirkaEven…

37:46Jawad MirI could see that.

37:48Kevin ShirkaYeah. Even, you know, I know they said that Indy's son died in the last movie, but they didn't show it.

37:58Jawad MirYeah.

37:58Kevin ShirkaSo you could still always say, "Oh, he was just missing in action," and give him a spinoff, or even Ke Huy Quan, would be pretty cool. You know, while we still have Harrison Ford, have him be, like, a cameo in one of these other movies or something. But yeah, I'd be totally down for recasting Indiana Jones, too, if I'm honest. Yeah.

38:20Jawad MirYeah. Awesome, man. No, that's great. I hope that happens.

38:24Kevin ShirkaYeah.

38:24Jawad MirThank you so much for the chat, Kevin. Appreciate it.

38:28Kevin ShirkaThank you. Have a good one. Take care, my friend.

38:30Jawad MirYou too, sir.

38:30Kevin ShirkaBye.

38:30Jawad MirTake care. Bye. Bye.