'Indiana Jones, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull', Production Designer, Guy Hendrix Dyas

0:09Jawad MirWelcome back, everyone, to another episode of Cinema Briefs Podcast, the mentoring of stories and your host, Gerard Muir. Today, my guest is production designer Guy Hendrix, who's here to talk about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We had some great conversations, while he shared some of the sketches, some of the behind-the-scenes photos that we talked about, his story with the working with Harrison Ford, and walking around with him on the set, as well as the first phone call that he got from Steven Spielberg. So without further ado, here is my conversation with production designer Guy Hendrix for Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Well, good to have you. It's, certainly a pleasure to s… be speaking to you. Of all the films that you have worked on, obviously I haven't grown up with all of them, but the ones that sort of stand out are Matrix Lado… Reloaded

0:56Jawad Mir... Superman Returns, Elizabeth, obviously Kingdom of Crystal Skull, and so much more. So thank you for all your contribution to cinema.

1:05Guy Hendrix DyasOh, well, you're very kind. I hope it's not the end. I hope I keep going.

1:10Jawad MirThat's good.

1:11Guy Hendrix DyasYeah.

1:11Jawad MirThat's good. And currently you're working on something that you're able to disclose or because you mentioned in the…

1:16Guy Hendrix DyasYeah. I'm, I'm currently working on, Masters of the Universe, which is a Travis Knight, film, which I'm very excited about. I'm actually very excited about working with Travis. I've admired his work, for many years, particularly his animation as well as his live action. And I've always felt that, directors who come from an animation background have a very unique vision, and, it's always a lot of fun working with those type of directors. So I'm, I'm thrilled to be working with Travis on this. Yeah.

1:54Jawad MirThat's amazing. And that's supposed to come out next year, I'm assuming, in 2026?

1:58Guy Hendrix DyasI thi… I think it is, but honestly, I don't keep an eye on the release dates. I just try to get through.

2:05Jawad MirNo, it's all good. I... Yeah. So this is animated, right, the one that you're working on?

2:09Guy Hendrix DyasNo. This…

2:10Jawad MirOr it's live action?

2:11Guy Hendrix DyasThis will be a live action. It's a very big…

2:12Jawad MirOh, so it's only…

2:13Guy Hendrix Dyas... Live action film. Yeah, it's a big deal. We're trying very hard to... You know, look, Travis and I grew up with the animation, and, we are huge fans. It's very nostalgic f… for both of us, and I think the whole team is just driven by a vision to realize a Masters of the Universe that will please, all the original fans, all the people who have nostalgia of the original animation, but also find a new audience as well. But it's a very exciting film. We have a brilliant team and…

2:47Jawad MirYeah

2:47Guy Hendrix Dyas... I'm, I'm honestly thoroughly enjoying the process. But, you know, very grateful to be on board. Yeah. It's exciting.

2:55Jawad MirThere was a 1985 or '86 live action version, right? Was this one based…

3:00Guy Hendrix DyasThat's right

3:00Jawad Mir... On the film?

3:00Guy Hendrix DyasThe Dolph Lundgren…

3:01Jawad MirYeah

3:01Guy Hendrix Dyas... Film, yes.

3:02Jawad MirYeah. I remember watching that as a kid. I mean, I don't remember any of it, but I remember watching it as a kid and, I just remember the protagonist and how he sort of looked physically and, kinda like Conan O'Brien, but, you know, it was Schwarzenegger, I think it was. Was it Co… Canon… Canon O'Brien? What was it called, the movie with Schwarzenegger?

3:24Guy Hendrix DyasThat movie

3:24Jawad Mir... Conan O'Brien is a comedian. I don't know why I said that.

3:27Guy Hendrix DyasOh, you mean Conan the Barbarian?

3:29Jawad MirConan the Barbarian. Sorry.

3:31Guy Hendrix DyasYeah.

3:31Jawad MirYes.

3:31Guy Hendrix DyasYes.

3:32Jawad MirYes.

3:32Guy Hendrix DyasWell, you know, look, this film has aspects of that in a way. The aesthetic is strange. We've, we all talk about it as a team. It's, you know, somewhere between, you know, ax-wielding barbarians and super futuristic, tech. So it's, you know, somewhere between Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars really, isn't it?

3:58Jawad MirNice.

3:58Guy Hendrix DyasIt's a lot of fun. It's a very wide, visual scope. It's an exciting world, to look at, and obviously I can't say anything about the film.

4:07Jawad MirYeah. Of course.

4:08Guy Hendrix DyasBut I'm incredibly thrilled at the way it's, it's progressing and turning out. We're having an absolute ball making the film, and I th… I think those that are privileged to see what we're doing are sort of blown away.

4:22Jawad MirAmazing

4:22Guy Hendrix Dyas... So that's exciting. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

4:25Jawad MirIt's exciting. I'm looking forward to it. Today you're here to talk about Indiana Jones and Ki… Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

4:32Guy Hendrix DyasRight.

4:32Jawad MirI've said this many times on this podcast, especially when the film came, the new film ca… came out last year. When Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out, I didn't like it. But, just before I went to see, Dial of the Destiny, I saw it again, and I was surprised that I really liked it.

4:54Jawad MirSo obviously with time, you know, maybe it was, certain expectations or you get more mature, and I just re-watched it, yesterday, and still…

5:07Guy Hendrix DyasI…

5:07Jawad Mir... A very good film

5:08Guy Hendrix Dyas... I hear you loud and clear, and I think a lot of people... I remember being, at the receiving end of all the critics

5:18Jawad MirYeah

5:18Guy Hendrix Dyas... And, you know, I thi… I think the professional critics were sort of split down the middle. I think some of them really loved it and some of them less so. But obviously the internet buzz was, from the kids and the younger audience w… was somewhat negative and I really couldn't, couldn't understand it, but I think I do in retrospect, like yourself. I think that when you have made the three films that Steven and George had made, that were so fantastic and live in a very special place in our hearts as children and young adults growing up, we all remember where we were when we first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark.

6:02Guy Hendrix DyasIt was one of those films, I think, that just, it mar… it's a marked… you know, it's a, it's a benchmark in, I think, Steven's genius to have been able to knock out a film like that based on George's idea and have it be so brilliant, which it really was. And I think because those films had such an incredible impact on cultural... Culturally, they had a massive impact.

6:32Jawad Mir100%.

6:33Guy Hendrix DyasIt was very hard for there to be such a large period of time and space, and then to have a follow-up, a fourth film, if you like, and

6:45Jawad MirYeah

6:46Guy Hendrix Dyas... I remember feeling extremely, responsible and took the production very seriously. I mean, it was, back-breaking work to make the film live up to the expectations of the first three films. And a lot had changed, I think, in the, in the time between the third film and the fourth film in terms of the way films were made, the event of visual effects and CGI, which of course infiltrated and found its way into, Indiana Jones, 4. And, you know, there were a lot of conversations about it, about how to use it and how to, how to use it responsibly without losing sight of what made the first three films so special, which was all those real stunts. And so yeah, it was, an incredible journey.

7:46Guy Hendrix DyasFor me, it was, one of those films that you pinch yourself and you feel incredibly lucky…... To work with Steven, who remains even today one of the geniuses of our industry, true geniuses. And also I feel in retrospect incredibly lucky because I worked on the last damn film that, in the series that he and George were actively…

8:13Jawad MirInvolved in

8:13Guy Hendrix Dyas... Involved in.

8:15Jawad MirYeah.

8:15Guy Hendrix DyasAnd I feel very lucky. It was, it was, you know, it's lightning in a bottle. It's one of those opportunities once in a lifetime, and you're sitting in a meeting room over at Amblin, and you're thinking to yourself, "I wish there were cameras capturing this." And it would be Steven at one end of the table and George at the other end discussing how they wanted to make the production, how they felt about the use of CGI, how they felt about, you know, where they were gonna shoot, how they were gonna shoot it. And I was sitting right in the middle of that conversation going, "I can't believe where I am and how lucky I am," you know? So yeah, really special. A lot long-winded way to say, y… you know, it really was a special experience.

9:01Jawad MirNo, I totally hear that. I totally feel that from your… ... Choice of words, and, who wouldn't be? I mean…

9:08Guy Hendrix DyasOh, my God

9:09Jawad Mir... Right? Forget Indiana Jones, just to be in the room with just Spielberg ... Or Spielberg and Lucas or Lucas is... And working on a project with them, getting that pressure but at the same time, you know, getting those butterflies, it's certainly a memorable experience that I'm sure obviously you haven't forgotten, so that's really great.

9:29Guy Hendrix DyasYeah. It was, it was lovely to be in a room with them both together. I mean, obviously I'd…

9:34Jawad MirYeah

9:34Guy Hendrix Dyas... I'd met George a couple of times. I was, a member of his, ILM, his visual effects…

9:40Jawad MirRight

9:40Guy Hendrix Dyas... Team when they were still up at San Rafael. And there were about, I think about three or 400 people at that point. So it was still quite a small enterprise before it sort of exploded with the, with the sort of the planning of the new Star Wars films. It became a much bigger, enterprise business, and I think they moved down to San Francisco, Presidio, and built a big complex there. But I was lucky enough to be in the original buildings where all the original, you know, Star Wars films were sort of put together and all the visual effects for all those films were made. And I'd, I'd sort of I think seen Steven a couple of times on, very early, Zoom calls in the '90s, the equivalent of Zoom anyway, because there was a link between Amblin and ILM and George would come on... Sorry, Steven would come on and talk about a few things. For example, I was working on Twister, and I think he might have, if my memory serves me right, he may have appeared briefly in one of those, conversations with Jan De Bont, and I was just at the receiving end going, "Oh, my God, there's Steven Spielberg."

10:51Guy Hendrix DyasLittle did I know some, you know, 15 years later, I'd actually be talking to him on a daily basis. And of course I was lucky this went on beyond, Ind… Indiana Jones. I also worked on another project which sadly never happened, Roboocalypse, which I was developing for Steven, for approximately two and a half years, which never happened very sadly, and I again poured my heart and soul into that project until I simply just ran out of steam. I mean, the project never happened and, I just had to sort of go make films again because I'd been in this sort of development process for two or three years and, it was incredibly tiring and mentally wearing, you know? But it's…

11:45Jawad MirI…

11:45Guy Hendrix Dyas... But still amazing memories of those times at Amblin and working with Steven and his incredible team.

11:52Jawad MirI remember, reading and, following that project very vividly, and if I'm not mistaken, I checked it out recently, obviously IMDb is not, always correct. I thought I read somewhere on IMDb that Michael Bay was involved in it

12:10Guy Hendrix DyasYeah

12:10Jawad Mir... On the project. But yeah, no, the, I remember the concept of it. It was kind of like, very different and similar to AI and it, Transformers. Not in terms of the story, but yeah, it does say Ro… Robopocalypse, director, production unknown, Michael Bay. Yeah. But I don't know how accurate that is. But that's… that's interesting that you talked about that, but we'll come back to that. Let's go to Indiana Jones.

12:37Jawad MirYou o… obviously you had known Spielberg and Lucas, so I'm guessing that's how you kinda came onto the project on Kingdom of Crystal Skull. And you shared some of the sketches and behind-the-scenes photos…

12:52Jawad Mir... Which I have. We can go through them one by one, or if you have access to them, I can give you access to share a screen and you can sort of talk about it one by one. It, which for… which way would you prefer?

13:03Guy Hendrix DyasWhi… which… whichever way you like, really.

13:07Jawad MirSure.

13:07Guy Hendrix DyasI should mention, by the way, that I'd not met Steven in person, until we really started production. I was working for, a Spanish director called Alejandro Amenábar. Some, on a film called Agora starring Rachel Weisz.

13:27Guy Hendrix DyasAnd I received the call while I was in Spain, and it was one of those sort of almost joke calls that you receive where you're in a hotel and you're told, "There's a phone call for you." And I picked it up in this, you know, really tatty little hotel in the mid… middle of Spain, and the voice comes on and says, "Will you hold for Steven Spielberg?" What do you do when you, what do you do when you get that call? And you're thinking, "Okay, is this one of my friends playing a prank?" Which is exactly what I thought it was. And of course, the moment you hear his warm, friendly voice come on and it's so iconic and recognizable, like an actor or a singer.

14:16Jawad MirYeah.

14:16Guy Hendrix DyasOh, it's him. And you think, "Okay, I'm either b… gonna be extremely embarrassed and this will be someone who has a very good impression of Mr. Spielberg, or it is really him." But within a f… a few minutes, by the way he talked and how he talked and what he talked about, I knew it was him. And what he proposed was extraordinary. He said, you know, "I've seen your work, on..." I think it was, it was Strange. It was something like Superman Returns, which…

14:46Jawad MirYeah

14:46Guy Hendrix Dyas... Reminds…

14:47Jawad MirYeah, it was a year before that or two years before that, yeah

14:49Guy Hendrix Dyas... And he said, "I've seen your work on Superman Returns, and I think, I thought it was brilliant, and I think we should, you know, work together on this." And that was exactly how he put it. Didn't, exactly like that. I mean, what do you say? And I remember thinking, "You can't..." And in the industry, you can't really lie about your availability, so I…

15:11Jawad MirYeah, everybody knows

15:12Guy Hendrix Dyas... Said to him, "I'm, I'm working on Agora with, a friend of mine, Alejandro Amenábar, and, I won't be available, I don't think, for your film." And he said, "Oh, but when are you finishing?" And I told him the dates, and he said, "That's gonna work out perfectly." He says, "Get done with that and then come back." So timing was, could not have been better, really. Yeah, it was very lucky. So anyway, I just had to add that in there because it's a very special moment that I remember vividly, sitting there in Madrid receiving this call and it being Steven Spielberg. You know?

15:51Jawad MirYeah.

15:51Guy Hendrix DyasHow he tracked me down, to this day, I don't know. But I think when you're someone like him you can make those things happen.

15:57Jawad Mir100%, and I was just gonna say that I'm so glad that you shared that story because I think it's probably one of the most pivotal highlight moments in your career of your life to be able to get that call. And I've heard stories, from different actors, and I'm sure you have too, and even Steven Spielberg himself at how he... I don't know if it was back then, but now as of recently, like five, six years ago, he would intentionally talk in such a way where the other person be kinda like star-struck. N… not from a standpoint of like, you know, he's Steven Spielberg, but just to kind of play with them. And to be able to get that call, and then work with him, I mean, whose dream it is not to do that, right? So thank you for sharing that. I really appreciate it.

16:42Guy Hendrix DyasYeah, it was, it was lovely, and I'm so fond of Steven. I mean, I haven't spoken to him for absolutely years, but I still fr… from the very first time he spoke to me to the end, he was and is a, an incredibly warm human being, lovely to work with, and everyone around him seems to, you know, love the experience, you know?

17:05Jawad MirYeah. Yeah. No, amazing. I'm, I direct films, and the reason I became, got into films is because of Steven Spielberg, because of Jurassic Park and Schindler's List, so.

17:17Guy Hendrix DyasYeah. Yeah, of course. Of course, yeah.

17:20Jawad MirLet's talk about Indiana Jones, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. If, I've given you share access, if you want to go through the work, one by one and just kinda describe it, fans would love to hear it and see it, of course.

17:37Guy Hendrix DyasOkay. And what we're looking at here really is a, one of, one of the t… very typical ways in which I tend to work and communicate with directors, and in this case, this, these were sketches for Steven. And this is, the w… the way that you would enter a temple called Akator, and, Akator was the center of this, of this script, the lost city of Akator. And, in our, in our story, and indeed in the script, there was this wonderful sort of flow of how things happened. But one of the things that I noticed as a fan… Of the series and as a real sort of faithful follower of the Indiana Jones kind of, I suppose, aesthetic, is that there was a slight lack of descriptions of, booby traps and exciting, unique ways to, enter spaces or find ways into spaces.

18:44Guy Hendrix DyasAnd so for entering Akator, I'd come up or proposed this idea to Steven through a series of quick sketches as you see here. And this is a series of stairs, a spiral staircase if you like, that goes down from the top of this sort of Mayan temple down into the depths underground. But the booby trap or the trick is that once you start walking down the spiral staircase, you trigger, a booby trap that means that every single step starts to retract into the outer ring of this, giant, sort of shaft if you like. And eventually you simply run out of stairs and you would fall to your death onto some very nasty spikes at the bottom.

19:41Guy Hendrix DyasAnd of course in the film you may recall that our heroes enter this, and it was a set that we built, a very complicated set. The stairs retracted and the idea is that you have to run as quickly as you can to the bottom before you run out of stairs and fall to your death. And we built this on a, on a s… on a sound stage and it was an extraordinary set. But anyway, this was the f… one of the first, sketches to propose that.

20:15Jawad MirAwesome. I'm just gonna go through it. Like I said…

20:18Guy Hendrix DyasAh

20:18Jawad Mir... This is no particular order, but

20:21Guy Hendrix DyasYeah

20:21Jawad Mir... You take the floor.

20:22Guy Hendrix DyasTh… this is a, another sketch of the same concept and in this case, th… there was a description in the script, that had a giant, totem pole if you like, which is triggered as an entry point to Akator. So in this case I designed it so that these four totems were leaning against these columns, and once the key is triggered, all of these pieces come together and form a single column and it's at that point that the floor gives way and we see the staircase down. So again, it's another one of the sketches in a series of quick drawings that I did to explain to Steven how this might look.

21:13Jawad MirAnd by the way, the, obviously the work that you're talking about here and, how it was interpreted in the film, again, watching the film yesterday, it's just so... You know, you know it's a set, but at the same time it's such an elaborate set that you can't help but believe that it's real. So obviously a lot of work and time, resources went into it and it, the amount of detail, right, in the walls, on the floor, is definitely noticeable. So I just wanted to point that out very quickly. But go ahead.

21:48Guy Hendrix DyasYeah, I mean, the sets were incredibly detailed. We had an extraordinary, construction team, headed by Greg Callas, that really were amazing. I mean, all the finishes were meticulously, honed in to make sure that these sets lived up to the standards of the original films and in some cases we hoped, you know, outshone the original films because of course everything is a bit harder now in terms of convincing an audience that somewhere's real.

22:25Guy Hendrix DyasThey're quite, because of the internet I think, film goers are very savvy about how films are made, so you have to almost up the q… the standards if you like, of the quality of the sets in order to make them really believable and that's what we tried to do. And again, this is another sketch looking at the sort of the basin of the lost city of Akator. Again, it was inspired by Machu Picchu, something that I know George was very intrigued about and pushed and advised that's where I should go with some of the designs. And that's why you see what you do, this sort of huge basin in the center of this sort of m… mountainous area. And this is, again, just a sketch to show, I think in this case I think that's Indiana Jones at the bottom there just…

23:15Jawad MirYeah

23:15Guy Hendrix Dyas... Climbing up and showing how the thing's crumbling. And again, these are just pencil sketches. They're about, y… you know, A4 size or for, our Amer… American friends here, 8 and a half by 11. And, it's that sort of size formats. They're not very big and they're quick to do and I found them very fast as a communication tool with Steven, you know, while I was pitching some of these ideas.

23:46Jawad MirThat's amazing. You know, it's, it's so just s… kind of sort of off the... It's not really off the conversation, but you talked about, you know, how the guy, the sketch of the j… the person at the bottom is Indiana Jones. And it's just one of the, Indiana Jones has become such an iconic figure that any time you see even like a silhouette or a person from the back with a…

24:08Jawad Mir... A fedora on,... If you just assume it's Indiana Jones. I mean, it is here, but I'm just saying the am… amount of impact that it's had on popular culture. Even in, you know, f… TV series and films, they'll always do a little parody here and there. But yeah, what an iconic character. I just wanted to point that out. Not that we don't know that, but, just wanted to say that.

24:30Jawad MirThis is a beautiful sketch. I love the details, on the… ... On the, on the f… on the facial parts of those… ... Yeah, those. Talk about that, please. I'm not a very big archeologist or any… ... Kind of knowledge that I have, but please go ahead.

24:47Guy Hendrix DyasWell, you know, I needed the architecture to reflect, the sort of the aesthetic of the Mayans and the Aztecs and sort of a mixture of that, of all those incredible cultures in South America. And so but also we were dealing with sort of a f… a fantasy make-believe place, Akator. So I borrowed heavily from, and was inspired heavily, from all of those, ancient cultures to create these designs. And what you're looking at here is me really g… getting into the weeds, so to speak, in terms of the level of detail with the pencil sketches. And again, I remember doing this one and kicking myself and saying, "My God, I'm spending way too long on these drawings." You know, this one would've taken me, probably a day to do. And again, a lot of it is because I enjoy it so much, you know.

25:51Guy Hendrix DyasHere you are, you're given this opportunity to design for Steven Spielberg. Oh my God, you know, it's got to be the best thing you've ever done, and you know that George is gonna be looking at this. And all these things are going through your head while you're designing. And so I remember really trying to stop myself from going into too much detail, and not make it about presentation and make it about the sort of the journey, if you like, of the characters in this script. And again, I used to be a professional illustrator. I would illustrate, for a lot of, ver… very, renowned designers. And, so finally when I got to design, it was quite hard for me to put my tools down and move into, the production design seat where you still get to draw, you still get to create an overview of the world, but you can't dedicate days and days of your time to…

26:55Jawad MirYeah

26:55Guy Hendrix Dyas... Sketching out every single prop. You just simply don't have enough time to do that unless you're prepared to, sacrifice your weekends and your own free time, which of course I'm silly enough to do sometimes, you know. If I get really excited about an idea, I'll, I'll say, "Well, I don't have enough time to do this during my day job, but I'll take this home and work late into the night to get it done," because I just enjoy that process…

27:24Jawad MirOf course

27:24Guy Hendrix Dyas... So much.

27:26Jawad MirOf course.

27:26Guy Hendrix DyasAnd so I suppose that's a long way of saying that's why this drawing is so detailed.

27:32Jawad MirYeah. Let me just, go back here.

27:37Guy Hendrix DyasYou know, it's funny, going back to what you were saying about the iconic nature of Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford and what he wears and how he wore it and all of that, there's a couple of fun stories I've gotta share.

27:53Jawad MirPlease. Please.

27:55Guy Hendrix DyasSo we first did camera tests with Harrison, over at Universal, and I'm pretty sure about this story. The costume was g… a… as y… as you may know, George Lucas is meticulous about his archiving. He keeps all the props and all the original artwork and everything. It's all stored very carefully, I believe, somewhere up in San Rafael, a property that George has, archives. And I remember a box coming out with the original costume for Indiana Jones. This is a true story. And Harrison fitted in this costume perfectly.

28:43Jawad MirWow.

28:43Guy Hendrix DyasAnd how many, how many years have gone by? I mean…

28:46Jawad Mir27, almost

28:47Guy Hendrix Dyas... In such... He was an absolute gentleman and a lovely person to work for and with, and I had some interaction with Harrison simply because of his background as y… you know, a, y… before he became a film s…

29:04Jawad MirCarpenter, yeah

29:05Guy Hendrix Dyas... Actor, he was a carpenter, a master carpenter. And so he took a lot of interest, I think, in the set design and who the production designer was and his environments as a professional. So I was very lucky to get to spend a little time with Harrison and show him around, for example, what would become his apartment, which was again, on a sound stage at Universal. And, it w… he was in such great shape. Oh my goodness, for a man, of his age, with respect, I mean, he could not have been in better shape. He looked incredible. And he slipped into his original Indiana Jones costume for these film tests. I mean, I'm sure they made him some new ones for this film because he was gonna get through them because he was gonna do a lot of the work, the stunt work himself. But yeah, for the test it was the original costume and he slipped right into it. And I think it's worth sharing that, you know? Was…

29:59Jawad MirYeah

29:59Guy Hendrix Dyas... A

30:00Jawad MirThat again, that is so thankful of you to share that. And I, when I was watching Indiana Jones yesterday, so it's funny how your mind plays tricks on you, right? So when Dial of Destiny I was watching last year, you know, obviously in your head it's like, "Okay, this guy is, like, almost late 70s." I don't know his exact age, but I'm guessing he's late 70s.

30:20Jawad MirAnd then I saw Kingdom of Crystal Skull, I'm like, "Oh my God, he looks so young." But then I realized how long ago that was. It's almost been…

30:26Guy Hendrix DyasYes, it was a long time ago

30:28Jawad Mir... 20 years ago, right? But, I mean, he, but the amount of charisma he has, I just re-watched Fugitive, which was a big film in the early '90s. He's been able to carry that throughout his career, even up until, Dial of the Destiny wh… when that came out last year. And I know he's working on some other shows, like 1923…

30:51Jawad Mir... With Helen Mirren. But yeah…

30:53Guy Hendrix DyasYeah

30:53Jawad Mir... No, that's a great story. Any other story you wanna share, I rather hear those. We can talk about this, too, but, I, yeah, you pick. You tell me what you wanna do.

31:04Guy Hendrix DyasWell, this, you've moved on to another sketch here, which is kind of fun. This, we're looking at the same sketch on the right, obviously, but on the left you can see how, again, in sketch form I'm, I'm laying out some quick drawings to explain how those stairs would work, just in case it's unclear from the drawing. So you see…

31:25Jawad MirYeah

31:25Guy Hendrix Dyas... How they would slip into the side of the outer edge of this giant pit, this first sort of big booby trap that they go through. And we'll see as we go through the photographs, I think I found a photograph of the set and you could see the exterior was this sort of remarkable, complex, almost musical instrument where each of the steps was connected to, a cable that ran around the outside of this spiral and each of these cables formed their own exterior spiral, which all led down to a single mechanism that pulled all the wires. So it was this very strange, almost surrealistic giant musical instrument from the outside, this set. It was a real… really interesting one to work on.

32:20Jawad MirThat's amazing. This is, this is the photo that you're talking about, right?

32:22Guy Hendrix DyasThat is the photo.

32:23Jawad MirYeah.

32:23Guy Hendrix DyasAnd you can imagine, look at those people up there. You know, this was a tricky set to shoot. But, hopefully worthwhile. A large section of it actually pulled out, so we could actually float a wall, to make it easier to shoot. And of course, at the bottom of this we actually had a pool of water with all those spikes and you, it was a lot of fun dressing that set because we had put, skeletons with sort of conquistador, armor on them, as though there had been some Spaniards back in sort of the 16th century who'd maybe found their way in but didn't make it. Which of course is part of the Indiana Jones tradition. I still remember, in the first film when the spikes came out and there was sort of a skull stuck on one of the spikes, you know?

33:18Jawad MirYeah. I remember that.

33:18Guy Hendrix DyasSo that's what people wanna see. That's what the inner 10-year-old boy wants to see, you know? And that's something I think that Steven understood so well. You know? And I, all I was trying to do was live up to those expectations.

33:32Jawad MirYeah. It's interesting you talked about the inner 10-year-old, right? So while we're talking about Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny and the original three films, I don't, I don't, the fact that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was not liked by people, including myself, when it came out, and now it's liked by a lot of people, including myself, I wonder if it has anything to do with the film, which it probably does, but I wonder, and not just Indiana Jones, just in general, I think we are more drawn to our experience of watching a film…

34:05Jawad Mir... As time progresses we kind of like…

34:08Guy Hendrix Dyas100% true. Yes

34:09Jawad Mir... Like look back at it, like, "Oh, I..." You know, you don't remember, like I remember watching The Sixth Sense in the theater, I, watching The Matrix, and maybe even some terrible films. But just the experience that stays with you, and then over time you realize, oh, you know, and then you appreciate that. I, this is just what I think, sometimes a game that goes in our head and we might end up liking Dial of Destiny in about 15, 20 years. Who knows?

34:35Guy Hendrix DyasYeah.

34:35Jawad MirRight?

34:36Guy Hendrix DyasI agree with you. I think the issue surrounding Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and why it had this very odd, backlash is simply because the film, it, the film could've been Lawrence of Arabia and it could not have lived up to the expectations of the fan base.

35:00Jawad MirYep.

35:00Guy Hendrix DyasThey had placed the three films, and they were brilliant, they had placed them on such a pedestal of impossibility that it was impossible to match the expectations. I don't know what people thought they were gonna see. I mean…

35:18Jawad MirYeah

35:18Guy Hendrix Dyas... You had, it, people would say to me things like, "Well, I didn't like the way that, he jumped in a refrigerator and survived a nuclear blast." Well, they can laugh their heads off at that, but may I remind them that in the original Indiana Jones films, as I think Kathy Kennedy pointed out to me, Indy and his gang launch themselves from an aircraft in flight in an inflatable boat.

35:48Jawad MirYep. I was just gonna talk about that, yeah.

35:50Guy Hendrix DyasAnd the boat lands in the rapids the right way up with them all alive, and they sail down the river. So if that's the logic of the films, why is Indiana Jones in a lead-lined, you know, refrigerator any different? And I think people just forget this stuff, and the internet has a way of catching on fire with people's comments. So if somebody said, "I didn't like the fridge. How would anyone survive in a fridge?" You know, they are, y… you know, then you end up getting all the responses, "Yeah, of course. That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous." But hang on a minute… Guys and girls, go back, look at the other films, and look at some of the crazy ideas that happen there. And of course, I think George and Steven were well aware that they were playing these games of impossibility. Everything Indiana Jones does is impossible, you know?

36:52Guy Hendrix DyasHis whip, has about five or six different lengths in, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, just to be able to make it possible for him to do some of the things he does with the whip. But we don't think about those things because it's called filmmaking, you know?

37:09Jawad MirWell, it…

37:09Guy Hendrix DyasAnd it's supposed to be fun.

37:11Jawad MirIt's interesting you talked about the refrigerator. So I was one of those people. I remember movie theater…

37:16Guy Hendrix DyasOf course

37:16Jawad Mir... Sitting in the movie theater.

37:17Guy Hendrix DyasEveryone was

37:18Jawad MirYeah, I was s… sitting in the movie theater, and I'm like, "How is this possible," right? And I think the a… what you just answered is so true, what you just said is so true because I think what happens is when you're young, you're stupid, right? Like, for the lack of better word. You're silly. You believe. And then you fall into this world of that's been created for you over a span of eight, nine years, one film after the other, and you…

37:39Guy Hendrix DyasRight

37:39Jawad Mir... Constantly believe it. But when you get older, the whole reality kicks in. Like, "Oh, this isn't how it's supposed to be." You start p… you know, nitpicking stuff. But again, watching the film yesterday, the nuclear, the refrigerator scene, I thought it was hilarious. I mean…

37:53Guy Hendrix DyasYeah

37:54Jawad Mir... It…

37:54Guy Hendrix DyasIt's, it's supposed to be.

37:55Jawad MirYeah.

37:55Guy Hendrix DyasIt's, it's supposed to be part of that universe, the Indiana Jones universe. I don't see why that's unbelievable, and, you know, watching, y… you know, Aliens and ET is more believable. You know?

38:14Jawad MirYeah.

38:14Guy Hendrix DyasIt's, it's, it's part of that escapism and that wonderful world that Steven and George, when they worked together, take us to, you know?

38:24Jawad Mir100%. 100%. I'm just gonna see if there's something here that we can do. So this was…

38:31Guy Hendrix DyasAh, yeah, so this is, one of the, one of the sets we built, for the exterior of Akator. And this was built actually on the back lot at Universal. There are a couple of spots at Universal, around the back of the, amusement park there, where we still have places where we can build exterior sets. And so this was one of those places. I think it was, I forget the name of this area, but it's just above somewhere called Falls Lake, which of course…

39:08Guy Hendrix Dyas... Is the big tank they have up at the back of Universal…

39:12Jawad MirYeah

39:12Guy Hendrix Dyas... Or for all the water work and so forth. So there's another space hidden further up the hill at the back of Universal where we built this. And of course, you never build more than you really need to because to a certain extent, that's irresponsible. But what you do build, you wanna make sure it looks really realistic and very convincing. So these are some of my just set photos and records of the set, you know.

39:42Jawad MirYou know, it's, it, if you, if I was looking at this for the first time, I would imagine this is literally the real place. But then when you look in the corner bottom of the picture, I think you see, like, a tr… a tr… a truck trailer.

39:58Guy Hendrix DyasYes.

39:58Jawad MirBut nevertheless, e… everything about this picture is as realistic as it can be, so kudos to you for, you know, working on such an incredible piece. I mean, this is, this is crazy. I'm just gonna, like, just to look…

40:10Guy Hendrix DyasYeah

40:10Jawad Mir... At that. Like, now, yeah, it looks like a set, right?

40:13Guy Hendrix DyasRight.

40:13Jawad MirThat's true. But it's just, yeah. Magic of filmmaking, you know?

40:19Guy Hendrix DyasIt…

40:19Jawad MirThat's all it is

40:20Guy Hendrix Dyas... It is. And actually looking at these photos bring back such fond memories. You know, at the time, you know, in Los Angeles, there were still very big productions being made there. And, y… you know, I d… I didn't have the benefit of a crystal ball to look into the future and see how rare building something like this would be these days, in the center of LA.

40:48Guy Hendrix DyasIt was still commonplace to build big sets. And I remember in the art department, it was filled with people that I know and love who were incredibly skilled, set designers, illustrators, 3D modelers, prop makers. You know, the decorator on this film was, a gentleman called Larry Dias, a very renowned set decorator, a good frien… a friend of mine. But the list of people who worked on Indiana Jones is really rich with talent and friendships. And seeing these photos d… does take me back, you know. It's such a long time ago now. A lot of them have gone on to become production designers and supervising art directors and decorators, and, you know, they have their own, legacy n… now. But at the time, we were all working with a common cause, which is we were all kids who were fans of Indiana Jones and wanted to, recreate that world for a new audience.

41:56Guy Hendrix DyasWe were all driven to do that, you know. And it's lovely to see these photos again, I have to say.

42:03Jawad MirYou know, it's, it's, for, does it ha… ha… ever occur to you that 200se… was it 2007 it came out, right, I think? Yeah.

42:11Guy Hendrix DyasI think so.

42:11Jawad Mir2008. Eight. 2008. It doesn't seem that long ago, but it is almost 20 years ago.

42:19Guy Hendrix DyasI know. I know. Yeah.

42:20Jawad MirLike, 2008 does not seem long ago. Like, 1999, maybe it's because of the millennium and all that, but still, it's just, it's just bizarre how I can't believe that... Let me show you something, actually. You might appreciate this. I just remembered this. I have one of these. It's a, it's a little, like a sort of created for the fans, 1981, 1984, '89, 2008.

42:47Guy Hendrix DyasYeah. Wow. How brilliant is that?

42:52Jawad MirRight? That, this is I think all Juice Droosen's work. I'm, I'm guessing. I don't have any official…

42:56Guy Hendrix DyasYeah. How lovely. How lovely, yeah.

42:59Jawad MirYeah. And he's back for more. Yeah. Anyways, I just thought I should share that. But

43:05Guy Hendrix DyasI know. I have a, I have a very dear, item from the film. I rarely walk away from these films with anything, to be honest with you. Nothing really,... I d… I don't really walk away with anything. I just never think about it. But one of the things that I was able to get on Indiana Jones was I was called to set one day and presented, it was my birthday, I think it was…

43:32Guy Hendrix Dyas... August 20th, and we were shooting. And, you know, this says a lot about Steven and who he is. I was called to set and given as a gift, one of Harrison Ford's fedoras that had been used, and on the inside rim it was signed by Steven…

43:54Jawad MirOh, wow

43:55Guy Hendrix Dyas... Harrison, and George. And I still have it today. And you can imagine that gift, is very dear to my heart and will be something I'll pass on to my daughters, when they, when they understand how important that artifact is. Just not in the sense that this great filmmaker gave it to me, but what it means for the legacy of, a film. You know? It's a very special thing. And that's a testament to who Steven is. He knew I was a fan, and I'm sure he thought, "Well, what can I give this guy for his birthday?" And he thought, "I know." You know?

44:37Jawad MirI've actually heard from a lot of people, that I've spoken to, and I've read a lot that, you know, he is a businessman obviously, there is that side of him, which he has to.

44:49Guy Hendrix DyasYes.

44:49Jawad MirBut at the end of the day, he's a incredible human being.

44:53Guy Hendrix DyasYes.

44:53Jawad MirI was speaking to, I think it was Dean Parisot who directed Galaxy Quest, who he worked with. And, we were talking about something and he went to Spielberg. This was when Dean was probably just in his early days, like, I think he did Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. And he went to Steven and he said that, you know, "Well, what do you think?"

45:16Jawad Mir... And Steven said, "Well, it's your film. You do what you wanna do. I'm just here to give you suggestions." And I mean, that, to come from somebody like that, of that caliber, if it was a studio executive only, like, not a director, he or she would've been like, "Okay, you gotta do this, you gotta do this." But for him to say something like that, even at that level, is a testament to who he is, 100%.

45:37Guy Hendrix DyasI know. You gotta, you gotta imagine the breadth of experience and memories that someone like Steven must have. You know, I rarely, I rarely, you know, pushed him into giving me back stories of things because I was so nervous that he'd see me as a fanboy and not his…

46:01Jawad MirYeah

46:01Guy Hendrix Dyas... Production designer.

46:03Jawad MirYeah.

46:03Guy Hendrix DyasSo I rarely, you know, pushed him for stories, ab… about his past. But, you know, he must have such experience having come up from really nothing and become the greatest living director that, y… you know, when he's, when he has young directors and DPs, production side, whoever it is come up to him, he must be able to channel a thought process that puts himself r… right back to the '70s, or the, or the '60s when he was dreaming about all this stuff and making it all want to happen. And I think that gives him this higher understanding of how to talk to other people who are, you know, in the film industry. You know? We all feel as though he understands us because of course he's been there. And, yeah, it's, it's, it's a remarkable skill that he has. It's interesting, you're looking here at the inner temple of Akator, and, this was quite a feat to put this set together.

47:08Guy Hendrix DyasAnd the one just before it that you're looking at, which is the door, I have, I think it's, it's probably just a little further back. There you go. There it is. So this door worked. You see this in the film.

47:22Jawad MirYeah.

47:22Guy Hendrix DyasAnd what you see is not CG enhanced. This is a real practical gag. And, of course they use the skull. They hold the skull up against the impression of the door, and it sets off this mechanism. And all of this, had to work, and I remember being extremely nervous. And where we're looking at this photograph now, I'm not kidding you when I say I was on set that day, standing next to Steven, or very close to Steven, in this position with Janusz shooting this, and just praying to God that it was going to work. Because y… you have to understand, at this point in time, CGI was really in its, in its massive takeover of the industry.

48:18Jawad MirYeah

48:18Guy Hendrix Dyas... And, you know, arguably you could say that CGI had reached a level of believability where you could look at some things and believe them, and other things where you couldn't believe it. Of course, we're now in 2025, and CGI is extraordinary. In fact, I would challenge a lot of people to even know what's CGI anymore. It's that good when it's, when it's, executed properly. But back then, 20 years ago, we were still at a time when the CGI could look a bit ropey, it could look a bit dodgy, and we can talk about certain scenes in this film a bit later that maybe suffer from that. But because I was aware of that, wherever I could create a real effect, like the disappearing staircase…

49:10Guy Hendrix Dyas... Or the door to the Akator temple that could be practical, I would fight tooth and nail for the finances and the, latitude to make those happen for Steven, because I knew that's why he was making this film. For him, it was a little bit of nostalgia, you know. He mentioned it once or twice. It was nostalgic. And so for me it was important for him to experience the nostalgia of seeing real stunts, you know, and real gags. And I couldn't create the giant ball rolling down the tunnel, 'cause that had already been done brilliantly, you know…

49:51Jawad MirYeah

49:52Guy Hendrix Dyas... Back in the day, in 1980 or whenever it was that they created that. And so what could I do? All I could do was be clever and resourceful about my industrial design background, and try and d… design and come up with things that I thought would be amusing or fascinating or just really cool to watch, and this was one of them. And the good news is, the gag worked on the first go. We were able to reset it, but we didn't need to. It worked first go, and I was so thrilled about it. And a big shout-out to, special effects guru Dan Sudick and his amazing team. We had Dan Sudick on this film, and he is one of the great American, special effects, artists out there, and he and his team made this outlandish idea of mine actually work. But again, you can see the amount of detail in the set design here.

50:52Jawad MirYeah

50:52Guy Hendrix Dyas... Re… really special. There was a beautiful illustration of this design that was created by, an artist and good friend of mine, Miles Tevis, who had come up through, Stan Winston's workshop designing…

51:11Guy Hendrix Dyas... I think largely creatures and things. But he was such a fan of Indiana Jones that I was able to get him as part of my team. Miles is a lovely human being and a, one of those incredible artists, and I remember he did a beautiful color illustration of this set that you're looking at, that was one of the ways I was able to sell the idea to Steven. I didn't always sell everything to Steven. With pencil sketches. You know, I had to also then back it up with these very beautiful color illustrations.

51:45Jawad MirAmazing. And just to kind of m… give you a little comment, in the, in the world that we live in today with AI getting as real as possibly... Like, you know, in some cases it's really hard to decipher…

51:58Jawad Mir... Kinda like the next evolution. This picture, the amount of detail that's in there, at least for now, that may change in future, is a testament to the amount of detail and how real it looks. It act… you know, it, because of those spider webs, because you could... Also the actual objects, I could literally feel like I can just touch them, like in my head.

52:24Guy Hendrix DyasYeah. Right.

52:24Jawad MirI can feel the texture. So it's, it's so amazing to see the real thing, because I don't know if that would change in future. I mean, the way technology's going, it may, but I would like to believe that people would be, you know, s… wise enough audience to be able to distinguish. I know I agree with you that there are some cases that you can't distinguish CGI versus…

52:48Guy Hendrix DyasRight. Right

52:49Jawad Mir... Real. But still I would hope that remains to a certain effect, because real is real. That's just how I look at it.

52:57Guy Hendrix DyasYeah, no, I agree with you, and i… i… y… you look at these sets and for me, I still can't believe we did this, you know?

53:07Jawad MirYeah.

53:07Guy Hendrix DyasThere's a side of me that can't believe this. This, that decorating that you saw there in the temple, was all gathered by Larry Diaz and his, set dressing team, and, the big totems at the back are based on that pencil sketch that you said you liked.

53:25Jawad MirYeah.

53:26Guy Hendrix DyasI don't know if you noticed that.

53:27Jawad MirYeah, I did. I did, 100%, 100%. No, I'm just looking at it's just breathtaking. It's absolutely beautiful, and obviously it comes from the concept that you a… others have created to be able to bring it to where it is.

53:40Guy Hendrix DyasI have a lot of good stories about Indiana Jones. It really was, a gift to my professional life. The little town that we put together, the little nuke town, I actually... It was such a busy production. We were in so many locations. I mean, you have to imagine we were in New Mexico, we were in Los Angeles, we were just everywhere, Hawaii, that it was very hard for me to stick around and watch the master at work. You know, watch Steven and Janusz Kaminski work, which is something I really wanted to do. But y… you know, and this was one of those occasions. I basically got this set ready, and left to go to the next set. You know, it was just like a d… a knock-on effect. You have to keep moving. You have to keep moving, and you're always ahead of the shooting crew. But I remember getting this great phone call, came through from, Christy Macosko, who at the time was… Steven's, executive assistant, I think she's now a producer, and she s… said, "You know, hold for Steven."

54:57Guy Hendrix DyasAnd I thought, "Oh, no. What's, what's gonna, what's he gonna say?" And he just got on the phone and complimented me on the set and said he absolutely loved it. I mean, who does that, you know? So, he…

55:12Jawad MirSteven Spielberg.

55:13Guy Hendrix DyasHe got on the phone, tracked me down again. Well, now it was easy. He had my cell phone.

55:18Jawad MirYeah.

55:18Guy Hendrix DyasAnd just said, "Guy, we're here. We're here in New Mexico. We're shooting, you know, Doom Town," it was called. That's right, Doom Town, "and the set's amazing. I absolutely love it. I love the details." And it was such a great call to get, and actually gave me the energy and the sort of the power to go on, because there were some low points in this production. I was exhausted, you know? And it was lovely to get that phone call from him. But it was a fun set, you know. We had, all sorts of funny things. There was the, all the dummies that we posed around the set, which you see. He shot very…

55:58Guy Hendrix Dyas... Cleverly, in quick cuts. And of course, this was based somewhat on history. There was a time out in Nevada where they would set up fake houses with dummies and cars and gardens and things like that, and basically blow them up to see how they would respond to these nuclear blasts. And so really, we were just enlarging on what history had done. Now, what I did for the design was I decided to make it this quintessential, perfect 1950s Americana, you know, with all the bright colors, the classic sort of '50s colors that you expect to see when you're getting very, nostalgic about that time period. So, and again, we couldn't build all the houses, because of course it's a sort of a little cul-de-sac that we ended up building, but we built it in a way that it looked as though it was a lot, a lot more than it was.

57:03Guy Hendrix DyasAnd this was another one of those sets where, instead of using visual ef… pure visual effects, ILM actually built a miniature, copy of my set to blow up… ... At ILM, and then that was then enhanced with CGI. So, we were still at a time when models were being used and enhanced by CGI.

57:32Jawad MirWell, thank you for sharing that. Let me see what else is here that you can…

57:39Guy Hendrix DyasOh, yeah. Yeah

57:40Jawad Mir... Oh, the, that looks great.

57:42Guy Hendrix DyasSo, w…

57:43Jawad MirGo on

57:44Guy Hendrix Dyas... One of the, I'm laughing because, of course, one of the legacies, and one of the things that haunted me about reading the script that I got, I think it was David Koepp, right, who wrote the script, was that it started with this amazing, sort of situation where Indy finds himself at the huge storage facility at Area 51, which of course is where the Ark is stored in the original

58:23Jawad MirYep

58:23Guy Hendrix Dyas... Raiders of the Lost Ark. And as I read it, I got chills, you know. I just thought, "Oh, my God," because I was well aware that the original storage facility at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark was one of those just masterful matte paintings, that was done on glass, by the, all those talented matte painters. And forgive me for not remembering specifically who did that matte painting, but I'm sure it's one of the greats. And of course, we see the lone caretaker taking the Ark in a, in a wooden cra… crate and sort of disappearing into the darkness as the credits roll at the end of Indiana Jones. What a perfect end. What a perfect end to a perfect film. And so here I am, I'm the production designer, and I'm responsible for taking that matte painting, which they could not have afforded to have done back then, and I had to turn that into a real set that was gonna have action and car…...

59:28Guy Hendrix DyasChases and Indy swinging around on his whip, being chased by a bunch of Russians. And of course, we had the magical moment where we see one of the crates get knocked open and we see the Ark. You know, it just…

59:46Jawad MirYeah

59:46Guy Hendrix Dyas... I fell off my seat reading this stuff. And so I had to do that, and it was extremely hard and ext… well, I had to use every ounce of ingenuity and use the brains of a collective group of people to figure out how to make this happen. And to cut a very long story short, what you're looking at here is a hangar in New Mexico, that we found that was a wooden structured roof. So when you look at this, it is a period correct hangar from the front.

1:00:28Guy Hendrix DyasAnd you can see the sun's going down. We're adjusting the camera. These boxes are reminiscent of the boxes in the matte painting. But I'm standing pretty much at the back of this hangar. It's not very deep. I'm just gonna tell you that now. I'm gonna break all the, all the secrets here. And when you turn the camera around and look back into… This space. We're actually in Los Angeles and we are... I'm trying to remember where we did this now. But it was, it was the old facility where they built the shuttles, these massive warehouses south of s… of LA. Oh, goodness me, I have absolutely forgotten, but…

1:01:19Jawad MirIt's okay. It's okay

1:01:20Guy Hendrix Dyas... It'll, it'll come to me. And that place was massive, and so all these boxes here were transported there, plus another, psh, I don't know, I wanna say 4 or 5,000 boxes. But what's interesting about them is these boxes are not individual boxes. They're actually singular units that make up entire aisles that are mounted on wheels that are hidden so that when Steven and Janusz needed to move these boxes around to facilitate shots, we could basically lift up the boxes with these little gas lifts and push them around en masse in these huge groups of boxes. I… in many ways, I wish I'd videoed some of this stuff to show the clever tricks that we used. So this set was split between two, but it, a… as I say, said at the beginning, it's supposed to be this famous facility at Area 51 where we see the Ark being hidden at the end of Raiders.

1:02:31Guy Hendrix DyasAmazing experience.

1:02:34Jawad MirThank you for sharing that. Let's see what else we got here that you sent.

1:02:41Guy Hendrix DyasAh, now this is at that place. So again, a lot of these boxes, we had a handful of them which were individual, which we could move around for dressing, but Harrison's actually standing on a large structure, reinforced structure that's a singular, collection of boxes that appear to be many boxes, but it's one giant structure which we could move around.

1:03:08Guy Hendrix DyasBut this gives you some idea of the scope of the production.

1:03:11Jawad MirYeah.

1:03:11Guy Hendrix DyasWas absolutely enormous.

1:03:14Jawad Mir100%. 100%.

1:03:16Guy Hendrix DyasAh, look at that. Yeah, this is the, of course the jet…

1:03:19Jawad MirYep

1:03:19Guy Hendrix Dyas... Sled.

1:03:24Jawad MirOh, this is the statues from that town that you were talking about.

1:03:26Guy Hendrix DyasThat's right, the dummies

1:03:27Jawad MirThe nuclear…

1:03:27Guy Hendrix DyasDoom Town dummies.

1:03:29Jawad MirThere…

1:03:29Guy Hendrix DyasWe always thought that'd make a great band name, Doom Town Dummies.

1:03:31Jawad MirThere is the refrigerator.

1:03:34Guy Hendrix DyasThe famous refrigerator that caused all the controversy, yep.

1:03:37Jawad MirYeah.

1:03:40Guy Hendrix DyasAnd this is lovely. This is a set on stage at Universal and it… ... Of course, is a recreation of Harrison's apartment, and it was really interesting because in the first, I think... I'm trying to remember now where his apartment on the campus appears. I think it's in, r… I think it's in Temple of Doom, and I think it's, it also appears

1:04:08Jawad MirIn Last Crusade

1:04:09Guy Hendrix Dyas... Last Crusade.

1:04:10Jawad MirYeah. Yeah

1:04:10Guy Hendrix DyasBut in both cases, they were different apartments. They never used the same location. They were two locations and they were in the UK, and they were both different. So what do you do? What do you do when you're expected to study the film, figure out the layout of his apartment, and then build a set that's identical? However, there are two different apartments with different layouts. How do you do that? Well, what you have to do is combine them. So I opted for a set that would be reminiscent of both the apartments that we saw in the various films so that people that would watch this film would go, "Oh, yeah, I kind of remember that front door. Oh, yeah, I sort of remember that couch or the fireplace," you know? So I tried to channel both of them together. And I do remember there was, there was a bit of a know-it-all, working on the production.

1:05:14Guy Hendrix DyasI have no idea who it was in the end. And they had sort of whispered into someone's ear that I'd got the set wrong, you know? "Guy's got the set wrong." And it was on the day of the shoots. There was nothing you could do about it. And I got called to set to explain myself and, I sort of explained, you know, "Look, it's not that particular location or that particular location. It's a, it's an a… amalgamation of them both. It's a, it's a fusing together of these two places into one, into one set." And that was a good enough explanation for Steven. He was like, "Yeah, great. It's fine. It looks great," you know, and he got on with it. But I remember fuming about it and thinking, "Who was it that…" "... You know, put the spanner in the works there and said that, you know, it's not right," you know?

1:06:06Jawad MirYeah, no, that always tends to happen at any kind of job. There's always that one person, I shouldn't say always, but sometimes creates the, you know, drama, but no, these are great. Is there any…

1:06:21Guy Hendrix DyasIt was a lovely set. It was a lovely set and I had to actually show Harrison around that set, in person and that's where I first got to meet him. I was very nervous. As I say, I'd saw him a couple of times in the film tests, and that's when, of course, he put on his original costume and it still fit. But, that was the first time I had face time with him and, yeah, he was really interested. He went around, he opened drawers. He looked at sort of all the artifacts and noted all the Easter eggs that we'd placed and, he straight away I think warmed up and realized that I was… Taking this responsibility very seriously. Yeah

1:07:06Jawad MirWas there any funny moment or story when you were taking him around? But besides looking at the work that you were doing

1:07:12Guy Hendrix DyasIt was, the, it, Harrison was always interested in the aircraft because as you know, we had a couple of aircraft…

1:07:19Jawad MirHe's a pilot

1:07:19Guy Hendrix Dyas... In the film

1:07:20Jawad MirYeah

1:07:20Guy Hendrix DyasAnd he's a pilot and he's very interested in historical aircraft and wanted to know what the aircraft were that we were using. He wanted to make sure that we were using the right, the right aircraft. I remember we talked about aircraft, which I know nothing about, and we eventually morphed that conversation into talking about, motorbikes, motorcycles, which I didn't realize, it turned out he was a bit of a fan. And of course, I'm an absolute motorcycle maniac, and we ended up talking about, I remember Vincent Black Shadows, which is a very, old, a, and somewhat famous, motorcycle in the world of motorcycling, and we both turned out to be huge fans. And at the time, I was planning to buy one. And I think he'd either owned one or also agreed that he wanted one. So we had this kind of very interesting little sort of gear head conversation in the middle of Indiana Jones. It was nice.

1:08:21Jawad MirWell, there's a motorbike in the film as well. I mean, I don't know anything about motorbikes…

1:08:24Guy Hendrix DyasOh, yes

1:08:24Jawad Mir... But…

1:08:25Guy Hendrix DyasThere is. Yeah

1:08:25Jawad Mir... There's, there's a, there's a famous, popular scene. But wow, man. What a, thank you for sharing all these great stories and your behind the scene work because I'm sure there's tons more. Like, and I always wonder, you know, you look at the making of a film or a director's commentary, but I always wonder if there is, you take one film, whichever it is, and you grab, you know, just like a short documentary, right? Like, you grab, like, 10 different people from 10 different jobs who…

1:08:57Guy Hendrix DyasRight

1:08:57Jawad Mir... Worked on the film and share their stories and put it in a podcast series. I mean, it's such a wealth amount of knowledge that people can gain, not, you know, obviously learn something from, but also just reconnect with something that you enjoyed as an audience member.

1:09:16Guy Hendrix DyasYeah. Yeah. It's so true. And, you know, that period was, really full on for me. I mean, I remember, it just went on and on and on, the, those sort of films. I went, I think, from Indiana Jones to, I think Inception after that maybe with Chris Nolan.

1:09:36Jawad MirYeah.

1:09:37Guy Hendrix DyasAnd it just, yeah, it's a very rich time, for interesting films that sort of stay with you. And it, the knowledge that you gain from those kind of films are, it's, it's really, very precious and very special, and something that you can bring to all the productions that you do after that. I mean, some of the, some of the tricks of the trade that I learned on Indiana Jones, for example, I've brought onto this, onto Masters of the Universe, with Travis. You know, some of my, you know, tendency to be very detail oriented, and making sure that the sets look absolutely real. That's something that I have a passion for. So in the unbelievability of the environments, I wanna make sure that once people are there in the cinema, they're looking at these sets or these environments, characters, spaceships, whatever it is you're designing, and saying, "My God, that's so cool, and it looks so real."

1:10:40Guy Hendrix DyasThat's always the thing. You want people to not have to think about whether the set looks good or not. You want them to think…

1:10:47Jawad MirYeah

1:10:47Guy Hendrix Dyas... About the story, the character. You know, that's what you want them to focus on, you know?

1:10:52Jawad MirAnd when the set is good and it's realistic and it fits in with the character and the story, like you said, I mean, the audience has completely bought into it, right? Like, because…

1:11:02Guy Hendrix DyasYeah

1:11:02Jawad Mir... If it was, like, a little bit off, then they'll pick it up, or if it was a bit too much overdone, they'll pick it up. But at the end of the day, just having, you know, it's, it's like, it's like an orchestra, right? I mean, you know it and I know it, like, having everything in sync. Every department is important because one without the other, the film suffers.

1:11:23Guy Hendrix DyasIt's very true. That's very true.

1:11:25Jawad MirYeah.

1:11:26Guy Hendrix DyasYeah.

1:11:26Jawad MirAmazing. Thank you so much, Guy, for your time. Is there anything else that you wanna add on? Any other little tidbits?

1:11:33Guy Hendrix DyasNo. Thanks so much for having me. It's lovely that you wanted to talk about this film. I mean, i… i… it's, it's one of those things. You're on a film for a period of your life, and then when it comes out, there's usually a surge of interest and you, try to help, you know, promote the film or explain how it was made, and then that all dies away, and the film is lost in time. You know, other than perhaps you'll see it on TV at a hotel or something, you know. You never, you never see it again very often. I certainly don't sit through, old films that I've worked on. Maybe I will when I'm old, but, you know, not yet. And so it's interesting when you have opportunities to talk about, you know, something like this that you really haven't thought about for, yeah, 15 years, 20 years.

1:12:27Jawad MirYeah.

1:12:28Guy Hendrix DyasIt's a great opportunity. But thank you for having me and wanting to discuss this. It's nice.

1:12:32Jawad MirNo, I appreciate your time and your consideration of talking about this film. But also, like I said earlier in the beginning of the conversation, the amount of films that you worked on that I personally admire, and I, the only films that I like to talk about on this podcast or series or books…

1:12:50Jawad Mir... Is something that I personally resonate with.

1:12:53Guy Hendrix DyasRight.

1:12:53Jawad MirDoesn't mean that the other stuff is not good, right? And, I would love to have you on again maybe to talk about Inception or any other project that you'd like…

1:13:02Guy Hendrix DyasOoh. Yeah

1:13:02Jawad Mir... Because it would be always fascinating to have to talk about stories of how films are made that you don't necessarily see in the making of or in other interviews. So would love to have you again.

1:13:14Guy Hendrix DyasIt's al… it's also nice, I think you're right, to look at these films retrospectively, you know, having talked about them so much after they come out.

1:13:24Jawad MirYeah.

1:13:24Guy Hendrix DyasAnd there's that huge gap where nobody wants to talk about it anymore, and then having a sort of a retrospective revisit of it is really kind of a lovely thing. I mean, so I'm very grateful to you for having me on. Thank you.

1:13:36Jawad MirNo, thank you. Pleasure's all mine. Good luck with Masters of the Universe, and we'll be in touch soon…

1:13:41Guy Hendrix DyasYeah

1:13:41Jawad Mir... To have you back on.

1:13:42Guy Hendrix DyasAll right. Take care. Cheers.

1:13:44Jawad MirAll right. Take care.

1:13:44Guy Hendrix DyasBye.

1:13:44Jawad MirBye-bye.