Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies premiere

FOR RELEASE 7/9/1994

Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies Premieres Oct. 15 on The Family Channel

Young Indiana Jones takes on Hollywood in 1920 and finds an industry of eccentrics and megalomaniacs -- and those are just the directors.

Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Fol1ies premieres 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Oct. 15 on The Family Channel. It's original and exclusive and the first of four Young Indiana Jones movies produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. in association with The Family Channel and Paramount Television Group.

It's pre-talkie days but no one is silent -- not the actors who want their way, the directors who want their way, or the studio heads who demand their way.

Indy, 21, is sent by a studio mogul to bring a runaway director under control. The director is the flamboyant Erich Von Stroheim, a real-life character who, when told that his movie is being shut down and his set at the L.A. studio cleared for another film, takes the entire cast and crew to Mexico in the dead of night to finish filming.

Indy also meets Irving Thalberg, another real-life character, who serves a new function as the assistant to the studio president, that of keeping costs (and directors) under control. (In real life, Thalberg was an assistant to Louis Mayer who twice had to fire Von Stroheim.)

Indy also works for a young John Ford, the illustrious director, by acting in one of his westerns.

This mixing of fact and fiction gives vitality to each of the new Young Indiana Jones movies.

"First and foremost, these are adventure stories," said Ben Burtt, director of the third movie, Young Indiana Jones and The Attack of The Hawkmen. "But they also provide a lot of information about science, history, geography. The movie becomes a history book. These are fictional stories wrapped around historical events."

Executive Producer George Lucas’ own love of the industry spawned the Hollywood Follies movie.

"Besides being a history buff I'm a big enthusiast for film and cinema and the history of film," said Lucas, chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. and creator and executive producer of the Star Wars saga, among other successful, innovative films.

"There are some interesting icons of early cinema -- John Ford, Von Stroheim, Irving Thalberg -- who helped shape the cinema and the type of characters who still operate the film industry," said Lucas. "Hollywood Follies is about the tension between the creative staff and the business people."

Sean Patrick Flanery stars as Indy. He played Indy in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series on ABC 1992-93. Also starring is Allison Smith as Claire, Indy's girlfriend; Dana Gladstone as Von Stroheim, Stephen Caffery as Ford and Bill Cusack as Thalberg.

The Hollywood Follies was executive produced by George Lucas with Rick McCallum as producer. It was written by Jonathan Hales and Matthew Jacobs and directed by Michael Schultz.