Last updated 11:39, Thursday, 22 May 2008

Harrison Ford knew he could play Indiana Jones again when he found the iconic leather jacket – and fedora – still fitted him.The Crystal Skull is set in 1957 (19 years on from the previous adventure) and starts with Indy and his sidekick Mac (Ray Winstone) escaping from Soviet agents on a remote airfield.

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“I hadn’t worn the Indiana Jones costume for 18 years,” he says. “They sent the original costume to my house for me to try on, to see where we would have to change sizes. I put it on and it fitted like a glove. I felt really comfortable and ready to go!”

At 65, Harrison is set to join Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis in the ranks of Hollywood’s veteran action heroes when he returns to the big screen as the whip-cracking archaeology professor.

But Harrison says he is prepared for the critics to slate his long-delayed fourth outing as Indy.

“I expect to have the whip turned on me!” he joked. “It’s not unusual for something that is popular to be disdained by some people and I fully expect it.

“I’m not really worried about it though,” he added. “I work for the people who pay to get in and see the movie – they are my customers. My focus is on providing the best experience I can for those people.”

Harrison certainly put in some hard graft to get back into role, 19 years after the last instalment, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, came out in 1989.

To make sure he could do all his own stunts, Harrison hit the gym and had special training to remember the technique with the whip.

“It’s a relatively uncommon skill,” he says, “and I wasn’t terribly good at it – but I guess I was good enough for show business when I did it the last time.

“We had a new whip trainer on this movie who had a different technique. “So after a couple of weeks of pretty diligent practice, I was able to get it all back.”

The new film is the culmination of almost two decades of script-writing and collaborations between Harrison, director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas, as all three committed to bringing Dr Jones back in style.

“Having been out in the world making all kinds of other movies, I was happy to do another Indiana Jones film, just because they’re so damned much fun to do,” Harrison says. “I love being in business again with Steven and George, and I’ve had a great time on this one.”

But the film almost didn’t come about, admits Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who considered The Last Crusade to be his final Indiana outing.

“I shot Indiana Jones riding a horse into the sunset because I thought that brought the curtain down on the story,” the 60-year-old director reveals.

“And in a sweet, nostalgic way, that was fine with me at the time. But there were some people who weren’t fine with it – and this movie really started with the fans.

“Harrison called me and said, ’Why don’t we make another one of these pictures? There’s a fan base out there that wants it,”’ he continues.

“He called George, and then George called me and said, ’Well, Steve, what do you want to do? It could be fun to make another movie.”’

“I had to be convinced the most out of everybody. I was the person saying, ’I don’t know’ and it took a long time to find the right story.”

Once filming started and Harrison was back in the role, the director says he knew they had all made the right decision.

“To see Harrison walk on the set, pick up the whip, snap it and wrap it around one of the bad guys was pretty incredible,” he says.

“It was amazing to see how fast Harrison was with it – and then be on the set to see Indy’s rucksack and his other props. It wasn’t just nostalgia. That was when I realised that we were bringing this character and everything he’s about back to the audience that grew up with him, as well as to new audiences.”

Indy returns home to Marshall College to find that he is under suspicion, and that the government has put pressure on the university to fire him.

On his way out of town, Indy meets rebellious young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), who has a proposition for the archaeologist – to help him on a personal mission and make one of the most spectacular finds in history – the Crystal Skull of Akator.

But as Indy and Mutt set out for the most remote corners of Peru, they realise they are not alone.

A pack of Soviet agents, led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), are scouring the globe for the skull, believing its magic can help them dominate the world.

It was important for the tone of the film that it was set in the atomic age, according to Spielberg.

“The threat of nuclear annihilation and the red menace, as it used to be known in America, were in the headlines on a daily basis, so when it came to who the villains would be, the Russians got the job.”

But despite the changes in setting and tone, some things remain the same.

“All the traditions of Indiana Jones are back again,” says the director. “We’ve got the map, we’ve got the plane and the vehicles with the little red line showing you how you’re hopscotching across the globe.”

“The style is the same, the humour is the same. Everything feels the same,” adds George Lucas. “But we’ve also been able to build on it.

“Harrison gets to portray a huge evolution of the character, as he moves from the 1930s to the 1950s,” he says.

“Pushing the plot forward has been a bit of an adventure, because we’re breaking the mold while keeping the films consistent. The reason it works this time is the same reason it has always worked: Harrison Ford.”

While Karen Allen is back as Indy’s sidekick Marion, Harrison has been joined by a new set of co-stars, including up-and-coming actor Shia LaBeouf, who plays Mutt.

“He’s never really had a normal upbringing,” Shia, 21, explains. “He quit school and became obsessed with motorcycles and machinery. In some ways this quest is really about re-creating a family.”

Transformers star Shia says one of his first thoughts after accepting the part was “something horrible is going to happen to me!” but seeing Harrison in costume for the first time made it all worthwhile.

“We were on an airforce base and Harrison flew in on a helicopter. He reached back for his whip and in that moment he wasn’t Harrison – he was Indiana Jones. I thought ‘Oh, my God. This is real’.”

Cate Blanchett, 39, also joins the cast in her first “out-and-out-baddie” role as Soviet Irina Spalko, complete with sleek black bob.

As a newcomer to the film series, Cate admits she was surprised by the intense curiosity that surrounded it. “I don’t think I realised before we began just how many people were desperate for another instalment. It’s really a fantastic feeling.”

She says taking the role was almost a dream come true.

“Everyone at my primary school wanted to kiss Harrison Ford, but I actually wanted to be Harrison Ford. I wanted to be Indiana Jones!”

Depending on the film’s success, there could well be more in the pipeline. The initially-reluctant Steven Spielberg is open to opportunities for more. “We will have our ear to the ground to hear what happens and that will decide where we go from here,” he says.