Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Belize Lays Claim to Crystal Skull Movie's "Illegal Profits"

It must take awhile for movies to get down to Belize.  It's been out for years, but now an archaeologist, purportedly acting on behalf of that nation's government, is suing the owners of the Indiana Jones franchise for their alleged unauthorized use of a facsimile of an artifact from that country.

According to press reports, "Scientist Jaime Awe claims Hollywood hot shots used a model of the swiped Belizean relic in the 2008 flick, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” to rake in 'illegal profits.'”

Of course, he now wants a piece of the action, i.e., a portion of the Crystal Skull Movie's $378 million profit, for the Central American country.

In so doing, Awe and Belize seem to be taking a page from Zahi Hawass and Egypt who hoped to copyright  the pyramids and rake in even larger sums.  

Leaving aside the dubious merits of this lawsuit, I have to assume this news is a bit embarrassing for Harrison Ford, a.k.a "Indiana Jones," who is a past AIA Trustee.

And which side will the AIA take in this dispute?  The downtrodden and exploited country of Belize or the Hollywood hot shots who have helped promote archaeology?

And will SAFE and other hard liners be telling the AIA "we told you so" for its efforts to promote the movie and make its leading man an AIA Trustee?

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