Indiana Jones 5: Steven Spielberg film hit with huge delay

It's freed the director up to work on his planned remake of musical West Side Story

(Disney / Lucasfilm)

The fifth instalment of Indiana Jones won't be Steven Spielberg's next project after all.

Spielberg's planned sequel, which will bring Harrison Ford's whip-cracking character back to cinema screens, was expected to be released in 2020 with production scheduled to begin in 2019.

However, Variety reports that the project will miss this release date with sources close to the production claiming shooting may be pushed back by as long as a year.

Sources are attributing this delay to the creative team's failure to sign off on a finished script. David Koepp (Jurassic Park) wrote the first draft with Jonathan Kasdan - the son of Raiders of the Lost Ark screenwriter, Lawrence - set to come on board for a second draft.

Despite the delay, both Spielberg and Ford remain committed to the project - however, it now seems likely that the former will instead move ahead with his remake of the musical West Side Story as well as The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,an adaptation of David Kertzer's novel following a young Jewish boy in 1850s Italy starring Oscar Isaac and Mark Rylance.

The character's most recent adventure, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was released in 2008 to middling reviews 19 years after the concluding part of the original trilogy.

George Lucas - who helped create the character - will executive produce the fifth instalment while John Williams will, once again be on composing duties.