Who is the world's highest paid film star

A. Harrison Ford who returns to the role of Indiana Jones after a 12-year break, is reported to be the world's highest paid film star, commmanding a fee of $20 million. The figure puts Ford higher than Julia Roberts and Hollywood heart throb, Mel Gibson. Actors Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise are thought to take home slighly more only because they take most of their fees as a share of the profits. The $20 million fee tops the $17.8 million record which Ford received for K-19: The Widowmaker, a Russian submarine thriller due out next year.

Q. How much does Tom Hanks make

A. Per movie, the Mission: Impossible star is thought to make $50 million, a large part of which comes from profits. Tom Hanks is reported to earn $45 million, mainly from profits, and Erin Brockovich star Julia Roberts can command a straight salary of 19.5 million per movie. Other big Hollywood earners include Mel Gibson, who commands $16 million per movie; Bruce Willis, who earns $15 million per movie; Brad Pitt, who earns $13 million per movie, John Travolta, who earns $12 million per movie, and the other big earner in the female stakes is Jennifer Lopez, who is thought to earn around $10 million per film.

Q. When is the new Indiana Jones movie out

A. Paramount Pictures, the company behind Indiana Jones, last week confirmed it was looking for scripts for the adventurous archaelogist. Adventure movies such as The Mummy and Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft have enjoyed recent success at the box office.

Q. How many Indiana Jones films have been made

A. 1981 saw Raiders of the Lost Ark; Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom was released in 1984; and 1989 saw the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The team behind the original success - Steven Spielberg and Star Wars creator George Lucas - are thought to be involved with the new Indiana plot. The new film is likely to be an all-action plot giving the now ageing Harrison plenty of opportunity to lose his hat and unleash his bullwhip.

The first film featured Jones taking on the Nazis while trying to locate the lost Ark of the Covenant, which held the 10 Commandments. In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, his character helps Indian villagers whose children had been spirited away, and the final Indiana movie saw him battling to stop the Nazis get their hands of the charished Holy Grail.

Q. How old is Harrison Ford now

A. Ford will be 59 next month, and in the last movie, Sir Sean Connery played his father.

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By Katharine MacColl