Ready Player One director Steven Spielberg says it’s time for a woman to play Indiana Jones

STEVEN SPIELBERG thinks action legend Indiana Jones is finally ready for the ultimate adventure — to be played by a woman.

The director knows he would risk fan fury by casting an actress in the role made famous by Harrison Ford, 75, but he believes it is time the explorer took “a different form”.

In an exclusive interview, Spielberg nodded when asked if this new-look Jones could be female, and added: “We’d have to change the name from Jones to Joan. And there would be nothing wrong with that.”

The 71-year-old has been a vocal champion of the Time’s Up campaign for gender equality in the movie industry — and is no stranger to powerful women.

His mother Leah, who died last year aged 97, raised him and his three sisters almost single-handedly because his workaholic engineer father Arnold, now 101, was rarely around.

And he has been married to actress Kate Capshaw, 64, since 1991, after meeting in 1984 when she starred in the second Indiana Jones film in 1984.

He said: “My mom was strong. She had a voice, she had a very strong opinion.

“I have been very lucky to be influenced by women, several of whom I have just loved madly — my mom and my wife.”

Filming for the fifth movie in the Indiana Jones franchise is due to begin in April next year.

But Spielberg said: “This will be Harrison Ford’s last Indiana Jones movie, I am pretty sure, but it will certainly continue after that.”

That is when the director will decide on whether to go ahead with “Joan” — and once again lead the way in putting words about Hollywood equality into action.

Unlike many other directors and producers, he has long insisted his lead actors and actresses get  the same pay, most recently  in Ready Player One starring British actress Olivia Cooke, 24, and Tye Sheridan, 21.

He said: “Everyone was equally paid. And on The Post, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep got the same pay cheque exactly, right down to the perks.”

Spielberg’s  new film is a sci-fi spectacular, set in a future so grim that most of humanity has sought escape in a virtual reality world designed by a character played by Mark Rylance.

It lets players act out any fantasy, from climbing Everest to racing the DeLorean from Back To The Future.

And Spielberg thinks this level of technology is within our grasp.

He predicted: “I can imagine in the relatively near future social media taking place in a three- dimensional cyber virtual space.

“You are socialising in virtual chat rooms and, if you are wearing the right clothing, you can feel it when people shake your hand or give you a hug.

“I see a whole industry circling the future of just such an immersive technology.”

But personally, Spielberg will be trying to avoid its addictive temptations, just as he refuses to get embroiled with social media.

He explained: “I am not on Facebook, I don’t have a Twitter or a Snapchat or Instagram account. But I know what it feels like to be addicted, because I am addicted to a couple of games on my phone and I am always checking my messages. Even taking the phone away from me and putting it somewhere out of sight — it’s never far out of mind.”

The double Oscar-winner also admits he is addicted to work, which explains the 35 films he has directed including classics Jaws, ET, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

On top of that, he has produced more than 80 movies, ranging from Back To The Future to Men In Black and Twister.

But he has managed to occasionally tear himself away from the studios to make sure he had time with his children as they grew up. He and Kate have three biological children — daughters Sasha, 27 and Destry, 21 and son Sawyer, 26, and adopted kids Theo, 29, and Mikaela, 22.

He also has a son from his first marriage to actress Amy Irving — Max, 32 — while Kate has an elder daughter Jessica, 41, from her own first marriage.

The director said: “I always work hard. I have only had a couple of breaks in my career.

“I did it to be close to my ­family, to focus time on my kids as they were growing up.  I have probably taken six years off in the last 40 years. That’s not a very good average.”

And many of those years behind the camera have been spent here in the UK.

Ever since he shot the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders Of The Lost Ark at Elstree Studios, Herts, in 1980, the Ohio-born ­filmmaker has been smitten.

True to form, Ready Player One was filmed in Birmingham, and the new Indiana Jones will be shot here too.

Speaking in Claridge’s hotel  in London, he said: “I love coming back here.  I truly consider this my second home.

“There was a period when we didn’t come back, under Tony Blair’s government when  they pulled the tax credits. I had to cancel two productions which were slated to shoot in the UK and take those to other countries.

“But the most important thing is the talent — that’s what I come here for.

“England really knows how to give a tremendous leg-up by offering young actors lots of opportunities to train and ­perform.”

He also likes bingeing on British TV, declaring: “Broadchurch was one of my favourite television series — and it still is.”

Then there is the monarchy. Spielberg admits he is a superfan.

Awarded an honorary knighthood  in 2001 for services to the ­entertainment industry, he says he has met all the senior royals.

But his favourite moment was being personally invited by the  Queen to screen his film War Horse at Windsor  Castle in 2011.

He recalled: “It was the longest time I had the honour of spending with the Queen, at least half a day.

“We got along great, she enjoyed the movie and the great thing  was she invited the whole of the staff at Windsor to see it.

“Just behind becoming an honorary knight, that was my greatest honour.”

• Ready Player One (12A) is in cinemas now.