Harrison Ford plays a man whose family is being held hostage in Firewall, which opens Friday.

HOLLYWOOD -- At 63, Harrison Ford is a senior citizen in an industry obsessed with youth.

"I didn't just wake up one morning 63 years old so it's not a real blow to me," says Ford adding, "it's been incremental. I've been able to accommodate."

His collaborations with George Lucas on the first Star Wars trilogy and Steven Spielberg and Lucas on the Indiana Jones movies made Ford the biggest box-office star of the '70s and '80s. In the 1990s, he slipped to the 37th position of the top 100 box-office stars.

"I don't do as many films as I used to because I am more involved in the process," says Ford, who collaborates with his directors and screenwriters.

There is a three-year gap between Hollywood Homicide and his new hostage thriller Firewall that opens Friday.

"The process of bringing this particular project to the screen took longer than anticipated. We had a director who had to drop out due to a personal tragedy."

Mark Pellington -- whose credits include Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies -- worked with Ford for months on Firewall. Just weeks before filming was to begin, Pellington's wife died of a rare infection.

Pellington was replaced by Richard Loncraine, who had just directed the tennis comedy Wimbledon.

"When (Pellington) had to drop out we had to, of course, develop the script again for the new director. It took quite a while to get this thing up and running so that didn't allow me time to do anything else."

Ford did his last Indiana Jones picture in 1989. There has been a great deal of speculation about the fate of the fourth instalment in the franchise especially these past 10 years.

"It will happen," insists Ford. "There is a script, but we don't have a start date yet."

This is one time Ford has no direct input into a screenplay. "That's not how it works with Indiana Jones. Script approval is up to Steven and George. I can make suggestions and voice my concerns."

Ford's major concern has been "the historical time period in which we place this next adventure. It's now set in the '50s and I'm happy with that."

Ford's next film is Manhunt, in which he plays an army detective tracking John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. "There is no casting beyond me as of yet. That's in the works. We'll be shooting later this year."

Ford says he is always drawn to a project by the potential he sees for himself in the character. This was certainly the case with Firewall in which he plays a bank security expert whose family is held hostage so he will help the criminals tap into the bank's computer system.

Paul Bettany plays the criminal mastermind with Virginia Madsen as Ford's wife.

Firewall features a harrowing fight between Bettany and Ford that director Loncraine says was essentially choreographed by Ford.

"It would have been foolish not to seek his help on the fight. Harrison is an expert on action sequences," says Loncraine.

"He knows what works, not just for himself, but for the film."

Though Ford has admitted to having knee and back problems, Loncraine says the actor "is a very tough man."

For his part, Ford says film fights "are all smoke-and-mirrors.

"It's simply choreography. You shouldn't get hurt if everything has been planned as carefully as it should be."

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