How the first "Indiana Jones" was created (21 photos)

2021 marks the 40th anniversary of Indiana Jones: In searching for the lost ark." I suggest you find out what difficulties the film overcame on its way to fame.





His name was Smith, Indiana Smith

June 1973 George Lucas sits in the office of his Mill Valley home and agonizes over a draft "Star Wars". The work is going badly. In an interview, Lucas calls writing scripting is the most hated part of the process. "I literally bleed per page,” he complains.

The cinematographer's fantasy wanders elsewhere, and instead of the adventures of Luke Starkiller, Lucas begins to create completely another hero - a desperate adventurer, archaeologist, academician and a playboy named Indiana... Smith.

Lucas was a big fan of adventure series thirties, and his passion was not limited to the famous "Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon". George was a fan of both Zorro and Commando Cody, and also from Don Winslow of Naval Intelligence, Spay Smasher and Tailspin Tommy.



He thought it would be nice to make a series of movies in spirit of the adventure series of the thirties, making them more realistic, but retaining all the action and fun.

George imagined his hero as a historian, rake and playboy who, in order to maintain a luxurious lifestyle, is forced plunder tombs and constantly hunt for one or another supernatural artifact. Lucas started making little notes about character, his character and details of adventures, and gradually these the notes are history.

Both Star Wars and Indiana Smith are based on Morning series I watched as a child. Action-packed movies about the seekers adventures in exotic locations with cliffhangers every minute. I I wondered why they stopped filming something like this, because I I still want to watch this movie.

George Lucas, screenwriter of the first Indiana Jones

In the latter half of 1974, Lucas took a break from the Star wars" and began to persuade his university friend Phil Kaufman to take on Indiana Smith. By that time, George had almost all elements of the story are ready. There was a hero - brave and desperate archaeologist-rake, setting - seething thirties with their drunken club life, the remnants of white spots on the map and the brown threat. The antagonists are the Nazis that the protagonist was supposed to get ahead in pursuit of an artifact. Only the little things were missing - the most artifact. It was then that Kaufman offered to send Indy in search of the Ark. Testament.

Kaufman and Lucas worked on the idea for about two weeks, after which the first left the project. At the time he was broke and desperate needed any paid job. So when Clint Eastwood invited him to write the script for the western "Josie Wales - a man outside law,” Kaufman readily agreed. At parting, he left Lucas The title of the upcoming film is Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Castles in the sand



May 1977 George Lucas before the latter is working on a theatrical version of Star Wars: he personally edits the soundtrack, distilling it from stereo to mono. By noon May 26 Star Wars breaks all records in box office and attendance. Phones in offices are bursting with calls from journalists eager for comment triumphant director. But the triumphant director is nowhere to be found. Unable to cope with stress and fear of imminent failure, George Lucas takes his wife and runs away to Hawaii for two weeks. There to the Lucas Another couple joins: the Spielbergs.

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg met at the end of sixties at the student film festival, and by the mid-seventies already became good friends and spent time whenever possible together.

In Hawaii, friends built sandcastles, shared impressions of working on the set, talked about cinema and discussed plans for the future. The first days Lucas was depressed. Heavy filming exhausted him, and he thought about quitting forever. directing. However, when it became clear to everyone that Star Wars would become hit, George perked up and shared with Stephen plans for the creation of an adventure trilogy called "The Searchers". Every movie trilogy was to be called "Searchers for something out there", and the first in The list included Raiders of the Lost Ark.

A couple of days later, Lucas asked a friend what he would do next. He. Steven dreamed of directing "James Bond" with Sean Connery in the lead role, but franchise owner Albert Broccoli turned the director down. Steven sobirwanted to try again, and then George said that he had he has an idea, after which Spielberg will forget about agent 007. He recounted the plot details of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the reaction Steven was expected. “I want to take it off,” he replied simply.

Lucas didn't mind. After a bad experience on set on the Star Wars set, he had no intention of returning to directing. Except In addition, he believed that the producer had much more power than the director, and he does not refuse production functions was going to.

Friends shook hands. But first they had to figure it out with current affairs. Spielberg was waiting for the post-production of "Close Encounters third degree", after which he had already signed up for the filming of the military comedy "1941". Lucas needed to get back to work on the next Star Wars: according to the terms of the agreement with "Twentieth Century Fox", the rights to the sequels remained with him only in if the director started filming them within two years from the moment of the premiere of the first part.

Cross between Zorro and Humphrey Bogart

January 1978 George Lucas mired in preparations for the filming of the new part of "Star Wars", but not he forgets about his second project. Over the past six months it lawyers settled with Spielberg's lawyers all the details of the contract, and literally on the other day the director left a signature in it. Spielberg himself is also preparing for work. He proposes to Lucas the candidacy of his henchman Frank Marshall for the role of associate producer and believes he has found screenwriter.

Spielberg offered to entrust the work on the plot to the young screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. His previous work, romantic comedy "Continental Divide", caused a considerable hype, and then Spielberg's production company Amblin Entertainment bought it during a fierce auction.



Lawrence Kasdan with Lucas and Hamill on the set of the fifth episode of Star Wars

In January 1978, Lucas, Spielberg, and Kazdan met at home of Lucas' assistant Jane Bay and began to discuss the film. Kasdan recorded conversations on tape and hoped to use these recordings as the basis script. According to Spielberg, about 80 percent The final material was born precisely as a result of these discussions. The process proceeded smoothly: the whole trinity was on the same wavelength, and when Lucas voiced some idea, Spielberg and Kasdan quickly finalized it or supplemented.

George imagined the main character as a cross between Zorro and character Humphrey Bogart from the western "Treasures of the Sierra Madre" and wanted to have cliffhangers every ten to fifteen minutes in the film.



Humphrey Bogart in the movie Treasures of the Sierra Madre

Spielberg gave the main character a fear of snakes and came up with opening scene of the film, in which the characters make their way past numerous traps, and then run away from a giant boulder. Stephen also suggested change Indy's last name: he was afraid that the name "Indiana Smith" would be too sounds like the title of a western "Nevada Smith". Lucas casually waved threw: "Well, let it be Jones, there is no difference."

Not all ideas were developed. For example, Spielberg suggested equip one of Indy's opponents with a machine gun built into his hand, but Lucas rejected this idea, considering it too fantastic.

Lucas described the plot so vividly, colorfully and in detail that Spielberg and Kasdan asked in chorus why he didn't want to film movie. "Because in that case I won't be able to watch it as spectator,” George admitted frankly.

Kasdan went to write and on June 15, 1978 brought Lucas the first version of the script. George put the text aside without looking and invited Kasdan to finalize the script for Empire. Leigh Brackett, originally who wrote the script for the fifth episode, died of cancer, just finishing draft. George urgently needed someone who would bring the text to mind.

Kasdan says that the first thing he did was suggest that Lucas read Scenario of the Seekers. "Don't worry," Lukas waved it off nonchalantly. - I I rarely make mistakes in people. And if I still don't like The Searchers, I I can always terminate the deal.

Unrealized ideas



The first draft of the script enthralled Lucas. There, however, there were a few extra characters, and Indy was too shamelessly flirted with students, but in general the text was realistic, complex and rather gloomy. For example, Marion admitted that in order to survive, she at one time had to deal with prostitution. The only major flaw in the script was its length: 144 pages. sleeplberg and Lucas asked to cut the text to a hundred pages.

During the revisions, Kasdan's script was significantly thinner and lost a number of significant scenes. To save the budget, Spielberg and Lucas abandoned a number of expensive scenes. According to the original idea, the amulet of Ra consisted of two parts, and Indy took the first in Hong Kong, fighting off pair of samurai. Then he had to hide from automatic fire behind big gong, run away from the chase through the narrow streets and escape on board aircraft. The pilots then robbed the sleeping professor, and Indy had to escape from a dying plane by jumping out of it in an inflatable boat. Later, all these scenes will end up in the "Temple of Doom" almost unchanged.

The finale of the picture was also significantly corrected. In the first version the opening of the Ark of the Covenant was not the climax: followed by a crazy trolley race on the railroad across the island, and it all ended with a powerful explosion of the entire base. And Lucas and Spielberg wanted to play with the feelings of the audience: immediately after the explosion, credits would go, and only in the scene after them would the audience know that Indy and Marion managed to escape. However, then Spielberg decided that the discovery of the ark - and there is a better climax, and one more thoughtless chase will only spoil the effect of it.

“If this is a divorce, I would not refuse to be bred like this two or three times a year ...”

Since in parallel Kasdan had to refine the script for "Empire", the work on the second version took him twice more time - as much as ten months. However, no one rushed him: Lucas was preparing to shoot the fifth episode of Star Wars, and Spielberg was going to start the comedy "1941".



Concept art for "Indiana Jones"

Meanwhile, Lucas hired artist Jim Steranko to drew several concept art for the film. Steranko did not read the script and only made sketches based on conversations with Lucas and Spielberg, but they were so specific in their wishes that the artist ideally conveyed the essence and atmosphere of the future film.

In parallel, Lucas tried to attach the "Searchers" to one of Hollywood studios, but ran into problems everywhere. After success "Star Wars" any new project of the cinematographer turned into a tidbit, but studio owners were deterred by the conditions. Lucas started bargain from a position of strength. As in the case of the "Empire", he was going to make the film at their own expense, and the studio would get the rights to rental of the finished painting in exchange for a percentage of the profits. According to Lucas's proposal, before the payback of the picture is reached, the profit should was divided in a ratio of 60 to 40 in favor of the studio, and after - 50 to 50.



Concept art for Indiana Jones

The second obstacle to the conclusion of the deal was unexpectedly Steven Spielberg. Despite the excellent box office performance of "Jaws" and "Close Encounters", Stephen has a reputation as a director, which never meets deadlines and always exceeds budget. After after the filming of "1941" was also delayed, and the film itself turned out to be a box office failure, some studio hustlers felt that a career as a director it's about to go downhill. They directly invited Lucas to remove "Searchers" without the participation of Spielberg, but George was not going to quit friend and remained adamant.

In the end, the President became interested in "Searchers" Paramount Studios Michael Eisner. Eisner agreed to all of Lucas' terms, for which the owners of other studios began to criticize him intensely. Warner management even stated that such deals would entail the collapse of the entire industry, to which Eisner calmly replied: even if his divorced with this deal, he wouldn't mind having it so bred two or three times a year.



Concept art for "Indiana Jones"

Eisner's opinion was not shared even within Paramount. Studio chairman Barry Diller was so confident the inevitable failure of The Searchers, that during filming every week called Eisner and promised to fire him as soon as the picture failed.

In 1984, three years after the release of the first Indiana, Eisner will leave Paramount and take over Disney. Exactly under his leadership, the Mouse Kingdom will emerge from the crisis and become the flagship of the entertainment industry.

Looking for Indiana Jones

After Lucas and Eisner shook hands, the team producers and designers of the film, led by Frank Marshall, began travel around the world in search of suitable locations for filming.

Spielberg, meanwhile, was engaged in the selection of actors, and instead of standard auditions, he invitedkitchen candidates Lucas' office, where they baked pies, cookies, and other goodies together. While the actors were preparing, one of the assistants filmed them on camera. No one of the candidates did not even see the script. News about the unusual casting spread throughout the industry, and a couple of months later new faces came to Stephen, armed with prepared recipes and ingredients ahead of time.

The search for Indiana Jones was difficult. For the lead role Lucas wanted a specific type of actor: someone like Harrison Ford, but not Ford himself, but someone little known, but ready for big breakthrough. George had no intention of calling Harrison, as he was already managed to star in "American Graffiti" and "Star Wars" - and Lucas didn't want anyone to think that he only knew how to work with pets.

Also, George originally planned Indiana Jones. like a trilogy. And remembering with what difficulties he had to to persuade Harrison to return to the role of Han Solo, he was very doubtful that Ford would sign for three films at once.



Tom Selleck and Sean Young auditions

Meanwhile, Spielberg managed to bake cookies and a half Hollywood. Passing through the kitchen of Lucas's office were Paul Le Mat, Michael Biehn, Sam Shepard, Bruce Boxleitner, Don Johnson and David Hasselhoff. Not less actresses auditioned for the role of Marion: Jane Seymour, Valerie Bertinelli, Barbara Hershey, Debra Winger and Michelle Pfeiffer.

In the end, the list of candidates for the role of Marion was reduced to two names: Sean Young and Karen Allen. After a little vote, friends decided to give the role to Allen. And the role of Indy was offered to the young TV actor Tom Selleck.

And here filmmakers were waiting for a bummer. Before you come casting for The Searchers, Selleck signed on to star in television series Magnum P.I. CBS was in no hurry put the show into production, but as soon as its leaders heard that Spielberg and Lucas are going to steal the main performer roles, they immediately gave the project a green light, gave Selleck a colorful shirt and Ferrari and sent to Hawaii, where he will spend the next eight years.



"Private Detective Magnum"

After losing Selleck, Spielberg again tried to talk Lucas into invite Harrison Ford. George gave up, called Harrison, but immediately warned that he would have to agree to three films at once. Ford met with Spielberg, read the script, fired up the idea and without disputes accepted the terms. "Never thought he would do it" commented a dumbfounded Lucas.



Spielberg and Lucas found their Indiana Jones at the last moment. Harrison Ford put his signature on the contract for several weeks before filming starts

Survive in Tunisia



Karen Allen, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford and John Rhys-Davies mock Larry Kasdan, pretending to make changes to his scenario

Let the industry consider the terms of the deal with Paramount predatory for the studio, the contract included very serious penalties sanctions for exceeding the budget or delaying filming. To avoid sanctions, Lucas suggested to his friend to cheat: to add to the planned they schedule fifteen shooting days and give the studio an inflated figure. So Spielberg would almost certainly have met the announced deadlines and got rid of from the reputation of the brake.

Lucas also advised a friend to shoot "quick and dirty." Usually, in pursuit of perfection, the director shot 30-40 takes of one and the same scene and only then choose the best one. George advised limited to three or four. Spielberg himself was also preparing for filming: carefully re-read the script, removing everything superfluous from it, and instructed artists to draw detailed storyboards of all scenes without exception movie. Stephen later admitted that The Searchers is the most "storyboarded" film in his career.



Spielberg pre-selected the best shooting angles on specially created layouts.

Filming began on June 23, 1980 in a French port city of La Rochelle. It was there, on the basis of submarines built by the Nazis during the war, there was a replica of the submarine, created German filmmakers for the small project Das Boot.

The Germans allowed Lucas to use the boat, but to film allowed only in calm sea conditions. Because these days just French weather forecasters went on strike, producer Frank Marshallat for several days in a row I had to get up at 4 in the morning and go to sea, to measure the wavelength. It might have been easier for him if Frank hadn't went to bed at two in the morning, enjoying the nightlife of La Rochelle in society his future wife Katie Kennedy.

Problems arose out of nothing. For filming a scene in which Indy and Marion sail away from Cairo aboard an old smuggler ship Bantu Wind, six months before filming in Belfast, they found an old rusted trough, perfect for this "role". When six months later, the producers showed up to pick up the ship on the set playground, they discovered to their horror that the owners during this time managed to paint and repair the ship. For graphic designers I had to urgently return the vessel to its previous state. Have you painted they did it again after filming, not specified.

Although Lawrence Kasdan did an excellent job, Spielberg continued to refine the script during filming. In particular, under knife went a long twelve-page scene shedding light on the details relationship between Indy and Marion - the director thought that the audience would understand this is without words. He also contributed to the development of the character of Indiana Harrison Ford.



Indy's identity has become one of the rare stumbling blocks between Lucas and Spielberg. Lucas thought Indy was a selfish rake who goes on expeditions for his own enrichment. Spielberg believed that the hero needed more noble motives, and with the help of Ford defended his vision. Harrison continued to improvise on set, independently modifying their own replicas.

Harrison is an excellent screenwriter. I would call it "sorting room" screenwriter." Whenever he has problems with his dialogues, he goes to think in the toilet and returns from there with killer remarks.

Steven Spielberg director



When filming moved from France to the English studios Studio Elstree, snakes delivered the most problems to the film crew. The antidote for cobra bites was not delivered to the site in time, and the producers misjudged the number of reptile actors they needed. IN as a result, they had to urgently purchase several thousand more individuals in all pet stores in England.

Worst of all, neither Spielberg, nor Lucas, nor Kasdan, nor did not suspect that snakes adore fire. Being cold-blooded, they were drawn to the fire as a source of heat, and did not crawl away from it into horror, as the script demanded. To achieve the desired effect, the film crew had to scare away the reptiles with an unpleasant aerosol. Camera even captured a frustrated Spielberg, asking the silent snakes, why are they ruining his film.

The real problems started when the film crew moved to Tunisia. Suffocating heat, dehydration, nutrition problems… every day, one of the actors or crew members fell off malaise. Of the 150 participants in the shooting in Tunisia, only 15-20 did not get sick man, including Spielberg, who did not venture to eat local groceries and brought with him from London canned fruit, pasta, meat, cheese and beans. However, the heat affected even director - he suffered and desperately dreamed of returning home as soon as possible. IN one day Spielberg was so eager to round up quickly that right on set rewrote one of the scenes.

According to the script, Indy had to fight with an armed an Arab scimitar. The fight was long and extremely difficult choreographically, but both Ford and Spielberg were not in the mood that day, so Steven suggested that Dr. Jones simply shoot the opponent. Later Lucas strongly objected to this version, demanding to leave the original version of the scene. However, when on a test screening the episode called a loud burst of laughter, George was forced to agree that it had turned out better. The opinions of stuntman Terry Richards, who spent several weeks learning complex fight choreography, no one asked.



Shooting this scene nearly cost Harrison Ford's legs: during one of the takes, she was run over by a heavy airplane. If the rubber wheels had not softened from the heat, Ford would crushed all the bones, and so he escaped with torn ligaments

And suddenly it fails...



After filming was completed, the most problems were special effects, especially the scene with the opening of the ark. In the script this moment was spelled out as vaguely as possible: “They open the ark, and everything rollsI'm to hell." Lucas gave the craftsmen from his Industrial studio Light & Magic free rein, but the result is not satisfied anyone. Employees complained to Lucas about the complexity of the tasks, and at some point George's patience snapped. "I have been working on "Star Wars," he exclaimed, "I know what real difficulties". ILM ended up painting the ghosts with silk dolls, and George was pleased with the result.

But the marketing strategy of the picture left much to be desired. the best. Lucas planned to start heating up the hype for the film only for a few weeks before the premiere and told marketers to keep the film's plot in secret. Almost to the very end, advertising hinted that this "an updated version of the old adventure series." Even the venerable film critics could not understand what this meant, and therefore before Some people were interested in the press screenings, what exactly awaits them.

And it was Lucas who was not allowed to release the trailer! In the first teaser for The Searchers, the camera was supposed to look inside Ark, from where the words "Soon in the cinema:" Seekers of the Lost the ark." However, this scenario was opposed by Barry Diller, who promised to release such a trailer to cinemas only over his dead body. Lucas had to give in.



Creators at the film's UK premiere

Before the premiere of The Searchers, Lucas and Spielberg again left for Hawaii build sandcastles. By that time, they had a sign: if the castle stands for a long time, the film will be a success. However, if the waves their creation will quickly be washed away, just as quickly the audience will forget about the film. The Seekers castle stood for a long time, but the results of the premiere weekend were significantly below expectations.

Lucas outwitted himself, and the audience just did not understand what was waiting for them to the cinema. However, people walked and walked to the cinema, and in the end word of mouth turned on. By the end of December, Seekers of the Lost Ark" were not only the highest-grossing film of the year, but also hit the top four highest-grossing films of all time, second only to Star wars", "Empire" and "Jaws".



Harrison Ford practicing with a whip in the alleyway in front of Elstree studios in England

June 2021. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is considered one of the the best films of all time. The picture marked the beginning of an entire franchise, which now includes four films, one television series and countless number of books, comics and video games.

George Lucas completed the original Star Wars trilogy then returned in relative triumph to a galaxy far, far away, filmed a prequel trilogy and sold the rights to both of his famous franchises Disney studios. Since 2012, he has been, one might say, retired.

Steven Spielberg made several dozen blockbusters - and continues to shoot. His new film, a remake of the musical West Side history”, will be published in December. Harrison Ford next year turns 80 years old. His seventy-ninth birthday is rather In total, he will meet on the set of the fifth "Indiana Jones".

Ford is the only one of the trio who returned to work. over the fifth part: Spielberg chose to confine himself to the role of producer, and George - the role of a pensioner. Will the movie be as successful as the first? Part? Doubtful. But without its success and the fifth, and all the previous parts it simply wouldn't.