Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy

So, guys, what will this look like when you're done?

What you do is, pan over to this man right here. He talks.

l don't know. Whatever he wants.

The lndiana Jones story started before the screenplay for Star Wars.

When l was thinking about doing a sort of modern fairy tale

couched in sort of Saturday matinee serial vernacular,

l thought of the great things l could do.

A subject that came up was to do it in outer space,

like Flash Gordon. The other idea l had

was really to do it about an archaeologist

who goes around finding ancient artifacts

that have a supernatural flavor to them.

And both of them would be a serial, nonstop-action kind of adventure.

l decided to go with the space idea

and put the archaeologist on the shelf to gather dust.

l connected with Phil Kaufman, another filmmaker in San Francisco,

and he got very excited about it.

And we started working on it for three or four weeks.

He had the idea of making the supernatural, sacred object

we were looking for the Ark of the Covenant

because he'd done some research in that.

l said, ''That's just what we're looking for.''

Phil went to work on a Clint Eastwood movie and said:

''l can't do that movie now.'' l put it back on the shelf.

Then l shot Star Wars .

George and l planned a vacation to get away from Star Wars opening,

which has become a tradition with us over the years.

l joined him in Hawaii, and we were just waiting for the grosses to come in.

Kind of like waiting for election returns.

lt turned out to be a landslide for George Lucas.

And George, at that point, just, l think, gushed a sigh of relief

and changed the subject from Star Wars to what l was doing next.

l said, ''l've always wanted to direct a James Bond picture.''

George said, ''l got that beat.''

He said, ''l have a better idea, called Raiders of the Lost Ark. ''

l told him about the story and how it was like a Saturday matinee serial,

and he got in one mess after another. And he said, ''Fantastic. Let's do this.''

lndiana was my dog. lndiana was the prototype for the Wookiee,

for Chewbacca. He was this big, huge malamute.

He would sit next to me in the car. Giant bear of a dog.

So l named the character after my dog.

And ultimately, we put that in the movie.

Originally, it was lndiana Smith.

When l told Steven the story, he said:

''Let's go with it. There's only one thing l don't like.

''l don't like the name.''

l said, ''All right. What if we call him lndiana Jones?''

He said, ''OK, that's fine.''

l brought Larry in because l had bought

a screenplay of his, Continental Divide.

He said, ''l'm gonna do an adventure movie with George Lucas.

''l showed him the script for Continental Divide .

''We think you'd be the guy to write this adventure film.''

We spent three days with a tape recorder.

Larry, George and l pretty much outlined

and sketched in the whole plot, the set pieces.

We laid the movie out in three days, and Larry went to put it on paper.

George had things he wanted in the movie.

Steven had scenes he wanted to shoot.

And we were creating a story that would support all these ideas.

ln fact, the story we came up with was pretty much like the finished film

but with a few things we eventually took out.

Larry added so much wit and humor.

And Larry brought in such a 1 930s Preston Sturges meets Michael Curtiz.

lndiana Jones was like Humphrey Bogart

from Treasure of the Sierra Madre . Larry flavored it and brought it to life.

Then when l finished the script, and l had written it all in this...

There were no computers. l was never much of a typist.

Only since computers can l type, because you can correct easily.

l never was much of a real typist.

So l always wrote things longhand for years.

And this is the original longhand script of Raiders.

l had to get the film financed. Small detail.

The film did get turned down by everybody in town.

Nobody would do it because they looked at this huge movie

with lots of action and lots of stuff. And l was saying:

''We can do this for $20 million.'' They said, ''lt's impossible.''

l told Steven we'd do this like a TV show.

We need to do this like the serials were shot.

Quick and dirty. Use old-fashioned tricks

and not take a lot of time. He said, ''That's how l wanna make it.''

And finally, we got Paramount to say they would do the film.

We had to figure out who to cast in the part.

And Steve said, ''What about Harrison Ford?''

l said, ''He's been in two of my movies.

''l don't want him to be my Bobby De Niro.''

George and l had tested a lot of potential lndiana Joneses.

From Tim Matheson to Peter Coyote to Tom Selleck.

Hello, Marion.

We did a screen test with Tom Selleck and Sean Young,

and it was good. They're terrific actors. lt turned out really well.

l did what l did. l don't expect you to be happy about it.

- Maybe it could do us some good. - Why start now?

Shut up and listen to me! l need that piece your father had.

So George and l went after Tom Selleck,

and then a man who became a friend of mine, Bob Daly,

the head of CBS, said, ''Wait a minute.

''We have a series commitment with Tom Selleck called Magnum P.l. ''

He green-lit the series. Tom had a TV series that took him to great heights

of fame and fortune. And we had nothing.

l said, ''What will we do now?'' Steve said, ''What about Harrison?''

George called me up and said he wanted me to meet Steven Spielberg,

who l'd not met before. And sent over a script.

l read the script, about which l was very enthusiastic

and went to Steven's house to meet him.

We had a wonderful discussion, got along very well.

And l was reluctant to sign up for three films,

but knowing the people involved, l was willing to sign up for three

in the case of lndiana Jones .

- Hello. - Hello.

- Hello. - How are you?

l'm fine. Want some water?

- Yeah, sure. - Thank you.

lt was the first picture l had ever directed in the UK.

l assumed we'd go to the most famous studio, Pinewood.

But George has a good-luck theory about all the Star Wars films

having been shot at Elstree in England.

l looked at the stages, and they were big.

Now, where are we gonna have the obelisk?

- Seven or 8 feet. - Seven or 8 feet is all we need.

Norman Reynolds was there. He'd done Star Wars .

l was excited to work with the guy that did Star Wars .

He wanted to do something different. He wanted this to be a genre apart

from anything futuristic or that reeked of technology.

All of the models and sketches that he had designed

were much more about illustrated graphic novels from the 1 930s.

The more information you can impart to the director, in terms of models

or things in the round, the better.

ln order to try and help the logistics of working a set and the number of extras

we actually built a mockup set to scale of the location.

We put these little figures, like 2,000 figures, dotted all over the models.

We laid it out on a huge model,

and l used to get my little 35 mm viewfinder and lie belly down,

trying to find my angles and get my shots.

Your legs are in a good position for the kicks.

You duck and kick at the same time.

l had a bit of work to do with the whip, so l got a fellow to come by my house

and coach me in whip craft, which is harder than it seems.

Then did a bit of conditioning because l knew it would be a physical movie.

The outfit for lndiana Jones, basically the leather jacket,

the fedora and the bullwhip, came from the concept painting

that was based on some old serials from the late 1 930s.

So lndiana Jones' costume came complete before anybody was hired.

But Deborah refined the costume. Made it less painterly

and more lived in and more honest to who Harrison Ford was.

So she pretty much redesigned the outfit so Harrison would indelibly

be only lndiana Jones for the rest of his career.

A costume has to perfectly marry the character

so that the audience buys the whole thing.

The audience had to buy Harrison, even in this exaggerated, heroic part,

as an earthy, brilliant archaeologist.

lt had to look like a costume that he slept in

and had worn every day of his life.

But the truth was, it was a new jacket.

And not only was it a new jacket, but there were ten of them.

And there had to be ten jackets because of the stuntmen,

the doubles, the second unit.

The night before we shot our first scene,

l sat by the pool with Harrison Ford,

and Harrison Ford lent me his Swiss Army knife.

With his Swiss Army knife and a steel brush, l personally aged that jacket,

and l had metal splinters in my hands for weeks and weeks.

Then, in terms of his hat, l had to have a hat that was unique

but looked like every hat.

l needed a hat that, if you saw it in silhouette, would be recognizable.

There is a very famous men's hatter in Britain

on Savile Row, Herbert Johnson.

l saw a hat with a very wide brim, and the crown was a little bit too high.

lt was their Australian model, and with a couple of fittings,

we got the hat right for Harrison. We got it really dirty.

l took the hat, and l rolled it up in my hands,

sat on it, had Harrison sit on it. When we got through with it,

it looked like a nice, old, very well-loved hat.

l just thought it would be fun to start with the Paramount mountain.

When l was a kid, my first company was called Playmount Productions.

l had a mountain, which l painted myself.

''Playmountain'' is my name in English, from German.

Cover the mountain with smoke, Steven.

Steven was always coming up with great ideas

which were sometimes a challenge for the production.

We were setting up in Kauai, and he called me over and said:

We were setting up in Kauai, and he called me over and said:

''l need to find a mountain. l need you to go find a mountain

''that looks like the Paramount logo where we can shoot.''

And l went, ''OK.''

Because it was a last-minute request and we didn't have CGl,

l had to drive around until l found a location.

For a few extra pineapples, we got it.

- Cut. - Cut.

l'd never worked with Dougie before, but loved his work.

l thought he could do anything. l looked at his films,

and he changed his style according to the script.

lf you soft-light it, we'll see more detail.

l mean, these are scary without having to light them scary.

Just a real soft fill.

He had had a number of ideas.

He felt, whatever happens, that we would do it on really wide screen,

knowing that we would have some fairly large canvases.

So that format seemed to be right for them.

And he wanted the thing to be very strong-looking.