Who is Indiana Jones? What makes the character who he is? Is it the fedora? I think it’s the fedora.
Regardless, that was what three legends of filmmaking united to talk about in 1978. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasden, who would go on to direct “The Empire Strikes Back,” met with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to talk about their idea for a film. The YouTube Channel Now You See It has restored this conversation from a transcript. We can guess what these filmmakers would have sounded like talking about what would become “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Because people know me for my love of film, I personally have heard many conversations like this. Some vague acquaintance of mine will tell me they want me to direct a film for them. Only their pitch is usually something vague. It usually boils down to something like “I want to make a gangster film, but I haven’t figured out the plot yet.” This makes it all the more impressive the amount of detail these great filmmakers get into. They’re not coming to Kasdan with a vague adventure idea; they have notes on locations, character descriptions, and even plot details.
While a lot of these notes did make the final cut, a few of them ended up scrapped. But it seems the inherent problems with the script were there from the beginning. As pointed out on the show “The Big Bang Theory,” Indiana Jones barely has an effect on the plot. Of course, if it wasn’t for him, the Ark wouldn’t have ended up in a museum, but the Nazis killed themselves. This doesn’t seem to have been fixed during this discussion phase.
Currently, we have “Indiana Jones 5″ just around the corner, although there have been a few setbacks on set. Unfortunately, none of these cinematic masters have much involvement with the project. There is currently no release date.
