by Shari Last

Created on: May 22, 2008

It was the summer of '77 and producer George Lucas was in Hawaii, catching the sun and escaping from the limelight as he waited to be notified of how audiences would receive his latest venture. A crazy space saga, replete with aliens, light-speed travel and half-man half-machine villains, Star Wars' would go on to write cinema history. But Lucas was already thinking about his next project.

Lucas had come up with The Adventures of Indiana Smith' back in 1973. "I was in my office," he remembers. "The first idea that came up was when I was working on American Graffiti'. I have a tendency, when I'm working on one thing, to doodle around and work on other things, to avoid what I'm doing. And it came out of that, before I even had a deal to write American Graffiti'." Lucas passed the script to writer Philip Kaufman who came up with the idea of pursuing the Ark of the Covenant. The story had fascinated Kaufman as a child, ever since he'd been told about it by his dentist.

Rising star Steven Spielberg was also in Hawaii, invited by Lucas to share the beach. Following his success with Jaws' and taking a break from Close Encounters of the Third Kind', the director felt he was up for his next challenge: to direct a James Bond film. But, promised Lucas, something even better was available. Because Lucas had the idea for a treasure-seeking adventurer who would vastly outclass Bond and he wanted Spielberg to direct it.

And so the plans for Indiana Jones were laid. The details were yet to be hammered out, Spielberg still had a movie of his own 1941' to direct, and Lucas had another four including The Empire Strikes Back' on the cards. But the seed was sown.

Fast forward to June 1981. Raiders of the Lost Ark' hits the screens and the crowds go wild. Paramount's takings are the highest they've ever been $363million and will be until 1994's Forrest Gump'. So how did an idea pitched at sunset in Hawaii reach these dizzying heights? Well, it all came down to planning, coincidence and a lot of luck.

Writing history

The first stage of planning involved writing a script. Enter Lawrence Kasdan, a young Floridian who had recently switched career paths from advertising to screenwriting. His script for the film The Bodyguard' was only turned into a movie 20 years after he wrote it. But Lucas recognized potential and commissioned him to write The Empire Strikes Back' followed by Raiders of the Lost Ark'.

Kasdan recalls his first meeting with Spielberg and Lucas as being surreal and over much

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