by John Petty

Created on: October 19, 2008

Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr., the globetrotting archaeologist whose exploits have thrilled millions in a quartet of exciting motion pictures, was born on a Hawaiian beach.

In 1977, George Lucas, desperately waiting to hear both the popular and critical reaction to his epic film, "Star Wars," and Steven Spielberg, who had just finished production on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," were relaxing on a beach in Maui discussing future projects. Both men were heavily influenced by both the pulps and the serials they had enjoyed in their youth, so when Spielberg announced he wanted to do something "fun" for his next project, like a James Bond movie, Lucas replied that he had just the thing, a movie that would combine all the action, adventure, and excitement of such serial thrillers as "Flash Gordon" (1936), "Adventures of Captain Marvel"(1941), and "Superman"(1948), while taking advantage of the latest, state-of-the-art special effects technology.

During production of "American Grafitti" in 1973, Lucas had played around with the concept of an adventurous archaeologist named "Indiana Smith" (the name, Indiana, came from an Alaskan Malamute that Lucas owned as a child). He turned to scriptwriter Philip Kaufman to help him develop the story, and it was Kaufman who came up with the idea of searching for the Ark of the Covenant, a tale that had fascinated him ever since he first heard it from his dentist years earlier. When Kaufman left the project to direct "The Outlaw Josey Wales" (1976), Lucas filed the idea away for another time. It was his conversation on the beach with Spielberg that reignited his interest in the character. Spielberg, however, disliked the name "Smith," and so a more acceptable alternative was chosen: Jones.

Now committed to the project - at the same time, Lucas was working on the "Empire Strikes Back" - Lawrence Kasdan was brought in to finish the script, often torn between the conflicting visions of Lucas and Spielberg. Lucas envisioned a more Bond-esque character, a wealthy playboy/adventurer, while Speilberg saw a protagonist with a dark side to his personality (at one time, it was suggested that Jones be portrayed as an alcoholic, much like Humphrey Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs in "The African Queen" [1951]), but both of these ideas were soon scrapped.

To bring the character to life, Lucas engaged the services of renowned comic book and graphic artist Jim Steranko. The perfect choice, Steranko's love for pulp imagery was well-known - the covers he

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>